November 25, 2025 DMPS Board Meeting & Work Session

001[Music] I would like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday, November 25th for the De Moine public schools to order. Miss Rios, could you please take the role? >> Yes. Miss Alonso, >> here. >> Miss Compos >> here. >> Mr. Dixs >> here. >> Miss Knox >> here. >> Miss Martana >> here. >> Dr. Mayberry Mace >> here. Miss Norris >> here. >> We have qu. >> The first item of business is approval of the agenda. May I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? >> I also so moved. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Miss Alonzo and a second by Mr. Dixs. Is there any discussion or questions? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved. 720. I think I have to go here. Uh before

002we move to the public forum, I'm going to make just a few brief comments on the report that was released on Friday. Uh so uh as some of you know on Friday, the De Mo public school board released a report from an independent investigator regarding the superintendent search process. The full report can be found online along with uh frequently asked questions, FAQs, and a full board statement. And the full report is approximately 13 to 16 pages and you can read all of it. As a board, we made a commitment to you to investigate and establish concrete facts around Ian Roberts hiring to better understand how this happened and especially what we must do going forward. As a board, any good leader must take lessons away from adversity. This district and board are committed to applying

003those lessons. If you think about it, the first phase was gathering facts. The second phase is for the board to reflect on that and see how it might change and evolve practices. The report currently is being used to inform the hiring and onboarding process at DMPS. And when the time comes, the board will look critically at the process we use to hire our next superintendent and how to ensure the candidates are fully vetted before being considered by the board and also reviewing background checks, reference checks, documentation review, and verification as appropriate. We are sorry that the past eight weeks have been painful and disruptive for our DMPS community and please know that this report will help our school board strengthen its processes moving forward. And with that, I will turn it over to Miss Campos

004to begin the public forum. We pro 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 any agenda items. Anyone wishing to speak during this portion of this business meeting, please email rosa.reosdmschools.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 their zip code prior to providing comments. Students and minors do not have to provide their address. Guests of the boards are encouraged to speak to matters related 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 that all speakers we

005ask all speakers avoid references to personalities or characters attacks as those type 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 gathered out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escorted out by district security. As a reminder, the board to the board, wait. As a reminder, the board and the public, the board will not engage in discussions with public forum speakers as it is our obligation to discuss only matters posted in the public agenda for sake of transpar transparency. An opportunity afforded to all community stakeholders. Matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff slash or board follow-up email after the time of the meeting. Thanks for your participation. We appreciate

006your feedback and input. >> Miss Rios, do we have any speakers this evening? >> Yes, we do. I'd like to call up Ashley Crawford. >> Those are all the speakers. >> Thank you. We do not have any district recognitions. on our agenda this evening. So, we are going to proceed to our board monitoring reports. I'm going to turn over goal three monitoring report to uh Superintendent Smith first and then I believe Miss Martano, you will help facilitate a conversation. >> Yeah. So, good evening everybody. Um it is a pleasure to report out uh on goal three today. Um although it may be a short presentation on that. Um so um just a reminder the goal three is that the percentage of grade 12 students earning a diploma plus in four years of high school increase

007from 38.2% in the spring of 2024 to 63.5% in the spring of 2030. There are two interim goals associated with this goal um that would be presented tonight. It is interim goal 3B which states that the percentage of 10th grade students in geometry meeting benchmark on the map geometry will increase from 36.5% in the winter of 2025 to 41.0% in the winter of 2027. Um the goal for this particular um uh interim target is 37% and uh I am happy to report out and proud of the team um to report that they have exceeded the target with a 40.7% on the interim target. So um that's a tremendous success. Um, also, yes, equally as exciting is the interim goal 3C, which is the percentage of 11th grade students meeting benchmark on MAP ELA will increase

008from 43.3% in the winter of 2025 to 47.8% in the winter of 2027. So, uh, the goal, the target goal for fall of 2025 was 43.5% and the team has exceeded that target with a score of 47.1%. Um and so yes, go ahead. Thank you. >> Um I know that um we do have a couple of um uh leaders uh Jessica Goerty and uh Chris White that are here. Um if there are any questions from the board. I know that there were questions um over the weekend that um the team did amazing job of responding to. So if there are other questions, we're happy to answer them as we can. Um, and just a reminder, I'm getting caught up in the in the teaching and learning aspects of things. And um, before too long, I'll

009be able to actually respond to those u myself. >> Thank you, Matt, and thank you um to the team for compiling these data. It is incredible and wonderful to see that we are um exceeding these targets and headed in the right direction with regards to meeting our goal. three. I will open up uh the table to questions to my board colleagues regarding um goal three and anything that um pertains to us exceeding these targets. >> Hearing no questions, I would like us to clap one more time. We can all clap again. I would like to make a motion to accept this goal three monitoring report. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano. May I have a second, please? >> Campos second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Miss

010Campos. Are there any discussion or questions at this point? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved 720 to 0. The next item on our agenda is guardrail one monitoring report. Superintendent Smith, I will turn it over to you. >> Yeah. So, this is going to be a rinse and repeat of the clapping motions. And so, guardrail one speaks to the superintendent shall not allow inequitable access for ELLL students or the continuation of systems that allow for it. There are two um interim goals uh tonight or guardrails that we would actually monitor. Uh the first is interum guardrail 1A which is the percentage of fourth through 8th grade students who are um who are or have been in ELLL programming meeting benchmark on fastbridge A reading will increase from 19.9% in the spring

011of 2023 to 29.0% in the spring of 2027. So the target for the fall was 25% and the team exceeded the target at 28.1%. So we are exceeding the target on guardrail 1A. Regarding guardrail 1B, uh the interim guardrail states that the percentage of 9th through 12th grade students who are have been in ELLO programming who have participated in central campus, central academy or advanced learning programming will increase from 29.2% in spring of 2023 to 38.5% in the spring of 2027. The goal for the fall of 2025 was 32% and the team is meeting that target at 32%. Exactly. So congratulations. [Applause] >> I will again offer my congratulations Matt to you and your team and thank you for compiling this guardrail report for us. Um it's this is an item that uh usually we

012would not discuss. we would put it on consent, but we felt it important to bring it to the table and celebrate the successes that we are seeing for our students who are multilingual learners. So, thank you so much for the report. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? >> I just want to say thank you. I know this was a goal that was uh pushed very significantly by Miss Alonso and to see that it's on track and to see that it's progressing is really significant and uh and I just hope we keep pushing on that because it is it's a game changer. >> It is and we um we're super thankful for the push and the challenge and uh the team has got some really great systems in place and the staff at

013the building level are just doing amazing work. So we'll continue to see um significant successes in these areas. >> Thank you. >> Just wanted to offer one comment. >> Oh, I was going to offer one comment. While we are exceeding a meeting target, very exciting. I think it's also important to acknowledge that these are the highest scores in the past three and four years respectively. So not just exceeding a meeting, but the scores have never been this high in the district. So thank you for the work that you're doing. >> Thank you. Yep. [Applause] I would like to make a motion to accept this report. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano. May I have a second? >> Second. Mayberry Mazize. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Dr.

014Mayberry Maize. Do we have any discussion or questions needed? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved seven to zero. We are now going to 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 discussion, deliberation, and determinations as needed necessary. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers as deemed necessary? Excuse me. >> No speakers for consent. Miss Campos, I believe you have the consent motion. >> I do. I move that the board approves the consent agenda in accordance with the recommendation action for each item on the consent agenda including bills previously authorized

015certified and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of 4,171,18060. >> We have a motion by Miss Campos. May I have a second? >> Marterano. Second. >> We have a motion by Miss Campos and a second by Miss Marterano. Uh, are there any discussions or questions? I would just like to um lift up Chair Norris for driving the initiatives to improve and rewrite and update our um board operating procedure manual. Uh that was no small lift and wanted to thank you um for that work along with um Matt and his team regarding many of the policies that we are approving today that um have we've been waiting to approve for quite some time. So lots of heavy lifting and I'm grateful that we will now be in full compliance and um have

016new boundaries to keep us on track. Thank you. Miss Knox, >> I would just add that um yes, gratitude to Miss Norris for prioritizing this and uh also to Kim and Maria and I who spent a few hours refining it. Um and we did. And so I look to the new board and the new board members and feel really proud about leaving you with a strong um a strong road map uh and uh to our district overall. just better boundaries, expectations, processes, procedures. So, uh I think this really blends both worlds. Not only uh are we ensuring that we don't lose sight of our important goals and guard rails, but it also ensures that we are uh in full compliance and um have a have a roadmap to making sure that we remain that way.

017>> Great, Miss Alonzo. >> Thank you, Miss Norris, for gifting us this. I believe that this is a great opportunity for our board. I think it really gives us a chance to work closer together with our superintendent. Um, and it allows us to gain deeper insight and be more active. So, thank you very much. Great. >> With that, board members, please cast your votes. The consent agenda is approved 7 to Z. Next, we have one public hearing. The item is F1, public hearing for C1P3635, Central Academy Exterior and Structural Repair. 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

018architects and engineers for exterior and structural repair at Central Academy, hold a public hearing, and approve the plans. >> May I have a motion and a second, please? >> Martano. So moved. >> Alonzo second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Miss Alonzo. Is there any discussion or questions? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved seven to zero. Next, we will move on to other business items. The first item is G1, personnel recommendation. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board receive, file, and take action on the notice and recommendation to terminate the continuing teaching contract for reasons stated within. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. >> Campo second. >> We

019have a motion by Mr. Dixs and a second by Miss Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have questions? Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved seven to zero. Next item is G2 request to the SBRC for MAG due to increased open enrollment. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board approve the request to the school budget review committee for modified allowable growth in the amount of $4,716,000 and 500 4 million 716,579.15 for FY2025206 for projected costs due to increased open enrollment. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Marrono so moved. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Miss Campos. Board members, any discussion or questions? Please cast your votes. The vote is approved. Seven

020to zero. Next item is G3. Request to the SB. Did I just do that one? Okay. Sorry. Request to the SBRC for MAG due to increased LAP program expenditures. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board approve the request to the school budget review committee for modified allowable growth in the amount of 3,672,770.88 for FY2526 for projected cost due to increased limited English proficient program expenditures with increased students beyond five years. >> May I have a motion and a second please? >> Mayberry Mays move. >> Alonso second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Mayberry Mays and a second by Miss Alonzo. Board members, any questions or discussion? Please cast your votes. The vote is approved seven to zero. Next, we move on to our information only items. H1 is the

021list of bills paid. Board members, just for context on this, this is another small small win um which is increased transparency. So, uh, this means that all of the bills that are paid by the district will now actually be placed on the board agenda as, uh, information only. So, it's also published in the newspaper on a monthly basis as well. But just as we continue to look for ways to be more transparent, uh, that is what the list of bills paid actually is. And thank you to the business and finance office for helping us with that. Um, is it true? Yeah. Okay. We are now going to move into our organizational meeting. The first order of business is to accept the resolution of the canvas of the regular election submitted by the Poke County Board

022of Supervisors and detailed in the agenda declaring the following individuals elected to the De Moines Public Schools Board of Directors. at large, Maria Alonzo and Sarah Hopkins. Director District 2, Ryan Howell, Director, District 4, Skyler Mayberry Maize. May I have a motion and a second to accept the resolution? >> Marterano. So moved. >> Dick second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Mr. Dixs. Board members, please cast your votes. >> The vote is approved seven to zero. I declare the adoption of this resolution and I want to congratulate our new board members. We will now move on with our items of privilege. Madame Chair, I would like to take a moment and celebrate the service of our two um retiring board members. If we could cue the video. Okay, no

023tears. We did have masks on. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] That was beautiful. [Applause] Well, I think it goes without saying um a picture is worth a thousand words, but um I want to take a moment to just express our appreciation for our chair, Jackie Norris. Um Jackie, over the last year, I've had the pleasure of working with you as vice chair. And when I stepped into this role, I had no idea what I was getting into. I spoke with Maria to get some advice on being a vice chair. I spoke with my board colleagues on what it meant to serve as vice chair but also to serve as a board member and one thing was consistent that many

