001[Music] Heat up here. [Music] Good evening everybody. Happy back to school. It's beautiful out and everybody is here and we're so happy to see you. I would like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday, September 2nd for the De Mo public schools to order. Miss Rios, could you please take the role? >> Yes. Miss Alonso, >> here. >> Miss Compos here. Mr. Dicks >> here. >> Miss Knox >> here. >> Miss Martana >> here. >> Dr. Mayberry Mace >> here. >> Miss Norris >> here. >> We have quorum. The first item of business is approval of the agenda. May have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. >> Martano. So moved. >> Not second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Miss Knox. Any discussion or questions?
002Board members, please cast your votes. The vote is approved, 7 to zero. Next on the agenda is the public forum. Mr. Dixs. >> Good evening, everyone. We provide speakers at the forum an opportunity to address the board for up to three minutes regarding items that are not on the board agenda and up to five minutes for an agenda item. If anyone wishes to speak during any portion of the business meeting, please email rosa.riosdmsschools.org. The same speaking protocols apply to all individuals who wish to address the board. Speakers will be called individually and we will ask that they state their name and zip code prior to providing comment. Students and minors do not have to provide their addresses. Guests of the board are encouraged to speak to matters relating to programs, services, and operations of DMPS.
003Please remember that Iowa law prohibits us from discussing specific employees or their job performance. We ask all speakers to avoid references to personalities or character attacks as those types of comments do not contribute to the purpose for which this public forum exists. The use of inappropriate language will not be tolerated and individuals choosing to do so will be gabbled out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escorted out by district security. As a reminder to the board and public, the board will not engage in a discussion with public forum speakers as it is an our obligation to discuss only matters posted in the public agenda for the sake of transparency and the opportunity afforded to all community stakeholders. Matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff and or board follow-up at a
004time after the meeting. Thank you for your participation. We appreciate your feedback and input. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers for the public public forum? >> Yes, we do. First up, I'd like to call Theron Hobbs. You may approach the podium. >> Hello, everybody. >> Hello. >> Theren Hobbs, zip code 50315. I appreciate De Mo Public School's commitment to serving our students who graduate as they pursue college or get a job in the workforce or go into military. This aligns well with the district's mission that each student recognize the multiple pathways available to cultivate their own success. I just want to shed light on a concern about a barrier facing some of our students who may choose the college pathway. While Iowa colleges and university may not require the SAT and or SAT, excuse
005me, ACT or SAT, those A's and T's really gets me. While Iowa colleges and universities may not require the ACT or SAT for instate admission, many out ofstate and out of the country college universities do, as well as many amazing scholarships. Thankfully, DMPS offers ACT testing at multiple schools, but there is a barrier for convenient SAT testing for students who prefer or need that option. Currently, the only SAT location within a 100 miles of our district is Dalling High School, and that is in May of 2026. For other SAT testing sites, students must travel to the likes of Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, or Omaha, Nebraska. Students having to primarily or solely rely on public transportation. I am deeply concerned about their lack of means to travel outside the metro if they are eager to position
006themselves for college success by taking the SAT. Not knowing what is capable, I provide my solutions in the form of questions for our district to consider. If the SAT allows additional sites, could a DMPS school host SAT testing next semester? If not, could the district partner with DMAC to be a location? Or could the district coordinate with community organizations to provide transportation for students? At the very least, may we please consider if it is possible for our high schools to provide access to both the ACT and SAT testing for next school year. I speak as a parent, a community member, and a de mo public schools employee who is committed to removing every barriers for every DMPS student to cultivate their own success. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Have a good
007evening. >> Thank you. >> You next speaker I have is Colin Coulter. Approach the podium. >> Hello again. Uh my name is Colin Coulter. Uh, and I live in the 50317. Uh, I am an eastside father and husband and a teacher at East High School. I'm starting my fourth year teaching at East High School. Uh, and I'm here to discuss uh, some of the recent district's initiatives uh, put out by the district uh, administration. From the teacher side, I see some really good things. uh gleam is a very good framework I would say and the insistence on grade level instruction and engaging instruction uh I think has very effectively prevented uh the bigotry of low expectations for many of our students. Uh so Gleam I think is really on point. It's very good. Um also