024of them shared. You're in good hands working with Jackie Norris. So on behalf of the board, I want to say thank you. Thank you for being here for us. You've started with the mask. You've went up and down. You've had a very volatile experience as board chair and as a board member, but through it all, you've remained resilient. And for that, we certainly appreciate you and want to present you with your forever gabble. >> Thank you, Jackie. [Applause] and Jenna, I cannot be as good as Skyler. I have to read or else I will really uh be emotional. So, tonight I want to recognize my colleague and friend Jenna Knox. Jenna's impact on this board and our district is undeniable. Elected to the De Moines School Board in 2021, she stepped into the public leadership

025role uh at a very difficult challenging or one of our most difficult and challenging moments. She helped guide the largest school district in Iowa through the end of the CO 19 pandemic, navigated the hiring of a new superintendent, played a key role in reimagining what education could look like for De Moine public schools, all while leading the De Mo schools foundation to record um record success. Through all of it, Jenna, you've led with heart, with clarity, and courage. Jenna has asked the questions that needed to be asked, lifted up the voices that needed to be heard, and kept us focused on the work that truly matters, improving student outcomes. And she did it all while ma maintaining a very positive outlook. Many smiles in that reel. As my board buddy, Jenna has been a collaborator,

026a sounding board, a cheerleader, a trutht teller, and a partner in keeping uh each other grounded and focused. We've problem solved, reflected, laughed, regrouped, and carried each other through more than a few long nights. Even recently, her partnership made me better, and I am grateful for every part of it. Jenna, your service reminds me of one of the quotes that you love. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. You have lived that truth every day of your service. You changed this board. You changed this district. And you've changed me. Your leadership, your optimism, and your commitment to keeping it real and keeping it 100 will be missed. Thank you for everything and I would like to present you with

027the golden apple for your service. Thank you. [Applause] >> Yes. We'd like to invite our outgoing board members to offer any comments at this moment. >> I have high expectations. >> Do we say something? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Are you crying? >> I mean, a little. >> I mean, look at me. I'm not crying. >> Uh, well, I'll go first. Uh so you know I was thinking about this and I was thinking about why I ran for office and uh the thing that always st stood with me as a teacher was the um commitment that Alex Dtoqueville made which is that education should be the great equalizer and that's why we do the work and I think we'd all agree that the headwinds are getting stronger and stronger and it's harder for the have

028nots to get access to highquality public education like the halves and so my encouragement to all of the board and to our new board members is just to keep fighting for that and also to recognize how amazing this district is. Our cultural diversity is our superpower. We are raising and supporting students that will be prepared to compete in a global marketplace on day one. And that is why we are the best district in the state in the country. Um, I I um I also really want to say thank you to the teachers and staff. You know, there are so many unsung heroes. And so I'm I'm not going to attempt to list all of them, but I do want to call out that our teachers are critical, but so is so are principles. So are

029the central office staff. So are our pareducators and our BFLs and just everybody in between, especially our favorite lunch ladies who always give kids just a little bit more extra food if they look like they need it. Um, and I would say to our new board members, one of the greatest privileges you have is getting to say thank you to staff. That means so much. And all it is saying is, I see you. I value you. Thank you. And so I encourage you to keep remembering how important that is to our staff. Um, to my board members, as unpaid uh board members, you kind of never know who you're going to get and who's going to get elected and who's crazy enough to want this job. And I just have to say I was so

030lucky. I will uh be in the trenches with anybody on this team. Uh and I'm so lucky that they were in the trenches with me and Rosie who makes us all look amazing at what we do. Rosie, I just want to make sure to say thank you to you. Um I also really want to thank you for having my back and for trusting me uh in leading for two years. Uh I I do have to acknowledge Maria and Jenna. we came on the board together and I would say those two ladies are firecrackers and uh they keep you on your toes and I love that fight and I think it kept me fighting. So I really value and appreciate both of you as well as everybody else. You know, uh I was thinking about the

031past two years as board chair and I want to acknowledge that uh we had a lot of success, but we did it as a team and it took sacrifice on your part, some time away from your kids. Uh you pushed hard and but what I want to make sure everybody knows is look what we accomplished in two years. Change is possible. And so for example, I made a list mission, vision, and strategic plan, right? We cast a mission that clearly stated that we wanted every child to graduate with a plan. Whether that's college, whether that's trade school, whether that's a certification, or it's the military, everybody should have a plan. And the work catalyzed a strategic plan, the first one that we've had in several years. I won't go so far as to say decades,

032but it's great. There's a strategic plan for the De Mo public schools. Now, um we passed a bond, the reimagining education bond, and that was everybody. That was this community standing up for public education. 744% pretty good, right? And I think the reason it's important is that infrastructure is what is going to support the ability for our young people to be prepared to compete in the in the workforce. And I also think that we took a very first bold step in acknowledging that we needed to move from five feeder systems to three-feeder patterns. This is really critical work and it's not easy and it's hard and it means change for a lot of people and where they live and yet we have to continue to move that forward. Um I also want to call out

033that we changed the culture around cell phones and this is so important. Um, we required that the cell phone culture changed in classrooms. Students have to be able to learn and teachers have to be able to teach and we have to provide the right backing for our teachers so they can teach and those phones can be out of um the the the dynamics of a classroom. We also changed our board governance manual and this is a big deal. It does shift the power a little bit back to a shared responsibility between board and superintendent and gives the board the opportunity to have more oversight and input in strategic decisions. And that is critical because at the end of the day as a board you are uh spending taxpayer dollars and you have fiduciary responsibility over

034this district and that is a very important thing to remember in policy governance. Um, and lastly, of course, we celebrated academic gains and offered resources to improve um and and improve setbacks. So, there's so much more work to be done, so I thought I'd give you my wish list. Okay. Uh, free all day prek. We didn't get it done. Yeah. And and I um I just ask everybody to keep advocating for that. It is so important. Um digital literacy and cell phone reform. We our kids are addicted to social media and they have their phones in their hands. Until we actually educate our young people and provide digital literacy, it's going to continue. And so I just encourage you to think about as we're continuing to help people and navigate through mental health challenges that

035our young people have. The research is there. It's all correlating whether it's the cell phone, the social media, and mental health. And so there's a way there's a role for cell phones in education, but until we get our kids educated and um not addicted, we are never going to tackle this problem. And at the end of the day, we want our kids to learn in classrooms and we want them to build community and have a relationship with their teacher and their fellow students. And so I just that's number two. Okay. Number three, sports and activities vision. This is something that I think Maria, Jenna and I have been so passionate about and I think we just haven't hit the nail on the head. We have made some great progress in our facilities, but until we

036put forth a big bold vision around our activities and our sports, we are going to continue to struggle as a district. Five teams is a lot to support. And if we don't have the resources to do that, let's think outside the box and do something different. maybe a competitive team and an intramural team, but we have to keep pushing because what we have to remember is that our young people, some of them can go to college as a result of a scholarship in sports or activities. So, we need to give them a platform so they can show up and excel because we have champions in this district. Okay. Finally, I'm really appreciative to this community. Um, some of you know that I was running for Senate while I was on the school board. And um,

037that didn't go as planned, but I have to tell you there is no other place I would want to be except right here leading this board during times of crisis. And uh, I'm proud of how I led. I am proud of the work that we did as a board. And um, and and look, haters hate. And there's a lot of people who for some reason, whether it's our board or it's the fact that we have um children from all across the world, these beautiful children that speak languages that come from different countries, it doesn't matter why they hate, but they hate. And what I'm so appreciative and the only thing that matters to me is that my community stood by me. So, um with that, I'm going to say thank you and I'm so excited

038for this board. That's it. I almost made it. So, thank you. I should have gone first. Oh, Jackie, they do. As I I My husband says, if you don't have anyone hating, you're not doing anything right. So, just remember that. >> Amen. Um, thank you for that beautiful video, Phil and team. Uh, and thank you for your kind words. And so, I also have a prepared speech that I'm going to try to get through, but Maria reminded me last week that I generally cry a lot as well. So, we'll see if I can hold it together. Um, so try to leave the world a little little better than you found it. This quote captures exactly how I feel about my time on the board. My journey began here, as you saw, during COVID with a

039mask on. Uh, and it started when several of my emails to the DMPS board at the time offering suggestions about how they should leave during COVID turned into a phone call uh from the incomparable Terry Caldwell Johnson encouraging me to run. Terry flawlessly overcame every excuse and obstacle I offered. And I would be remiss uh to leave this table without publicly thanking her for her encouragement and for believing that I had the aptitude to sit at this table. I was reminded of this recently when one of my colleagues was asked what qualified her to be here. And without missing a beat, she said, "I'm a mother. That's my qualification." And sometimes that's all it takes. Fancy degrees or titles, chief VP, CEO. It may add some clout, but at the end of the day, this

04030-something mom sat here along with people older, wiser, far more experienced. And I leave knowing that I made a difference. Perhaps not with educational expertise, but with my mom perspective, my community-minded presence, and good old-fashioned common sense. So, I share this reflection with you all tonight to inspire our new board and the board members who will continue to serve. people I have the utmost respect for and who I'm honored to leave here calling my friends. Stay the course of leading with common sense. Continue to ensure that our parents and constituents receive encouragement, answers, transparency that they deserve. And another nugget of wisdom that Terry shared with me is never forget that you were elected here with the important job of speaking your mind and voting your conscience. When I look back over these four years,

041it is wild to think about what we went through. Just leading through COVID, crying after the stadium vote in that seat. Uh feeling heartbreak following the tragic shooting at East High, leadership changes, and the national spotlight we felt these last two months has been straight out of a movie. But even more powerful than the hard moments are the incredible ones, the bond passing, an affirmation of trust from our community. My pet project, the four-year fight to ensure that DMPS students can use their student ID as a library card. Yes. Cementing our district's commitment to fostering philanthropy, relentlessly fighting to strengthen organizational processes and accountability and above all being a part of this extraordinary team. To each board member, thank you. I have learned so much from you. The power of a thoughtful question. The courage

042to come in swinging when you need it. The value of making a plan and consistently showing up. The importance of advocating fearlessly for those we represent. The incredible gift the and the realization where I'm looking at you that the power is not at this board table. The power is in our buildings, in our classrooms, and in our community. truly and most importantly that I will never be ashamed to state my qualification for anything is being a mom. To our educators, our bus drivers, our food service team, our custodians, our staff, stay the course. Don't quit on us. Our next board is a powerhouse. And I believe deeply that great list lies ahead for this district. And clearly so does your voting community frontline staff building staff. Your our community is gifting you with their precious

043treasure because they believe in you. And remember to use your voice and that power and influence accordingly with this board. Push us. Push them. Challenge them and demand nothing but the best. To our families, never forget that the power you have power as mom and dad or as guardian. And I assure you that every email you send and every time you come to this podium to speak, it makes a difference. We do hear you. I assure you of that. You have a choice in where you send your child to school. Expect excellence for your child and for every child in this district. You are a critical part of our excellence. And finally, to my own family, thank you for giving so much so I could serve and be a part of this community. Especially thank

044you to my husband who is my biggest cheerleader and really believes that I can do anything. And to my parents for Ubering our children around to their activities almost every Tuesday so that I could be here. My last comment is an invitation to those here in the room and watching at home. Get involved with our district. Volunteer, advocate, donate, pay to go see a high school football game and buy a hot dog and some popcorn. Stay involved. Our community will collectively lead this world and this district a little better than we found it. [Applause] >> Now I'd like to invite other board members to offer any last comments >> briefly. >> Okay. >> But I wrote it down. Since there's a time limit on it, I'm going to go first so that I can get

045this out. Um, for everybody that's uh in the audience and and if you've never served on a board like this, if you don't get the emotion that's among this group, um, it's because we care about serving with each other for sure, but it's because also uh the people that are leaving us tonight uh on this board have just made an enormous impact uh on all of us. I had to write this down. uh because I will get emotional otherwise uh talking to the two of you for sure. So, I'm going to try to get through this. Uh Jenna, you're first. Uh tonight, we as a board are going to lose a big piece of our personality, uh our charisma, and our heart. You've been my board buddy since I joined the board in 2023. Your

046leadership, mentorship, passing along what you've learned in your time at this table have been invaluable to me. dozens of times in the past two years. My phone records will attest to that. You've raised issues, argued passionately, and even given me a verbal kick in the pants was the edit that my wife put in there this evening um when I needed it. You bring to every meeting, every conversation and interaction the history, pride, and perspective of a community leader with deep roots here. You bring the lived experience of a parent of kids in our district. But more than that, you invite the perspective of other families and remind us how important those individual experiences are when we make our decisions at this board table. Your leadership with the foundation reminds us that there are so many

047people in our community, around our state, and around the country that are willing to help us and be generous with us if we only have the confidence to ask. And you certainly have given us that. This is the hard part. If I have an enduring vision of you as a board member, it's going to be the multiple times that a community member has stepped up to this microphone, commenting, criticizing, and at times pleading with this board to do better. The picture in my head will be you getting up and meeting that parent or teacher or community member before they leave the room to let them know that you that you didn't just listen, that you heard them and that you were committed to helping them find a solution. I know that being away from this

048board table won't stop you from using your voice in this community, your generous spirit, and your heart to make De Moine a much better place. And I can't wait to see what's next. Thank you, Jackie. I used a quote for you. John Quincy Adams said, "If your actions inspire others to dream more, to learn more, to do more, and become more, you're a leader." I couldn't think of a better way to sum up your time as board chair and the ways that you've impacted this district, this community, and me. For me, it was the notso simple act of encouraging me to run for this seat. You asked me to become more, be a more engaged parent and a more engaged community member. You knew I'd bring a perspective to the board table that more than

049a few people were concerned about at the time. But you knew as a leader that we're better when we have a diverse and sometimes opposing voices sitting with each other at the table trying to think about how we can make the district the best it can be. For this board, your leadership is about doing more. When I joined the board's focus was solely on monitoring outcomes. Given the state of the district, that that left many of us frustrated, wanting to do more, but unable to articulate a common vision of what more looked like. You were critical in bridging us and bringing us together, reigning us in at times and encouraging us to understand each other. You helped facilitate a common vision of how we wanted to support our schools and hold its leaders accountable while

050they were delivering high quality learning and making high expectations of all of our students. For our community, you pushed us to dream. This may be the best way we can gratefully acknowledge your service tonight. None of us know what the impact of reimagining education is going to be in five or 10 years, but I can say from my seat that this district is already a better place because of the aspirational vision that you encouraged the entire community to embrace. We'll do our best to continue to look forward to dream more, to learn more, and to become more. Don't expect your phone to stop ringing or text messages to stop coming in uh just because you're not sitting here. Your advice as a colleague and as a friend will always be welcome to me. Congratulations and

051thank you. >> Thanks. [Applause] >> You can do it in private if you want. >> I will go next. I think that the best part of tonight is that or at least I keep telling myself is that I will continue to see you both. Um, you know, I've been thinking about all the things that we have lived together the last four years, particularly the events that transpired recently and how we as a board have been able to love on one another and to lift each other up. And to Jackie, I want to say I definitely love your brain and I love your heart and I love the commitment with which you serve. But most of all, I love your words toward me personally because you have helped me grow in ways that I never thought

052I could. And you have helped me see things that I had not noticed were there before about the world and about me in leadership. Thank you for being so encouraging and so intentional. You have been one of my greatest cheerleaders and I admire you so much and I respect you incredibly and I am grateful for having you in my life. >> Thank you. Thank you for leading the district with the passion that you have. You're an amazing woman. Thank you, [Applause] Jenna. I don't want to look at you because I'm gonna cry even more. Um, so I keep these words in my head and um, Maria for governor. >> I'm glad you said it because I was going to say no one is a bigger cheerleader than me. Maria www.maria. Just kidding. Um, >> thank

053you for believing the way that you do. And thank you for leading the way that you do. Thank you for loving the way that you do. And thank you for showing up the way that you do. You are incredibly loving and appreciative of everything that is around you. And I want to be as loud as you are, but in a good way. You are constructive and you have no idea. We had an event Thursday night and I saw you come in and my heart was very full just looking at you. For some reason, I knew that you just made things better for me at that moment because I feel like you have my back. And I want to say thank you for being the advocate that you are at this table that you have been,

054for elevating things the way that you have, for advocating for our students and particularly our most vulnerable students. Thank you for being that extra voice and thank you for reminding me that my voice can be loud and can be heard. Thank you for your contribution to me, to my life because you have made it so much better. Gracias, [Applause] >> Jackie Norris, the mom on a mission. >> That's right. Um, I'm going to make it short because I don't want to cry, but I want everybody watching and everybody here in the audience, I want you guys to realize that this is not just a regular board. We have a tight relationship. We've met what, two years ago. and any other board or any other business job that you've had, you spend so much time with

055the people that you make different relationships with each and every one of us. And as what everybody's saying, we all feel the same way about these two ladies. But Jackie, the mom on the mission, I respect you and I'm honored to be here these last two years. You've showed me a lot. Um, you've shown me that I can speak up and be a voice. Um, and I look forward to what your next steps are. >> Thank you. >> I love you. >> Thank you, >> Jenna. My partner in crime. You're amazing person. I respect you even though you're uh from Lincoln High School, but that's okay. But you have shown me to speak up and your mind. You think what I think and the things that I want to hold back, you're the one that

056speaks up. So, I appreciate you for that. And >> it's all on you now. >> It's all on me. >> Thanks, guys. >> Thank you. [Applause] Can I just add? Yeah. Can I just add one sentence? It'll be super quick. Um, thank you both for everything. And that's why I didn't want to go. Um, you've made me seen you've made me feel seen, heard, and valued. I love you both. Thank you. >> You're a star, Rosie. You're amazing. True. >> Thank you. >> Matt, you better look out because one of us wants to hire Rosie. So, >> okay team. So, uh, it is now time to adjourn. Sign a die. May I have a motion and a second? >> Marterano. So, moved. >> Mayberry. May second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano. Oh,

057hold on a second. Did you want to say something for vice chair? Okay, we're going to start again. Okay. May I have a motion and a second? We had a motion by Miss Murdero. May I have a second? >> Second. Mayberry Mays. >> Okay. We have a second by Dr. Mayberry Ms. Board members, please cast your vote. The vote is approved 7 to zero. The meeting is adjourned. Sign a die. [Applause] Um, we are going to have a short recess and our new board members are going to come up. So, five minutes or less. Is that right? Okay. You get to come on up. All right. I would like to call this organizational meeting to order and I would like to invite Maria Alonzo to come forward to the podium to take the oath of

058office. I need to grab my miss Alonzo. Miss Marano, if you will repeat after me, please. I, Maria Alonzo, solemnly swear >> I am, Maria Alonzo, solemnly swear >> to support the Constitution of the United States >> to support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of Iowa >> and the Constitution of the State of Iowa. Do you swear that you will faithfully and impartially do the best of your ability to discharge the duties of the office of the directors of the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter as required by law? Yes. Yes. Congratulations, Maria. Gracias. Can I do something? [Applause] I'd like to do something that is not traditional but is very important and particularly to my community. Iowa. I accept. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank

059you. I would like to invite Sarah Hopkins to come forward to the podium to take the oath of office. >> Do I have to repeat or do I just say yes? Have to repeat that. >> Yes. >> Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa? I swear to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution State of Iowa. Do you swear that you will faithfully and impartially do the best of your ability to discharge the duties of the office of the directors of the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. I swear to faithfully and impartially to the best of my ability discharge the duties of the office of directors in the De Mo

060Independent School District as now or after required by law. >> Congratulations, Sarah. >> Thank you. Next, I would like to invite Ryan P. Howell to come forward to the podium to take the oath of office. Ryan, do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa? I swear that to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution State of Iowa. >> Do you swear that you will faithfully and impartially do the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office of the director directors in the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. >> I swear to faithfully and impartially to the best of my ability discharge the duties of the office of directors in the

061De Mo Independent School District as now or who hereafter required by law. Congratulations, Ryan. [Applause] I would like to invite Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize to come forward to the podium to take the oath of office. >> Skyler, do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa? I swear to support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa. >> Do you swear that you will faithfully and impartially do the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office of the directors in the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. >> I swear to faithfully and impartially, to the best of my ability, discharge the duties of the office of director in

062the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. >> Congratulations, Skylin. >> THANK YOU. NOW THAT WE HAVE sworn in our new board members, I would like to officially welcome you and I would like to ask Miss Rios to take the role. Miss Alonso >> here. >> Miss Compos >> present. >> Mr. Dixs >> here. >> Miss Hopkins >> here. >> Mr. Howell >> here. >> Miss Martana >> here. >> Dr. Mayberry Mace >> here. We have quum. We will continue with the organizational meeting and I would like to invite Shashank as our board secretary to come forward. The first order of business is the election of the chair of the board. We have a process according to policy for individuals who are interested in moving into the leadership role. The

063individuals were to submit their names for consideration to the board. I will now entertain nominations for chair. >> I nominate Director Kimarano. >> Second. >> Uh due to our process, we will open for additional nominations at the table. We have one nomination and all board members have a ballot in front of them or will momentarily. If you could please write your name and cast your vote for the individual who has been nominated. and then pass your ballots to Mr. Aurora. The votes have been cast. We have five in support of Mrs. Maratano. The people who have voted are Maria Alfonso in support of Mrs. Maratano, Mrs. Anna Campose in support of Mrs. Martano. Miss Marterano in support of Martano. Uh Dixs in support of Marterano and Skyler in support of Marterano. Two board members have

064abstained which are Ryan and Sarah Hopson. Mrs. Maratano has won the position for chair 5-0 and I will now swear her in. >> A moment of personal privilege for those who have abstained. Um we have made it a a board uh tradition to share why you've abstained. If you're interested in sharing why you've abstained from the vote, but you are not obligated. >> You can start. Thank you, Skylar. >> Mike, thank you, Skylar. I appreciate the opportunity to to clarify. And so, this is as being a brand new board member, I want to uh be very clear that I am supportive of this board. I'm very confident in the direction of this board and of our newly elected chair to lead us. Um I believe that this board is all swimming in the same direction.

065Uh and that is fantastic. We all are here to make sure that all the children in De Moines have the opportunity to thrive and have the best education. So, um, that said, I'm brand new to the board and I I'd like to set a practice as a board member of abstaining or voting my conscience when when I'm not fully up to speed or haven't had the history or the background of this and having not been part of the the background to uh nominate and uh select the chair and the leaders leadership. The same will be for the vice chair, uh, Skyler. I I abstained, but I look forward to working with everyone and especially our chair and vice chair, uh, to lead this board. Thank you. >> And I echo everything. Do I have to

066hold this? I echo everything that Ryan had to say. Um, I just want to say I am so impressed with every single member of this board. You guys are all incredible and I have just been blown away by all that you have done and continue to do and all that you have all reached out to help us um get acquainted with what this new role is going to be like. And I have 100% full faith, but I also have um kind of my north star that if in a year from now somebody came back and said, "Why did you vote the way you did?" I want to have a complete um conviction of backing up exactly why my vote was. and having not been a part of the board, I don't feel like that's fair

067for me to vote yes or no when it comes to leadership. But um I've met with both of you individually and I think you're going to be amazing leaders. I think it's just more appropriate that I abstain. >> Thank you. solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa. I solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa >> and that you'll be faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge the duties of the board chair of the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. and I will faithfully and impartially to the best of my ability discharge the duties of the board chair of the De

068Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. >> Congratulations [Applause] Next is the election of for vice chair. I will now entertain nominations for vice chair. Following the same process, we will not open for additional nominations at the table. Um, I would like to nominate Dr. Skyler Mayberry Maize as vice chair. We have one nomination and all board members have a ballot in front of them. If you could please write your name and cast your votes for the individual who has been nominated. Thank you. The votes have been cast and I will read out the votes. Uh Ryan Habul, uh abstain. Sarah Hopkins, abstain. We have Anna Campose, yes. In support of Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize. Uh Maria Alfonso in supporting. Yes. In favor of Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize. Kim Martrono. Yes.