008building administration at East is very high quality as you know um from the evident very low staff turnover at East. Uh the building administration is there and I frequently encourage my east side neighbors to invest their time and money at East High School. Um it's an administration that will that will value that. Uh there are also some very troubling things that I see. Uh recent district initiatives seem uh somewhat haphazard and the connection to improved student outcomes is not clear. Uh we have an ID an IT department that seems addicted to new purchases. Uh without any evidence that these purchases are necessary or improve student outcomes. Uh we're on our third messaging app in 5 years. And in my fourth year now of teaching, I've never met an ELLL or immigrant family that needed translation
009services from our messaging app. All of them so far at East High School have had translation services from another person or from another app. So we have somewhat of a disconnect between uh many district initiatives and student outcomes. Uh and this brings up another major concern. Uh the tenor of the district's management choices is becoming adversarial. Uh there's a recent decision to do teacher evaluations every year instead of every three years. Uh which seems to be to be an incredible burden on an already overworked administration and faculty. Uh if you are unaware, most teachers are already working 5 to 10 hours for free each week. Uh administrators are working sometimes nightly at events and to make these changes without explanation is disrespectful and adds stress to a famously stressed workforce. Also, the recent decision to
010scrape the rules of the contract during this year's uh pre before school faculty meetings to squeeze 15 more minutes out of me and my family's routine uh to carelessly change the routine of thousands of families uh for the convenience of a few district faculty is again disrespectful. So to remedy this situation, I would ask the board and the seauite to immediately begin a review of the metrics and KPIs used to evaluate district administration. I would like the district and the seauite the board and the seauite to ensure that that metrics and performance evaluations are not accidentally incentivizing the waste of teacher time and building funds. >> 30 seconds remaining. >> Thank you. Uh until this review takes place, I would encourage my co-workers to follow the district's lead and to abide by the rules of
011our contract. This is frequently called work to rule and means teachers stop planning and grading from home for free for 5 to 10 hours each week. In addition, until I have faith that this district is capable of using $250 million to improve education outcomes on the east side, I will be encouraging my east side neighbors to vote no on the bond referendum. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Those are all the speakers I have signed up, Madam Chair. >> The next item on our agenda is our district recognitions. Superintendent Roberts, are there any recognitions for today? Absolutely, Madam Chair. >> Yes, Madam Chair. Certainly. Good evening and welcome everyone our first board meeting of the 2025 2026 school year. As we continue to bring forth recognitions at school board meetings where we celebrate the successes
012and accomplishments of students and staff throughout the De Mo public schools. I am pleased to share these recognitions of the great work of both our staff and students in and out of the classroom as well as valued community partners. A few days before uh school started, we announced an exciting new partnership with the De Moine Public Library. Beginning September 8th, the De Moines Public School student ID card for every student in the De Mo public schools in grades 7 through 12 will also serve as their library card. Every student in these grades will have their now sophisticated and multi-purpose cards, board, and community by this Friday. So again, we are pushing to make sure that it's all enhanced. As we all know, strong reading skills are the foundation of learning and we are seeing growth
013right here in the mo public schools. And so if you hear a little bit of intonation from our voice is because this is going to be a moment of celebration. For example, reading proficiency for our fourth graders last year to this year on our state assessments increased 4% and it increased 6% amongst our nth graders. In this year's ISAP's Iowa State assessments, seven of the nine grade levels who took the ELA state assessments demonstrated growth. Sorry, I don't know. And as if that's not enough, we didn't think it was. 100% of the grade levels that took the science assessment demonstrated growth. [Applause] We know that while these gains are worthy of celebration, we still have areas where we can get better. In our math assessments, four of the nine demonstrated growth, but we continue to
014make sure that we increase our focus there, but also to build on the momentum we've had. We have aspirations to not only build on this momentum in significant and strategic ways. But one such strategy is increasing access to both fiction and non-fiction books for students. Greater access to public library means expanded opportunities to learn and grow and to build on these trends. Improve reading is a priority of this board. The board has made it very very clear to the team and I by demonstrating that three two of their three board goals are focused on improving literacy in significant ways and improving reading is not only a priority of the board but also of the Iowa Department of Education and Director Snow. And this effort contributes to the important work by making resources of our library