069In support of Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize. Patrick Dixs. Yes. In support of Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize. And Skyler Mayberry Maize in support of Dr. Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize. Uh Dr. Sk Dr. Skyler Mayberry Maze. Uh I declare you vice chair of a board 50. Congratulations. Thank you. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa and that you will faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge the duties of the board, vice chair, and the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law? I solemn solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa and that I will faithfully and impartially to the best of my

070ability discharge the duties of the board vice chair of the De Mo Independent School District as now or hereafter required by law. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. I >> next on the agenda we have items of privilege. I would like to ask if our new board members would like to share anything. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Congratulations to our chair and vice chair. I just wanted to thank um all of my new colleagues. Uh as Sarah said, you guys have all been tremendous uh welcoming, supporting uh us as new board members and to our outgoing two members uh Jackie and Jenna who uh I think took off uh incredible shoes to fill and so that's that's a humbling uh experience and all your beautiful tributes to them. Uh I want to say thank you to

071the residents uh who voted and turned out and gave us this tremendous mandate as a district and as a board with the referendum. uh we we uh humbly accept that that confidence you placed in us. And then I just wanted to uh thank my my family who's here who's uh been support allowing me to serve. Kelly, uh Charles, Rory, Esther, and Jackson. Thank you guys for supporting and and this is where I'll be when I'm when I'm not home. So, thank you guys. >> Yeah. I just want to say it is a real honor to be here. Um I'm so excited to serve with all of you. I can't wait to see all the things that we are going to do in the next four years. And it's been really amazing to see all that

072you all have done on your time here on the board. And I just feel so good about everything, the direction of DMPS and where it's headed and where it's going. And the fact that nearly 75% of our residents voted yes for the bond gives me so much hope and so much faith and so much confidence that we are absolutely on the right track and we are going to make this district the one that every single person wants to live in and wants to send their kids to and I can't wait for it. Um, thank you to my family as well. board colleagues, we'll open up to you. >> I just want to say I'm glad that we have another >> go east. I would just offer closing my closing comments saying thank you to this

073board for u I was appointed in April of 2024 sight unseen um due to unfortunate circumstances but over the last year and a half you've all adopted me as one of your own as if I've been here for the entire four years or elected in 23 as well. So thank you for that. Uh I've shared with RI director Howell and director Hopkins as well that I feel like I'm part of their cohort as a newbie but I also feel like I'm part of the existing board. So I'm looking forward for us looking forward to us to continue to grow together. We have some large bodies of work ahead of us as uh Madame Chair and I have already discussed. We've got to get our budget in place. We've got some communications things. We've got some

074transparency things. We got some community initiatives and engagement. There are a lot of things ahead of us and we're really excited to tackle that. And although this is a bittersweet moment where Jackie and Jenna have departed from us, I'm really excited for both our new directors to be joining us and the level of skills you have and intellect. And I must admit, although Hopkins is an East Side Scarlet, her daughter will forever be Southside Pride. >> Thank you. I would just like to take a moment and express my sincere gratitude and my board colleagues for um your faith in me and your um voting me into this leadership role and I look forward to collaborating with each and every one of you and look forward to all that we will accomplish as a board together.

075So, thank you. >> Uh Superintendent Smith for >> Can I say something? >> You may. Of course. Madame Chair, I would like to say just that I am really excited about the work that we as a board can do and will do. I'm looking forward to leading um as a team with lots of intentionality. Lots of intentionality. And I I know that we have much to do, but I think that we have a really strong team. I think that we have a great person leading the district and I'm looking forward to working not only with superintendent with uh Mr. Matt um but also our community. And just I want to share tonight in this room, you see our community truly reflected. And I just want to say to anyone that says that Latinos don't show

076up, we do show up, right? I think that half of the half of our room is is here present. half of our community, I think, um, truly is reflected or our community is truly truly reflected. Demographics in our district tonight are reflected in this boardroom. And I cannot tell you what that means to me and what that means to the board and to what we as a board what we as a board can do. So, thank you uh, Communia for being here tonight. Los. [Applause] >> Um, yeah, I just want to continue to echo u my gratitude um particularly for Sarah and Ryan for for stepping up and um raising your hand um when we uh when we really need uh to continue with amazing leadership that this board has set forth. Um, I can

077tell you, um, working for this board is hard, um, because they demand excellence and they demand that we put forth our best efforts and continue to leave no uh, stone unturned. And so, you're in really good hands and you're amongst um, incredible leaders. And so, I am really, really excited to work for you and to serve under you and to continue to learn from you. So, thank you again for stepping up. Thank you for our returning board members and congratulations to each of you. Um we're going to have an amazing school year. Um and we're off to a great start. Um I'm super proud of our team. Um we just presented on goals and guard rails tonight and every last one of them was meeting or exceeding targets and so the team is doing incredible

078work. The staff at our schools is absolutely amazing. And so I al want to offer um to our staff and to our families um really safe and relaxing and maybe refreshing um holidays um for the next few days at least. Um you've uh certainly earned it and you continue to put forth an amazing experience and we're going to continue to serve you and do better by you. So thank you for all that you do and um we always keep you in our thoughts and our prayers. So thank you so much. >> Thank you everyone for joining us. We greatly appreciate you. Um, happy Thanksgiving. I would like to adjourn this meeting at 6:54. We will now transition into our work session. We will take a let's start at 7:05. We'll take a brief recess and

079transition into our budget work session. Please re stay and learn about uh our budget with us. Thank you. We'll see you back at 7:05. All right, board colleagues, if we could make our way back to the table. Are you starting us off or Shashank Matt is okay. >> Yeah, we'll wait. >> What are you doing? >> It's the first meeting. newspaper. This is good. All kinds of All right, >> we're going to go ahead and get started for this board work session November mber 25th regarding our um budget and strategic staffing. I will turn it to Superintendent Smith. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Um so tonight um is our our second work session on the budget and um we're going to begin uh talking about strategic staffing. um chief human resources officer uh Josie

080Lewis is going to be leading this conversation tonight and then after Josie we will follow up uh with Shashank um and team and we will discuss um Pebble and Save uh budgets and so um again just sort of just to frame this for everyone again um and I I think you have the slides they're in front of you but I think they're I think we've got all the updated slides here but um and Josie will frame it again but um we're looking to add a process um for the budget that talks about the context, the challenges, the choices, and the impact. And so um tonight will be another example of us sort of framing the context of um strategic staffing and how we're looking to approach that and its overall um the challenges that um

081that it both creates and the opportunities that it creates for us as an organization moving forward in terms of how we invest in staffing overall. um that will certainly uh lend itself towards um us making some decisions. Um obviously not tonight, but as we get set up um and we get a little bit further into the the weeks and months ahead of us, we'll have some decisions to make as it relates to staffing and the overall strategic budget investments um because uh ultimately what we want to see is impact on student outcomes and the overall student and staff and family experience. And so, um, we do feel strongly that we're going to get to a point here in the budget season, um, where all of the context, challenges, and choices are really, really clear, um,

082as we, um, aim for incredible impact on our student, staff, and families. But without, uh, further ado, I'll turn it over to Chief Human Resources Officer, uh, Josie Lewis. >> Thank you. All right, so Matt has kind of loud. Um, Matt has set the stage that we're going to be talking cont. Does that sound weird? >> Can you hear me? >> Okay. All right. So, we're going to talk context, challenge, choices, and impact regarding um our strategic staffing and what our proposal is to do for this um upcoming year. So, for the 2627 school year. So just a quick um overview of our agenda. The context is really the budget situation um and some of the decisions we have to make around that and we'll talk a little bit more about that. Talk about the

083challenge of aligning our uh staffing and our workforce with our enrollment trends and then talk about choices that come from doing that and then uh the impact that we'll see both at a systems level and then um some of what's being already felt by having these conversations. So last last meeting we talked about the budget or Shashant talked about the budget um and really talked about how our budget is student driven. Um so revenue in is generated by our students and then what we spend is largely based on our staffing. I'm going to talk more about that about how much of our budget goes to staffing but our context is largely generated by what's happening with our student enrollment right now. So, this is a slide that you saw at the last board meeting. Um,

084talks about what our gap is um if we have a 2% annual increase to SSA and what that means for staffing. And the big number I want to point out to you here is the 13.3 million. And so, that's what I'm going to focus on tonight is um targeting that number that we need to realize in our staffing changes. Again, another slide that you saw last time is our enrollment trends. Um, we've both been trending down in certified enrollment as well as in our students served. And as Shashank talked about last time, that has a direct correlation to the money that we're bringing in and therefore the money we have available to spend. When it comes to our staffing costs, our ongoing personnel expenses are about 83% of our operating budget. All right? So, a

085large most of our operating budget is people. Um, and covering those expenses, again, I I feel like I'm going to keep saying it over and over, is directly related to our student enrollment. And our current reality as of today is to identify 13.3 million in staffing changes. And I know that number is fluctuating. I don't think we've certified our enrollment yet. Is that right, Matt? >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, just just to clarify that um and I think I sent an email um to the board update maybe a couple weeks ago that we have still yet not receive the certified um enrollment yet from the state. Every day we expect it. So, it's it's kind of any day now. This is a new slide um that was not in the slide deck last time, but

086it really aligns our enrollment trends with our staffing trends. Um and you can see that our certified and our students served has declined. Um this graph shows our um staffing going back to that pre-COVID year of 2019 and then pulling in the most um the three most recent years. Our staffing numbers have really remained unchanged. Um I mean we've had some ups and downs, but we've largely remained unchanged. Um, a big part of this is decisions the district has made to um, look at department budgets to make cuts away from um, staff and those have been pretty intentional decisions. As our enrollment has continued to decline, we're needing to look at different options. So, our challenge is to align our enrollment and our staffing. And it's not just at a district level, it's really at

087a building level, at a program level, it's across the entire system. And so that's why when we think about the challenge, we need to be forward thinking and think about it from a strategic standpoint in order to think about our intentional decisions we're making now and how we can roll those out so we're making intentional decisions in five years. So our goal is really to have a five-year strategic staffing plan that can um similar to the budget forecast where we're going and make decisions in advance and get ahead of um any issues that we see coming. >> Josie, can I add something to that real quick? I just want to sort of um emphasize this notion of working towards a five-year staffing plan. Um it it's intuitive, but um I just want to point it

088out again that it's incredibly challenging for departments, for buildings, um for programs to have staff um u staff fluctuate in terms of the number of staff that we have, right? And so um for example, we've seen community school coordinators go up go down over the years. um success workers. And so we've had various programs where um we've had we've increased staff and then we and then we lower staff. And when you do that, you do change the model, the service model that we are providing for student, staff, and for families. And so what we're aiming towards is to create um an enrollment aligned staff formula, but that it's a five-year consistent staffing formula. Again, now um you know, can we get to five years? Maybe, maybe not. But that's certainly the target for us to

089get there so that staff have dependability and expectations of the number of folks they're going to have in front of them. >> So Kim had asked this question at the last board meeting around what data were we using to make these decisions because what we're going to talk a little bit more about staffing standards and I'll explain a little bit more about what that is but wanted to share with you some of the data that we've been collecting and this isn't all of it but a snapshot. We look really looked at in district data and then we looked at out of district data. The in district data is what's happening in DMPS. So our enrollment trends by buildings, our class sizes by buildings, by sections, by classrooms. Um took a deep dive into what that

090looked like and we've pulled it at multiple points and in multiple years so that we had a good understanding of what we were seeing across our whole system. And then doing the same thing with current staffing levels. Um what does it look like at various points in time? because as you might imagine in an organization of 5,000 it can fluctuate. So when you pull data really matters and so wanting to get tight around when we're pulling data and then looking at our class sizes, program sizes, trends, what does that look like? What did the board expect? Because you all have a board policy on class sizes. So what what does that say? And then getting feedback. So we have um been getting feedback on the staffing standards for the last few weeks now and I'm

091going to talk a little bit more about that in the next few slides. Um, but making sure that what we're proposing doesn't just work in concept, but that our leaders and others have an opportunity to re react to it and provide us with honest feedback. And then we've looked at outofd district data. So what does federal and state law require some of the decisions that we've made to adjust different class sizes have come down to if we move it a little here, it allows us to access different funding streams um so we can um lower our class sizes in our primary grades for example. So, we've made decisions based on that. Um, we've looked at professional organizations. So, what does what do counselors say the ratio should be? Um, and looked at what that says.

092And then staffing plans from other districts of similar sizes across the country. Um, so one we've looked at quite a bit is Tulsa, Oklahoma. Um, they do an annual staffing plan every year. Um, so we've looked at them and then various other districts that have around that 30,000 size um, as a comparison. And then looked at our neighboring districts. So, what is what is some of the the districts right next to us doing for class sizes? Um because we want to make sure that we're not high or low, that we're in the mix and then if the board wants us to be low or high in somewhere, we can make those adjustments, but really making sure we're calibrated across various systems. So, when we talk about staffing standards, staffing standards are really creating benchmarks for

093what we believe to be the optimal number of staff based on a factor like student enrollment. So based on student enrollment, what do we think our workforce should be? And then we use those um numbers to establish various levels. And I'm going to talk in a in a few slides about foundational staffing. So what do we believe across the entire system every student in our our system should have access to regardless of the building that you go to. So a class size of uh 1 to 22 for example in kindergarten. We believe that that's what it should be across the system. Then everybody should have that. you shouldn't have an experience in one kindergarten classroom where it's 15 and another where it's 29. So, we're we're establishing that. And then what we want to do

094is layer on top of that what we call discretionary um standards. And that's really where we start to look at what are the needs of the building. Um so, does the building need to have a lower class size because of whatever factor we could put in there. So maybe um we need to look at socioeconomics. We need to look at um >> multilingual learners. >> Thank you. Drew blank. Yep. So then we can layer on additional staffing in that to bring class sizes down for for example. >> And then part of what we do with this is we have to account for variables. So you all know students can move in and can move out of the district and we need to make sure that we haven't staffed ourselves at such a low point that

095we can't rise with students moving into the district. And how we've accounted for that in our standards is by rounding up. So we round up to the nearest FTE so that we've created a little bit of a buffer in there in case students move in. So, one of the things I just wanted to emphasize on this particular slide is the notion that the staffing standards model um creates a strategy whereby we foundationally create equality first and then with discretionary staffing add on equitable staffing uh based on the again the building needs. What is the who are the students that the building is serving? How is that different or unique from their neighboring um you know school across town or across the street and what do we need to actually do to actually filter um additional

096staffing in those areas to support the students needs? >> Can I ask just clarification we're talking about the staffing staffing standards are these the existing standards that have been in place for some time or this was looking prospectively forward? >> Yeah, this is actually new. Yeah, >> this is new moving forward. Everything you're describing is a new process that is being built into our budget. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> New. >> So, it's predictive. Yeah. Yep. The idea is that it's predictive for the future. >> Well, and it it allows sort of um um caps and and minimums for us too, right? So, like falling below a threshold should mean something to us. Um, if we've got a, for example, a class size where the standard is 22 and the class has 14,

097that should that should drive action on our part. Or conversely, if if the if the if the cap there is 27 28 and they're at 32, that should also drive an action from us at that point in time. Currently, that does not happen. >> You bet. >> And I also want to add that it's not just intended to um reduce staff. like there are places in our system where we will have to bring staff up um because we're underst staffed in places as well. >> So what is the guideline right now? >> There are no specifications right now. >> Yeah. Nothing hard hard and fast, right? We do have sections, for example, that um we have as few as 12 students um at elementary schools um across two and three sections of a building. Um,

098conversely, we've had um schools across town that may have 28 29 in a in a in a similar kindergarten, you know, first grade classroom. >> I don't want to get too much in the weeds, so if I am, please let me know. But I'm curious when I think about students with IEPs or students who are multilingual learners, there is a a continuum of service that needs to be provided for those students dependent on um whether or not they're a newcomer to our country or or whether or not, you know, they're they need tier three supports. But what this feels like there's it's not just a number of students with IEPs or number of students who are multilingual learners. It feels more like here's our number and here's the extent at which services are required for

099for these students. um how are you approaching that work at each building and moving of we we just have a very mobile you mentioned the mobility in our district um you know if I if you have five students that need one-on-one aids and they all move to another building will that those one-on-one aids go with them will they again this might be too weedy it. >> Yeah. So, there's a few parts of that. Yes. When it comes to special education, the IEP drives what the staffing is when it comes to special education. So, what the needs are that are identified, we need to staff for that and that's accounted for, but we can provide um certain expectations for what's available in the schools and then those would be the additional resources we layer on top

100of what's already there. Same with um our um you gave me another example. um multilingual students. Yep. So, same thing where we would staff up based on the needs of the students. So, that's the discretionary piece of it. It's not part of the foundational because the foundational is what we expect for all students in our system and then we layer on those additional supports. And would you ever see the need for students to to transfer to a different building based on the services that are being offered at one building versus another building? Or do you foresee that their building of you know their community school will be able to provide them with the necess necessary resources? >> So we already have pockets where we're doing that. We bus students to central academy and central campus.

101And so some of that is working with the current structures we have in place and considering how we staff that. And also how could we look at things differently. So that's not fully ironed out yet because it's not like we're building it from scratch. We're building it with systems already in place that we need to manage. So it is part of the calculation. It's just not fully figured out yet. >> Thank you. >> One more point of clarity. So, as far as the discretionary piece, I love the idea of the model and having the standards. Who or at what level is the discretionary decision made about where we need to move resources? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, that is going to some of it's dependent on the students we're serving in various buildings. So, um students

102can determine the type. So, the the next slide talks about our title funding. So, our title funding is enrollment driven and the buildings it goes to is based on those enrollment factors. So buildings are allocated a certain amount of title dollars based on the state formula and then based on our students. So we would have them receive those title dollars and they can for lack of a better term purchase additional staffing from a menu of options to serve students above and beyond what is currently being staffed at the foundational level. So we have it's important to understand that our staffing we pay people out of a variety of funds. So, we have our general fund that is where most of our staff are paid out of, but we also have our other sources like dropout

103prevention um we use to to pay for staffing positions. Special education um as Kim said is paid out of a different fund. Title um we can pay staffing. And then we have grant funds that are one-time expenses we need to consider. Um and then the ESSER money, which those of you who are on the board know we had esser money that expired in September of 24. So we have different funding streams. >> Yeah. And um maybe just to add to that um the decision is made both at the building and at the district level. There's it's it's a it's a a partnership in terms of what does the building need based on what they've determined and identified for students and we work in partnership based on the department and you know what that program might

104need to be to make sure that they have what they need. but also to be able to account for what are we saying across, you know, all elementary schools or all middle schools that we might need to also um consider district-wide investments in as opposed to it just being an isolated investment in a particular building. >> I appreciate the question. >> So, this is um those of you who are familiar with MTSS or multi-system multi-tiered systems of support, this is going to look really similar. Um, so it's the idea of, you know, at tier one, what we what do we provide to everybody and then how do we layer those on? Um, at the top of our triangle, you'll see that it has more. Um, I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I

105can tell you what every student um needs or every building leader can identify for what their building needs. And so there may be something out there that's above and beyond the discretionary. And so we would need to consider that um based on that. So um this isn't, you know, the final thing. This is just um provides us with additional places to go based on what we're seeing in our buildings. So foundational again is that baseline and then discretionary is responding to individual needs at the building level. So our choice really is um is to align with our enrollment trends. Um, and so if we set our and set our staffing standards based on what is going on with our enrollment, it allows us to um, flex with what we're seeing both at the district level

106as well as at our building and program level. So it allows there to be a predictive nature to it. So as you see what's happening in, you know, a particular leader building, um, they can see, you know, we're going to be declining. Maybe we see this is coming up or a building is closing. I'm going to be taking on additional students. We need to staff up in anticipation of that. We can't wait until it happens. So, here's where I want to talk a little bit about the impact because um I think it's important to recognize that there's going to be quite quite a few different impacts of doing something um like staffing standards. The first is our timelines. Um our timelines for staffing have been um mostly in the spring. So kind of in that

107December into January, February time frame, we are backing those up and pulling data right now in anticipation of sharing information with our school leaders in December. Um so they would have a staffing plan available to them before winter break and then would be able to fill that out um in January. So they would know what their staffing is um pretty early in the year so that any decisions that have to be made about movement, people are aware of those and have notice of those and things like that. So big big thing with timelines is those moving up. >> Josie, just for like a clarification, you're talking about a staffing plan for next year that they're getting in >> December. The sort of logical question here is how in the world are you supposed to do

108that when we know that students move around our district and hopefully more kids are moving in? I mean, like it just seems like there would be is that the problem we're hoping to have is that more kids come in. >> That'd be a great problem. Um, so we're and I'm going to talk a little bit about what we're going we call lock date. So that's where we're going to lock our staffing and we'll make some of those moves and then we'll have a true update where we'll then look like did did we maybe get it off a little bit here and didn't staff correctly? Do we need to move resources around? So it's the the big move and then if we need to make adjustments, we can make adjustments later on. >> And I assume

109the five-year nature of this will also help level that out over time. >> Yes. Yep. And we're looking back at trends because as you might imagine, kindergarten kindergarten is kind of always a wild card. Um, as a former kindergarten teacher, I can tell you that. So, you you never were always certain what your kindergarten numbers were going to be. So, we're using the past five years to look at what the trends are. And then we're working with our building um or our principal supervisors who know those trends. So, maybe in a particular area, we know registration usually comes in late. Um, that would be after lock date. We don't want to harm that building because we know that so we can plan for it. So, we'd be making those decisions. Will these adjustments in the

110timeline also impact the transfer window and the posting window for new positions? >> Yes, it'll pull it back. Thank you. >> Yep. Pull it up. >> Um so, as a another impact of this is going to be internal movement. Um and there's in addition to the staffing standards, there's two other factors that are going to impact um our internal movement this year. One is the early retirement vacancies that are going to be created, which was a strategic decision in order to create vacancies that we can move people into. And then resignation vacancies um so that we can um the ideal state is that we aren't um cutting anybody, that we're moving people into vacancies that have been created. And so it's really using all of these factors and the tools that we have to make

111sure that we have when maybe not the same position, but we will have a position for for individuals. So again, we would be moving individuals and positions within our system based on our enrollment. Anything else on that, Matt? >> Nailed it. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. The next thing um I want to talk about is position budgeting or position control is another term. So in my brain I think about position control as a parking lot. Um so during the staffing process we identify how many parking spaces there are and that's how many parking spots we have. You don't get to park on the field um you know off to the side. You have to park in a parking spot. Everybody has parking spot. We budget for the parking spots including the vacancies whether there's

112a car in them or not. We can move the cars around just like we can move the positions around, but we're locked on how many positions are in our parking lot. So, this is what we would be doing once we get to lock day is we would be locking in this what our positions are, where our positions are located, and there would be a a very uh rigorous budget verification process to make sure that you're not going over or under. And we have a system um power schools is the system that we use um that talks to the business office. So HR in the business office, our systems can talk to each other. Um, and we would use that system in order to lock this in place. I get really excited about position control. Um,

113because I just love the analytics that can be pulled from it. >> Power schools. Yep. So it would be able also to do cool things like track funding stream. So if a position was grant funded and that grant funding goes away, it sends us alerts. Hey, that that's going to run out. are you going to move that over to a different funding stream or are you going to let it go? Right? So, we would have different um things and then this gets into Patrick back to your question on the lock day and the true up day is we would have that built into um position control. So, finally, I want to talk a little bit about the change that this is going to be. Um this is new. Uh it's different and it's a lot