015system accessible to every de mo public school system student in grades 7 through 12. So as we continue to reimagine education the DMPS this includes finding new and innovative collaborations for the good of all students. This new partnership de mo public schools and the de mo central library is a great example of such a collaboration bringing our community together to support our students. We know and have acknowledged over and over again the board and I that we cannot do this work without community support. With this in mind this evening we would like to thank and recognize our friends from the De Mo Public Library, the recently retired director Sue Woody who helped to make this a reality as well as John Hobbes the library's interim director and the entire team for making this opportunity for
016our students a reality. Last week, I had had the honor of joining uh and John uh as we officially rolled out a partnership to increase access to quality reading materials for students in grades 7 through 12. And this is going to be gamechanging and life-changing for every De Mo public school student who knocks on their doors. Want to recognize John and Sue Woods [Applause] and I just I want to say this is probably the best retirement present you could give Sue Woody because she's worked so so hard for this. So, thank you so much for all of DMPS and the library for accomplishing this >> driving force behind this. >> Thank you, John. Yeah, please convey our gratitude to Sue. >> Madam Chair, this concludes our recognitions. But ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already
017listened to the latest edition of the podcast that is fastly becoming education journeys and education community most listened to podcast, the Become Here Project. Please be sure to tune in. You'll find a lot of interesting and exciting updates. >> Is that a new promo for your show? Yeah. >> Keeps getting better, refining it. >> We will now move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder to the board and public, we will not engage in discussion or deliberation with a speaker regarding comments made to agenda items. Discussion and deliberation will remain among board members at the board table with speakers comments informing the board's decision, deliberation, and determinations as deemed necessary. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers? No speakers. Mr. Dixs, I believe you have the consent motion. >> I do, Madam Chair. I
018move that the board approve the consent items in accordance with the recommend recommended action for each item on the consent agenda, including bills previously authorized, certified, and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of 13,381,42361. >> May I have a second? >> Our Toronto second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Dicks and a second by Miss Marterano. Board members, please ca uh any discussion or questions. Board members, please cast your votes. The consent agenda passes 720 to 0. Next, we have a public hearing. The item is F1 public hearing of the sale of District Radio Station 88.1 KDPS. 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. Dr. Roberts, will you please introduce the matter? >>
019Certainly, Madam Chair, I recommend the board approve the sale of the district radio station 88.1 KDPS. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. Mayberry. May second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Dixs and a second by Dr. Mayberry Maize. Are there discussion or questions? And I guess I'll just open this up. I asked Neil to just give a little bit of information and so he's going to present two an two questions. One um why was the decision made to sell and how did you choose the um the better you know how did you choose the recipient who else is taking the radio station? >> Yes. Uh the decision to to sell the radio station really hinged around two themes. One was around uh curricular
020consideration. As we worked with the leadership here at Central Campus trying to help reimagine how we were going to handle the curriculum here. There was less interest from students in traditional broadcast as a medium. More interest in streaming, podcasting, digital video production, and other avenues that our students resonate with today. Some still were interested in broadcast but but much less so than in the past. So there's a curricular consideration and then really a support consideration. Running a radio station is a job. It's almost a half an FTE just to file the the FCC reports to do all the upkeep checks on equipment etc. We had a phenomenal teacher in Kirk Johnson who retired um who was willing to go above and beyond under other duties as assigned but it was a really an ownorous ask
021for somebody to take on and it's also somewhat of a specialized skill set. So when we look at less curricular need a a growing support burden and honestly in the long run we have to maintain a tower equipment etc. So there are intangible costs there. Um the decision was made in close collaboration with with our uh teaching and learning community, the entire executive cabinet that it was probably time to consider it. Um when we did that, we we partnered with a national uh radio station broker. As far as the criteria, we just looked much like when we we sell our houses, it was based on price. We we looked at who would bring the the highest price, the best return to the district and the the De Mo area taxpayers for this asset. Uh it