114in a very short amount of time. Um this is something that I really need to give a huge amount of thanks to our HR team. Um principal supervisors there have been building um leaders that have dropped everything to come in and provide feedback. DMEA has provided feedback and they've done these on very quick turnarounds when we're like we need to move the dates up or we need to move things around. Can you can you come in next Tuesday? and everybody has been wonderful about dropping everything to consider what this means for them. And so I just want to huge shout out um for the amount of people that have been involved in putting forward this um proposal. I want to recognize that it's a lot of change and it's it's going to be diff different

115and and change is always hard. Um it'll change our building and district resources. Um it'll shift what those look like. Um and it's has the potential to impact culture at both a district level and a building level. Um some of the ways that I see that happening or are just the movement annually. Um because if our enrollment fluctuates and we have what we call the bubble section. So those of you who are familiar with elementary know that sometimes we bubble up. So you might have a normally you have a three-section building but we have a lot of kindergarteners come in. So we need a four section kindergarten that year. Well, that section of kindergarten is going to bubble up every year. So, you're going to have to staff up, but then that next group of

116kindergarteners may come in at three sections. So, you'll go three, four, three, you know, so you you have to account for the bubble. That's hard on people to to be shifting around like that. So, I think the annual movement has the potential to impact our culture. If enrollment declines in a particular building, the resources are going to shift. That is a reality of this model that is going to be that's complex and that's challenging. And then I think we are going to have to become very good at anticipating changes. So where we're closing buildings, we cannot take their staffing down in the year before. Um several of the principles raised this up as an issue. We can't take them down so low and then try to bring them back up to a a different staffing

117level when they take on new students from a building. Um, so I just want to recognize that there are a lot of ways that this is going to impact buildings differently. So recognizing that Matt, do you have anything? >> No, I maybe just to so yes, the answer is yes, actually. Um, just to emphasize that um the staffing standards um like all of the budgeting um is doesn't operate in isolation, right? it operates in tandem and in concert with other moves like the early retirement um you know incentive and what that brings in terms of when new staff are coming in uh because it's not just about the number of staff. It's also about um the tenure of staff and the certifications of staff and as we're building signature programs and things like that. All

118of these pieces of this puzzle um must work in concert with one another. um which is actually why we've um recently hired a lead project manager um that actually pulls those um pieces in together from each of the departments, from each of the aspects of our overall budgeting strategy to make sure that we are in lock step and that we are forecasting and projecting when we need to make certain moves and decisions for staffing and certifications and enrollments to make sure that we are hitting those milestones and those marks um through a um a clearly articulated project plan which is actually being developed right now. So, um I guess the the point I'm I'm trying to lift up is um the staffing standards is a significant change and it's going to um it's going to

119impact our our entire system. Um and it should because it should be about a a comprehensive strategy and not a single throw all your eggs in this one basket. It is all they're all tied together. So, um, as we've been having conversations, we've been getting different questions. Um, and so attempting to answer some of those. Some of them are, um, still to be determined. So, probably the biggest question is how is this going to roll out? Um, and it would roll out, it's already started to by having various conversations and gain feedback, but it would roll out on more systems level with our principles um, and our leaders for them to see what it would look like in their buildings. Um, and then providing an FAQ, um, staffing plans and resources for them to use.

120Patrick asked LA at last meeting, what are the positions that have been added in recent years? You wanted like a top three of what that what that looked like. It's a more complex question than just running a report. Um, because as as we were looking into that and trying to pull that data, there have been exchanges made. So maybe we traded in a position here and added a position over here, but we called it something different and this one went away. So it's not a true just addition. It's something different. And so wanting to make sure that the data that we provide to you reflects those changes. How do we get to a point where we aren't calling things something different so that we can and I and I I'm going to make a judgment

121here that I probably shouldn't, but it feels like we are calling things different or in the past we have called things different so that we can keep it or so that we can transition that position. and how do we standardize our job titles a little bit more and what they do so that we know when we're looking at the board table this is a classroom teacher this is a you know support staff this is so that we know what we're talking about rather than saying well it's more complex than that >> position >> I was just going to flip back so the parking lot is you >> okay so that's the answer >> yeah so go ahead Matt >> well and and it is the the parking um and in terms of position control, but

122it's also around um a job description review, right? And we've actually had this conversation here um a few times um this week already around um looking and auditing our current job descriptions and actually where they are and what they look like and sound like and feel like, how they're functioning in our district um and determining um are these actually the same job descriptions that's just sort of written in two different school years and they are um performing very similar functions. So much of that work is actually already underway. Uh but that that would be the other side of that coin to help answer that question. >> One quick question. >> So is there a strategic communication plan that goes alongside this >> in terms of the staffing standards? Exactly. >> Yes. As soon as this

123starts to roll out both internally and to the public, have you coincided it with a strategic communication plan to go alongside of it so that there are not um rumors or talking so that there's clarification and an understanding behind what's happening. >> Yeah, we are go ahead. We are working on um the strategic communication plan um and that includes um website updates, things like that around weekly mailouts. Mailouts. What's the >> mailings? >> Newsletters. Thank you. Um that um that we can send out um >> carrier. >> Yes. Um and um but making sure that our message is around the strategic budgeting investments in total and highlighting areas that we want folks to pay particular attention to, right? in terms of how we are approaching a staffing standard that is fundamentally actually designed to create

124um uh equity of access for students and for families and for staff based on um an enrollment um allocation. I think the other piece of this is trying to make sure that we are communicating clearly that yes, this system is different and so it may require >> a different way of approaching uh success and longevity within our system. So that where you might have been a kindergarten teacher at Hubble for 40 years, that may not be the system that we are imagining because that's not the reality that we are living in today. And so how do you become a successful teacher or staff member at De Mo public schools over time working within the system that we have? When you talk about the change, I think about that for our for our staff to try

125to help them understand this What will be hard is them thinking about it the old way and then trying to live within this new reality. And I and I think also trying to come up with strategies for professionals to come go through a journey with us, their professional journey uh as we move people around or have to move people around. >> Yeah. One of the the things um someone said to me years ago um we were talking about bus drivers. Um we I was at the transportation department and we were talking about recruitment and tension and retention of of drivers and a um a driver said to me um you know the best way to actually recruit and retain drivers is to actually have drivers speak to drivers right about the experience that they're having

126and that they understand what what is out there. Um, I say that because, um, to your point, Sarah, one of the opportunities in front of us is to, and we had this conversation actually with our DMEA leadership partners, uh, just this morning, um, is to be out in front with staff um, at a far more frequent and um, larger space to talk about the strategic investments, the multi-year investments, and the staffing standards so that um, our communication strategy is not reliant upon upon um Mayor Josie being in a single space, but about 5,000 employees singing the same song and speaking about what's happening in our organization. That's a that's a lesson that we've learned um over the last couple of years. Um and it it it paid dividends when it came to folks showing up

127to vote uh on November 4th. And so it will do us well to continue to leverage that. Josie, in the kind of the early exploration phases of figuring some of this out, have there has there been any feedback or um or concerns around the ability to attract or retain talent with this perceived instability of a job? >> Um not so much that as it is just this is new and change. Um this staffing in a way that moves people around based on need is not something that's entirely different in other districts. There's a lot of districts that move staff around whether they're growing or declining. Um, and sometimes based on programming, whether you add sixth grade into elementaryaries or don't. So, there's different decisions that are made. So, from a retention standpoint, I think it's

128more being able to tell the full story and have that conversation and have an understanding back to what we're talking about about what it looks like and where your skills are needed and where we that can be realized in our system. It's also going to require us to get really good at district office and it we have a phenomenal amount of expertise. I'm gonna shout out HR here. Um but we have this phenomenal amount of expertise. This morning I watched um as we were having a staffing meeting a 20 minute discussion around how one.5 FTE can drive an entire master schedule. And I watched several members of our team go back and forth about how to account for that in advance so as not to do harm. And then their knowledge discussing how they could

129share that out with our leaders and our staff so that that doesn't just live within the expertise of a few people. And that is something that's really exciting to watch because there's a great amount of knowledge that we can share and build capacity to talk about the certifications and you're certified um you know you can certified to teach DMAC courses. How does that look and those conversations to help leaders empower them to make those decisions in the hiring process and retention process. So, it's really exciting to think about >> and I think that was more my point about a strategic communication plan is less about the newsletter information but more about being proactive with the communication instead of reactive. >> Yeah, for sure. >> So, y >> just to maybe build on Skyler's comment, the

130if I'm understanding this right, this would provide more transparency to staff to be able to say this is this is what the framework looks like. everyone's going to be operating within this than we currently have. Is that fair? >> I think that yeah, that that information's been communicated out in the past. How we're doing it is going to be a little bit different in terms of it's going to show I keep going back to class sizes, but staffing standards are across the whole organization. It's just easier to talk about class sizes, but those will be very visible. Like here's what our class sizes are and what we cap at and and how we make it make decisions. So, we're going to make that very visible for folks, for our leaders in particular. Um, one question

131we get asked is around movement of staff midyear. When it comes to our certified staff, that would not that would be unlikely that we would have movement midyear, but it's not outside the realm of possibilities if we have something that happens that we need to adjust for. Um, so we would consider that, but it would be unlikely that we would move staff. >> Just for because I know I've been sitting in their seat before and maybe you guys know this and don't have any, but certified. Can you just go with like with some of those terms, can you just help us out a little bit so that like as we get our budget language together? >> Yes. >> What is >> Yeah, I had a I had a whole series of slides about the different

132types of contracts and I think I went way too far so I took those out. But um so certified would be um broadly speaking teachers and administrators. So our instructional staff um that's in Anything else you'd add to that? >> That's perfect. Actually >> the community resource >> that's non-certified. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> So our certified or our instructional staff would likely not move midyear, but I'm not going to say never because there are situations I could think of or have experienced in the past where we've had to make moves. Kindergarten is one of them. Um and then will elementary schools have less than two sections? This has come up a lot. Um and we have built our staffing plan on two sections. So we don't go below a two section elementary building.

133The follow-up question I will tell you that I don't have an answer to is but at what point is that something that you need to consider in terms of closing buildings? And that's not a conversation that's part of this. So I just wanted you all to know that we will hold at two sections um and so that and the benefits of that are so that there's um PLC's professional learning community so you have another teacher that you can collaborate with and plan with and things like that. So we want to make sure to preserve preserve that. Um but in those buildings we may go under um some of our staffing standards because we're holding at the two sections. >> Yeah. A two-section building um is quite restrictive on the overall organization. Um ideally you become

134to you become more efficient when you hit those three three and four sections at an elementary level. >> Currently can we hit three with every >> we cannot. >> Okay. >> The goal would be to grow enrollment so that we could but currently that's not a you know it's not possible right now. I think that's my last slide. What questions can I answer or can I get you additional information about? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Have to see the the progress on this. Seriously. >> Well, if anybody wants to come talk position control, find me. And I've I've already heard some from some leaders um out in the buildings that are really excited and they feel very much seen and heard based on the conversations that you've had with them. So >> thank you. >>

135So uh Shashank is joining us and we may be joined by Neil and Rainey as well. Um yes. >> And so we're going to transition um from staffing standards to begin talking about SAVE and Pebble. Um so these are our our levy funds. I don't know since we have couple of new board members whether we know everyone. So Neil, can you please introduce yourself? >> Yeah, sure. I'm excuse me Neil Schroer, a chief information officer. So overseeing the technology portfolio at the district. >> And uh I'm Rainey Briggs. I'm the chief operations officer. Um and I oversee a multitude of um departments. Rainey has um our chief operating operation officer, but also um has taken on graciously um all of our support services departments, community school coordinator, success, um uh bilingual family leaison as well.

136Um those departments actually were um under my care and my um role as an associate superintendent and now that I've transitioned um Rainey has taken those on. So thanks again for doing that. and I'm Shashank Kura the chief financial officer. So these gentlemen have helped me in this deck so I wanted them to be here at the desk. So our plan today is the agenda is we will go through the overview of what the requirements are to spend save and ple dollars. Let me step back. This is the first time that we are presenting anything like this to the board. And the reason why we are doing it is because we were asked by the board at that point in time that we need to educate the board on certain things whether it is save

137ple dop special education all those things. So save and ple is the first thing that we are starting with and the next board meeting which is going to be in December 9th which I will be calling in from India because that is where I will be uh we'll be sharing some more. So this is going to be a continuous education exercise. Uh so feel free to ask questions what whatever comes to your mind. So we will provide you an overview of fiveyear expenditure look back what we have spent in the last five years and what are the projections for the next five years. So basically funding as far as ple funding goes our source is property tax levies. There are two sections in property tax levy. One is the voter approved which is $134 and

138the other is board approved which is $133 a total of 1.67. In case of de mo public schools we have the entire 1.67 approved. What do we use this money for? for the building and grounds. with it is repairs, remodeling, the reconstruction. It can be used for new construction with new school buildings of playgrounds, parking lots, purchase of lease, leasing vehicles, technology, all the computers and softwares which comes from there, furniture, any energy related efficiency improvement projects, uh, debt repayments and I'm going to pause over here and just remind some of the board members what exactly is this sir? We are talking today about the general obligation bonds, the geo bonds, but the district has historically issued revenue bonds and revenue bonds are on the backing of sales tax revenue. So we use the revenue

139that we get from sales tax to actually issue revenue bonds. Then this money is also used for facility renting and 28 agreement with other things. So I'm going to step over here and provide a little bit of a history of save. It started in 1998 and some of you may have heard of the term as silo or school infrastructure local option sales tax. And being a forming state, silo was a common name. I would I would think everyone gravitated to it. Now this was basically at a county level. Each county had to approve it and by 2004 all the 99 counties in the state of Iowa had approved it. So then they transitioned to what they call as the lost local option sales and service tax which was also called the statewide penny. And finally

140in 2019 we transitioned to save which is secure and advanced vision for education which is what is commonly referred to today. Now this is supposed to sunset by 2050. I don't know how many of us will be here but I don't intend to be that long. So what are the limitations? The only limitation that we have is that any athletic infrastructure project can only be we can commit save dollars only by holding a public hearing and if there's a petition then we must put it to vote and all revenue bond sales must receive public notice. So the last time that we went for the bond which was in 2021 and that was more of a refinancing the bonds. We already had three series of bonds. The interest rate environments were so much in favor for

141us that we went back and for the benefit of the new board members we are paying.82% interest on that. So well under 1%. Which is phenomenal. I wish we could get that those kind of rates when we go for geo bonds but that is not going to happen. So funding and expenditure sales tax. So the state collects the sales tax dollars and 1 cent of that sales tax dollar is distributed amongst a different school district based on enrollment. We as a district which have got approximately 30,000 students get sales tax dollars or save actually of around 41 to $42 million. These dollars do vary some on a year-to-year basis. And the two drivers why it varies, one is our enrollment because they're based on the number of students enrolled. So you get almost approximately around

142$1,350 to $1,400 per student. The second thing, the second driver for that would be how much all of us are purchasing to generate the sales tax. So the amount of sales tax collected by the state and the student enrollment drives this. The revenue bonds that we have in place, all of them need to be paid out by 2029. The total amount of revenue bonds that we have are approximately $88 million. And when I mentioned that we get around 41 $42 million a year, $22 million has to be paid towards our principal and interest obligations. That is the first commitment that we have to do. What are the allowable expenditures? So we have something called a revenue purpose statement and we call it RPS and Patrick you hate acronyms so that's why we got both over

143here. So basically it lists out and this was approved by the board if I'm not mistaken around three or four years back. RPS for us is valid till 2050 and it basically highlights what is it that we can spend our funds on. If we do not have a revenue purpose statement, the save money that we collect can be used to pay for property tax relief which is basically our petrol and pearl dollars. So our revenue bonds are interest bearing as you may know interestbearing I would specify a little bit or clarify a little bit over here whether it is going to be our geo bonds which are going to be issued or the revenue bonds they are federally taxfree state taxes do apply on that so that's a great investment opportunity over there the funds

144are immediately available and the revenue bonds the money that we collect can only be used for the school infrastructure purpose as defined by the Iowa code and our RPS. Now the revenue bonds can be or can be issued or approved just by the board. We don't really have to go to the community and have a similar kind of an election that we did for the geo bonds. We do have to have a uh a public hearing and if there's a petition against it then we have to put it to vote. Fortunately that has not happened and uh so we have managed to issue the revenue bonds. >> Shashank. >> Yes. >> Could you give an example of something that would be paid using save dollars? >> So save dollars if we go back to the

145previous slide and I will okay it is is it's coming forward. Yeah. So you if you see the five-year look over here fiveyear look this is where >> we are spending the money >> facilities and capital improvement roofing HVAC ADA security renovations technology cyber security musical instruments all those different things is where we can spend the money and this is what was spent in the last five years and I'm going to turn it over to to Rainey need to provide some color and then Neil to provide some color as to where we spend the money, what are the major things and all this kind of. >> Yeah. So, just to lean a little bit into like the facilities and capital improvements um and then also athletics because those two areas had the highest uh amounts

146of funds that was kind of utilized. So, I wanted to give you just some examples of save and pepo so you can see what came out of each of those funds. So, just looking at facilities, capital improvements, um through save dollars, you had uh central campus culinary expansion, we had the CNC new refrigeration system, Hannah Wald outdoor classrooms, we had the secure entrances uh improvements at Hyatt, uh Perkins, Mitchell, Lincoln, Hoover, and Goodwrill. Um and then music in um instrument storage improvements at Weeks, Kalinan, and Goodwrill. And then on the ple side, uh we had Roosevelt library renovation and then Van Meter playground. And then getting into athletics, um you know, we had Save Dollars, you had the locker room improvements at East, Hoover, Lincoln, and North. Uh you had the weight room improvements at

147East and Roosevelt. You had central campus girls wrestling rooms. Uh you have the batting cages at Kurts. And then you had the concession stand improvements at Hoover and Roosevelt. and then ple funds um as a part of athletics. You had the Brody tennis courts uh expansions uh you had the track and field improvements at Hoover Lincoln North and Roosevelt um east practice fields and then also Roosevelt softball and baseball dugouts. So that's and then one last one is east press box and dugouts. So you you get to see how those funds where we spent the most from Pepple and also save uh you saw all the work of the places that was touched um by those funds um that was equivalent to I think about 50 roughly you know getting old so >> 65 >>

148about 65 >> 65 million.3 yeah so 65.3 million there >> could you um give us a a sense because I think that list you just rolled down I was just sort of thinking in my head as you were rolling down that list, there was private fundraising in those communities for all of those projects. And I think the communities tend to think we paid for that. >> How can you give us a sense of what the what the um ratio was? How much did the school district put in versus how much was often asked of the community to do some fundraising? Yeah, I I would I'm going to turn probably to uh Shashank on this one, but I would say as we look at save dollars and Pepple funds, what we see here is what actually

149came from us. >> Right. So, if if there was some kind of uh fundraising that was done as a part of this, I know I'm not really sure what that looked like. >> It has varied from project to project, Patrick. And I can't say offhand but if that is interest we can definitely dig into the information and come back to the board to share what are the different projects where we did the fundraising and how much was raised through fundraising like Roosevelt track I think there was a big fundraising that was done but the entire amount was not paid >> right >> by fundraising >> the library exactly >> absolutely >> I can definitely find that out and bring it back >> that'd be great just to get a sense of how much are we

150asking of our community how much are we giving some of these tax dollars to put into these projects. And >> so what I would add to that, which I really appreciate the question, Patrick, is um this is another reason, justification, rationale for us having a multi-year budget strategy so that when we are putting out where we're going to invest funds, we are communicating to our our community and fundraisers where we have gaps and where they actually can help serve and support us and we can work together on that. Is this also the funding that was used for um like uh classroom expansion for some some of those uh weeks for example? >> It is there. Yes. So save dollars are used for additional classrooms and things like that. So when um currently um so we're

151all on the same page. There is um construction um scheduled here for weeks coming up here if we haven't already broke ground >> um to um create um functional capacity space. and we're able to actually do that now because we have the same dollars to get it done and so we we've allocated for it. >> Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. I think it's important for our community to also recognize that this is the budget here. I mean it's it's 65 and 57 respectively and there are some schools at the middle school high school level particularly where there's overcrowding of >> right >> classrooms and there are a lot of things that are included as categories that are paying um coming from these dollars. So, I I think it goes back to just reaffirm the

152need for that bond because u I think the last I had heard in order to build a standard classroom at a middle school was almost $5 million. >> Yeah, we're running up in in that area. But you sure are. >> That's one classroom for one school in the entire district. Um there's no way to to fund something like that at these levels with just this budget right here. >> 100%. >> Yeah. I would also like to lift up that even when our community fundraises for a project, oftentimes that fundraising is a one-time um offering to create or build, whereas the district then has to maintain that particular um item or location for many years. So, this is where that budgeting comes in as well. So even if that that contribution was made in order to

153build, we still need to keep it up. >> Yeah. Uh, and this is also where I just would lift up again Jackie's comments um tonight were regarding athletics and um speaking specifically about the regionally based system and how we are moving advancing a a vision for regions to ensure that we have um equal and equitable access to the highest quality of activities and athletic facilities in each of the regions. um recognizing that um it's far more financially efficient and cost-effective to invest in three regions as opposed to five feeder patterns consistently trying to keep up with replicating these um these facilities. And so we can be more efficient with our dollars and actually have them multiplied if we have a multi-year budget plan which we are building and we are forecasting for our community where

154these investments are taking place and why that is and how we might partner in um the supplemental needs of these of particular facilities. >> Okay. So I have just a couple of clarifying questions. First of all, how are the needs identified? So how is it identified? A wait room or a stadium or something like that? And then my second question is how do we have how do we answer the question on when we just paid $16 million of taxpayers funds for the mediacom stadium but then now we're also now investing in all of the local stadiums. >> Yes. So um I'll answer the second question first. Um is the the mediacom stadium um was under a vision that all there was no regionalbased system. it was just everybody's going to go play at mediacom and

155that was kind of the end of the story. Um that came with quite a bit of controversy and quite a bit of blowback um because it didn't have buyin and it didn't create um uh school-based nor regionally based identities for students and for families. Um, fast forward, uh, the other thing that actually did is, um, it there was not a lot of buildup for communication with folks around what we're doing and why we're doing to get an understanding and a buyin for that. Um, what we're doing now is working towards a regionally based system that, um, allows us to be cost-ffective by saying we're going to have a minimum of uh, we're going to have one stadium per region. We're going to have um uh one eight lane competition track so that everybody in the

156region can actually fund raise and have hold track meets and host and do all of those things. Um one swimming pool per region because it allows us to actually consolidate our dollars and then put them forward um in in student programming and staffing uh moving forward. Um I hope that answers that question at least to some extent. Um the um your first question was around um how do we get those needs? um and through doing needs assessments. Um several years ago three maybe there was a facility athletic facilities advisory committee and um actually Miss Maria Alonso um um helped lead um that effort and um it generated um um with a a committee and several interviews and um and and looking through facility conditions um to make an assessment of what are the needs that

157we need to um reinvest in and up um maintain and sustain and where are actually um void of facilities and services. So the primary list that we work from was from that um audit if you will of our athletic and activity facilities done I think around three years ago. Is that about right Miss Maria? >> Four maybe four. >> Okay. >> Four or five years ago. >> All these years run together Sarah. Um so that's where it originated. We're probably due for a reaval for our next five-year strategic plan. >> Yes. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> You bet. >> And and I'll add to that too, Matt. Um there was also a facilities uh review uh plan that was done. I have these three huge binders in my office that I've been kind of

158going through. And in these binders, it's giving you a really a clear breakdown of different areas of different schools in the districts that have different things that we want to address over time. So, as you think about these five-year plans that we have, we're really taking some of those things into account um and they have been prioritized in a way to make sure that we accommodate um those things being taken care of over there. >> Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. Um and because you'll probably hear us refer to that actually in future um presentations. It's the facility condition assessments and we hired a consultancy firm um BBS architecture to come in and do that for us. So they walked every facility and gave us a um a the matrix the grade of tier one tier