022was not much more complicated than that and that's led us to the recommendation uh that we got to today. >> Great. Thank you, Neil. Board members, any questions? Please cast your votes. Thanks. The vote is approved 7 to zero. We will now move on to other business. The first item is F1 personnel recommendation receive and file. Superintendent Roberts, would you please introduce the matter? Yes, madam chair. I recommend the board receive, file, and accept the notice to terminate the continuing teachers contract as handed to the board chair. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Martano. So moved. >> Alonzo second. >> We have a motion by Miss Marterano and a second by Miss Alonzo. Any discussion or questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> The vote is
023approved seven to zero. Now we have items of privilege. Uh board members, do you have anything you would like to share? Well, holy hot potato. It was the first day of school. >> Do you want to go? >> Skyler wants to go. >> I'm with it from Skyler. Okay. >> Um, so football Friday night is back in effect. Um, East High Scarlet had an awesome game this last Friday and I just want to go out to the community, family, friends. Let's support these football players, all sports, but let's go out this year and go to these home games, go to any games that you can cuz these kids work so very hard. Uh, and just seeing an extra person there, an extra grandparent, aunt, uncle, um, just the neighbor kid. If you have a neighbor
024kid that's in one of our high schools and is playing a sport, go see them. That's going to help them out a lot. Um, so that's just my little spiel for this week. I just had a an announcement and encouraging our students. Um, it's no secret that we have amazing talent within our schools and currently the city of De Moines has applications open for the youth advisory board and the requirements are essentially 14 to 25 years old. So, I would love for our students in De Moines public schools to consider applying and uh certainly leveraging your teachers for those letters of recommendation and um community members as well, but I'd love to see that board filled with the talent that we have in our schools. Thank you. Thanks, >> Skyler. Just a thank you to
025all of the staff and everything that you did to get school up and running for the 2526 school year. And a special thank you to all of the buildings who invited me in with such open arms over the course of the last week. um the countless leaders, teachers, um various staff members, community and schools um coordinators that I had the opportunity to chat with over the last week. It was really um invigorating and energizing to see uh how you prepared for and welcomed our students in for the year. And I'm confident that this year is going to be a wonderful year for De Mo Public Schools. So, thank you for all that you've done to make that possible. >> Go for it. Nope. >> Just a shout out to people that were able to make
026it to the Liberty Parade. Uh that was quite amazing. >> Um I know that you gave of your time to attend and it was beautiful. Uh giving out candy and seeing the faces. uh reconnecting with uh families at the beginning of the year. It was amazing. So beautiful faces out there. Thank you for all your work. >> So I I have two announcements. Um one is just like a reflection and I want to share this with my board colleagues and the public around the announcement that we finally have library cards. uh De Mo public school students now have access to the De Mo public library and this was a uh something I started asking about I think when I got elected Sue Woody reached out to me like that night and was like I've had
027this project that I've been working on. So that's almost four years ago uh that I have been swirling with Sue Woody to get this project across the finish line and I want to share my gratitude to Dr. Roberts and Neil for getting it across the finish line and everyone else in this administration who has um I think I I personally of course was passionate about this idea when she first shared it and we're not earthshattering in De Moines. Iowa City and Cedar Rapids I think also already offer this amenity for their students. Um, but this really hit home for me when I went to my high school, uh, 20-year graduation, Lincoln High School, and were doing the tour of the building, and I was like, I'm sorry, there's not a library here. No, the library
028was gone. It had been turned into uh classrooms, and what a heartbreaking moment that was for me. I thought about how much we used utilized that library. And uh obviously budgets are challenging. Space is limited. We've seen uh a decrease in our ability to have librarians and library associates at all of our buildings. And so, you know, I hope that the public shares in the outrage that I feel towards the the uh our inability to appropriately resource our students with all the tools that they need and shares in our excitement that we are able to work with another public entity like the De Mo Public Library to use and stretch our resources even further and deliver that for our students. So, I know there's been some headlines about this announcement and um I just couldn't
029be more proud of this district and more proud uh of the city of De Moines and all the leaders that came together to make this happen for our students. Um my second plug is around the one Run, which I hope everyone will save the date for. October 18th, the 6th annual De Moines uh public schools foundation one run will be at Waterworks Park. We are still uh have our doors open for sponsors and sponsorships, but also make sure that you sign up to attend. Again, your registration will send dollars to the school that you register with. So, uh it is already more fruitful financially, where's Kaylee? Than it has been the years uh last year. We're already ahead of where we were when we ended last year, which is exciting. So, even bigger and better.