159three tier two sort of needs moving forward for the next 10 years. >> Yeah. And you know for technology save and and especially ple are exceptionally important in keeping our infrastructure up to date. What are the big investments we've made in the past? Uh you know we started in the classroom. We rolled out uh over 2200 uh projectors and classroom audio systems to ensure our students have you know the best learning environment that's technology infused. Coming out of the COVID pandemic, we did a 30ome thousand uh computer buy for our students to have a a district-wide onetoone. That's something we're actually wrestling with in our next five-year plan on how that'll look uh going forward. And certainly post we also do staff uh computers as well. So when you talk about uh you know fourome

160thousand staff devices, it's a lot of computers. This helps fund the district share of network upgrades. I won't go off the deep end, but we also get a lot of money from the federal government through a program called -ate for our new people, which is another great uh resource we can tap into to keep ourselves at really uh cutting edge levels of of technology. Um so, lots of different investments and they're really cyclical. You know, we technology gear doesn't last forever. Um, and we have a very uh thoughtful plan coming forward over the next five years to keep us on a sustainable and wellunded trajectory. I do want to caveat though because in another slide you're going to I'm going to get the question there's a little dissonance. The last five years, we were also

161fortunate enough to get a large infusion of federal stimulus dollars, ECF, ESF, ESSER, and others uh that make this number actually smaller because we bought all of our student computers at the time through that and we bought other things through the stimulus dollars, rightfully so. those were acceptable uses and and good uses of the money which helped us offset and be able to use it in facilities and other areas that we couldn't necessarily do that. So, but going forward we won't be quite as fortunate but we are well funded or funded enough to cover all of our needs. >> Cool. So moving along, 246 saved projects completed at 67 locations, 13 projects in design phase and 16 pro projects are in progress and 400 ple projects completed at 77 locations. Something I would remind the

162board is we have used a fair amount of esser money that we had received almost $22 million. We did purchase laptops with them. We did a lot of HVAC upgrades, the water filling stations and all those kinds of things. >> So what? >> Sorry, that's >> so so >> sorry. >> I I I know someone would ask me that. >> I can Google it later. >> No, no, I will I I will I will tell you what exactly it is. Uh but basically this was the money that we received from the federal government when the pandemic was going on and the intent was to help the school districts whether it was in technology space or recruiting and hiring staff and all those kinds of different things. This was one of the few times, Sarah, that

163the district got federal funds which were as good as general funds. We could use it for anything and everything that we >> but it's gone. >> Okay. >> It stands for elementary >> elementary and secondary school emergency relief. >> There you go. Google. Yep. Yeah. >> So, it's not something that we'll have in the future. >> No. >> Okay. That's what I >> and and and I don't want >> I don't know if I don't know if we want it. >> No. >> So what are the projections sir? Our annual revenue we which we are projecting is going to be close to $43 million for save and around $19 million for people. Now I had indicated that we get a certain rate for people as the property valuations keep going up in our community. These

164dollars keep changing. So we've made some assumptions or based on which we have made these projections over here. We sit around and talk to a financial advisor. Sorry, you have a question. >> No, I just was thinking property values have gone up and I'm just looking forward. >> The expert over here >> didn't rely quite as much on on that in the future. >> Sure. >> And and the last few years, especially after the pandemic, the growth was significant to your point, but I think it's going to taper down to our overall projections of 2 to 3%. So we involve a financial advisor especially for the safe projections over here. And this is what we have. we are planning to spend for the next five years. So that is close to 242 $243 million. And

165I'm going to turn on to my colleagues again. Renie >> and I I just wanted to point this out because I think as you know you heard Matt kind of talk about the regions and you've heard um from the reimagine you know plan the different regions you have you you know we have the northeast northwest south um you know districtwide and and say and save um I wanted to share with you the amount of funding that's going towards each of those regions from save um funding over the next five years so you just kind of get a a good sense. So, in the northeast region, we have about 5.5 million that will go towards the northeast region. Um, northwest, we have about 500,000 going towards the northwest. In the south region, we have 42 million

166going towards the south. And then, of course, we have the new build of Molton, which is um there's no funds coming from Save Towards Molten um as that's really a part of the the bond. Um, and then we have districtwide, we have about eight million that we will be, you heard um, Matt and I kind of talk about the the um, the plan that we had BBS kind of come in and kind of give us some some guidance around what are some of those areas that we need to improve on within our buildings. We're going to be using some of the funds to take care of some of those things. And then there's also a contingency fund of about $18 million that we have for those things that come up that we aren't like we're

167just surprised about and we do need to kind of take care of those things over the next five years. So that's how that save those funding is being utilized over the next five. So if >> if I'm doing the math in my head and you should never rely on that of the 127 million in save we believe we are going to collect over the next 5 years. you have all but 53 57 somewhere in there. Yeah. >> Kind of accounted for and I would assume some of that 53 57 is going to have to go to maintenance of the existing so >> and debt service >> le and debt. Okay. Okay. So those are so if anybody's listening and going well they've got 53 million left that's great you know um it's this feels like

168that's accounted for then. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Where are you getting 53 million? >> Well I'm looking at I mean he said 5 million. So, of the save dollars in the reimagining plan, there's 5 million going to one region, 500,000 going to another, 42 million go to another, eight going to districtwide, and 18 going to uh contingency. And so, you take that all down from 127, and then you've got, if I'm thinking about that right, am I thinking about that right? >> You are. And debt service levy is is is a good chunk of that. Okay. Yeah. And I think that's uh 2029, I believe. Um yeah, >> it's also important to note so that um as as maybe just a a reminder that >> the the investment in the south at 40

169plus million and save is because they actually need it now. Um and so we were not going to jeopardize those investments on the bond potentially not passing but we know it passed at 74%. So um so it was a it was important that we made those investments to make adjustments to the um over functional capacity issues on the south side that we're having. >> Yeah. And >> real quick I have something. Um, so Rainey on the facilities and capital improvement the ADA is that like for accessible stairwells? Yes. >> Is that including outside? >> Yes. >> Okay. Do we get any funds from like the city for um sidewalks or stairs? Um I I wouldn't say directly from the city unless it's city property that we're that's the the the issues are with um as

170it relates to like what we um take care of for our ADA compliance um we we usually take care of that. >> So then for instance um Hyatt they're front they're now front of the building they have um ADA accessible sidewalks going up >> instead of the stairs. Is that something that is paid for with these funds? >> I'm trying to picture it. I was just at Hyatt. I've been at a lot of schools over the last couple weeks. I'm trying to picture um exactly what you're talking about. >> It is. I I know. Okay. I know that. Yeah. That came from these funds. >> Yeah. >> Good. Okay. >> Yeah. And we're gonna we'll be excited to bring forward several initiatives that are going to be funded out of Pebble in the coming years.

171We're going to be talking about a our digital learning team really retooling our student onetoone uh device program. I don't even want to say laptop. I'm not ready to go into it. But we'll have uh lots of discussion about that. More investment in our infrastructure specifically around a massive uh upcoming data center refresh. a lot of our equipment is is aging uh as well as our telefan system. We're going to look at uh pushing into that pretty soon. And one item I didn't mention in the previous five years, but we also we we had it there and will have it is a we have a large obligation in software. Um that's just sort of the state of play in a modern enterprise. We spend over a million dollars a year uh to Microsoft which provides

172all of our core functionality from email, file services um and so on. But we also have large investments in things like Infinite Campus, which is our student information system. We've heard about Business Plus through Power Schools, which is our ERP system, our time clock system, lots of software. It's we're going through an effort to try to scrub that and and really get our our hands around eliminating duplication. Um, but some of those big platforms are just expensive. And we'll have those going forward. And the software companies love to get a little bit extra every year. But you think we're going to make it so we get one communication system to the parents? Th >> this is the dream. I think we're pretty close. I think Phil's work in ours on Parent Square, we're getting a

173lot of momentum behind that. We're trying to walk out of we still have some legacy platforms and I I think there's still some work to uh you know change behaviors and make sure we do unify around it. Parent Square is really it's really good. >> Yeah. Matt, you mentioned that um some of these have been loaded with the assumption or the flexibility if the bond had not passed, >> right? >> Is there anything in here that now shifts or has been updated because of our success with the bond or is this >> Yes, babe. Or is this already been adjusted for that? >> Um it's been adjusted um in in large part. Um much of the investments that um both Rainey and Neil are speaking about are still things that we need to flush out.

174what we need a little bit more data on to make sure that um that our investments whether they're in FY26 FY27 versus FY28 that's actually the the real question is is when might these adjustments actually take hold based on our strategic plan and the strategic actions that we actually need to sequence out. >> Yeah, >> that is all that we have. Any questions? >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Really helpful to understand when we see it in a budget proposal, we can understand where the money is moving and answer those questions both for ourselves and the community. >> Absolutely. >> Cool. >> I think it's good to have these. Obviously, that they're good educationally for the board, but really for our community. Um I I I'm still learning about the finance and the budget, the

175complexity of it. that a few of us were at the Iowa Association of School Board convention this week where we went through some training on budget and there are different levels and stages. So, I decided I was going to go to the 2011, the advanced stage. And I was like, I'm I'm starting over again because it it's more and more complex. But, you know what I take out of this is that there are so many restricted pots of money that can only cover certain things. And I I share that because I want the people that comment on the social media posts and say, "Well, you just built a stadium or you just bought new computers. Why didn't you give the teachers a raise?" And while I think many of us around this table and in

176the audience would love to do that, there are restrictions to many of the dollars that the district has. And I think sessions like this, the work sessions, hopefully lots of people are watching and we're um overloaded with viewers right now that they all also recognize that there are very restricted and complex funding models um for the district. So, thank you for providing some highlights on that. >> Absolutely. Our pleasure. >> Neil, when you look at the the you mentioned software and licensing for software, when you look at that as a whole, and I don't want to I'm not going to try to pin you down on this just as a generality. When you look at the list and you're looking at that body of expense, are you looking at it and going there's some opportunity

177there? I I don't want I don't want you to characterize how much, but like is there some opportunity for efficiency there? >> I think so. I I think so. We um we we just have a lot of we've accumulated a lot over time and I think tactically we do a good job. Shashank's got great analysts keeping tabs on it, but I don't know that we've done is really stepped back strategically and said, "Okay, do we really need this or do we have some duplication? Could we get by? Is this a mustave or a nice to have?" Um, and also really with with Jacob's team focusing on the digital learning side in really close conjunction with teaching and learning on h how did we get this and do we still need it? because there there's a

178lot of curricular uh software. I think we'd like to we want to give our students and teachers everything they need, but we want to be smart about it, too, and and really do it deliberately. So, I I'm can I'm not sure it's, you know, untold riches, but I do think there's a lot of uh efficiency even outside of the budget just in the management and support and to Sarah's point of of not having like, well, do I go to this or that? Um, and in fact, you're going to hear about uh a move to a new ticketing platform next board meeting. Um, which won't really save us a lot of money, but it eliminates it takes three platforms into one. Rainey and I will have a a unified approach to service and support across the

179district and then it empowers us to do new things going forward. So, it's things like that that both save money but also bring new capabilities and streamline. That really gets into my next question, which is as you look at all of this, how much are you looking at it and going, well, there's an automated system for that and we could save uh what our largest expense is, which is people. Yeah. And I think what you're going to see with this new ticketing platform, this was a great partnership between Rainey and I and her teams to look at new approaches. Let's let's kind of get out of our own way and and this is the way we've always done it and figure out how do we automate better? How do we give our customers a better

180experience? How do we dial in our our limited time without adding more people? And that's just one small step, but it was a very obvious one, I think, for both of us, like, hey, we we just need to get this done. So, >> yeah, >> I would just encourage that when you do roll out a new system, some type of cohesive training on it to everybody is really, really critical. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you all for this information. There is a great deal of information here. So, board members, if you have additional questions or um follow-up inquiries, please um email those to Matt and we will get those answered. Um and we look forward to the next presentation December 9th. Thank you all. Have a wonderful evening. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank

181you guys. Thanks.