030and we are working on uh sort of an afterparty to the walk this year where families can stay and engage um amongst each other and and it should be a wonderful afternoon. So, please mark your calendar to be there. >> Great. Dr. Roberts, would you like to make some reflections? >> Certainly. Thank you, Madam Chair, for the offer. certainly want to start by um thanking our 5,113 DMPS teammates who uh had the option of course because of their skills and talent to select any out of school district here in the metro but have chosen to come back to us and so we are thrilled to have um all of you our 2,629 certified teachers and our 2,484 staff. Thank you for being here. Look, I am thrilled to report that our first week back last
031week has been everything we hoped for and more. The positive vibes and and sentiment about this being the year of possibilities is palpable. And as we visited schools last week, the energy in our hallways and classrooms is certainly infectious. And it is clear that our students are ready to learn, grow, and build on the momentum from last year that I just shared with you all. This positive momentum gives us tremendous confidence as we move forward with our key initiatives as outlined in our five-year strategic plan which we rolled out in January of this year. And that includes our reimagining education, reinvigorating our schools plan. When our school community starts as strong as we did last week, we know that we can accomplish great things together. Yes, we can. and I'm excited about the opportunities ahead
032for students, staff, and the district. Although there are amazing student achievement happening in the district, we have seen programmatic accomplishments and shifts that certainly bodess well for what is to come. This has occurred, ladies and gentlemen, during a time when for the last several years, De Mo public schools, Iowa's largest school system has been woefully underfunded. But yet those 5,113 adults show up every single day to give our students a world-class education. Central Campus, we offer more than 30 academic programs that offer students reward experiences in Korean technical education. We are proud of the work happening here because it's a nationally recognized model. We have dozens of school systems in the metro who utilize our central campus and we equip their children and their your children, their students and their students with skills that will
033make sure that they're successful in the future. Now is the time for us to change this reality of being underfunded. This is a time for our de mo community and you've demonstrated in earlier conversations your commitment and discussions over the last two years or so that you are ready for us to invest in our children's education for the next 5 years and more importantly for generations to come. We can do this. We can do this on November 4th with a vote for a general obligation bond. the first ask of this nature since 1989. You've demonstrated to us, you've signaled to us that you are ready to ensure that we get back to the place of preeminence as a public school system, not only here in the state, but in the country and we can certainly
034do this with approval of the bond. This bond will do a number of things for us. One, it will upgrade technology and science labs, expand career and technical education, build on the programs that we offer right now with central campus so more students can get these real world training and increase access to our preschoolers. We've seen the data and it's compelling. Students who have attended preschool versus those who did not in grades one through six far outpace and outperform their peers who did not have the opportunity to attend preschool. The bond will allow us to also offer an expansion of our Montasauri program. We know that Montasauri is a proven instructional program. Cooh's Montasauri, the first public Montasauri school in the state of Iowa, which is one of the sort of pride and joy amongst
035our 64 schools. It's the number one performing middle school here in the state of Iowa. This bond will allow us to truly expand Montasauri offerings to every geographic region here in the city of Iowa. De Mo families, let me close with this. For $198 a year for the average home, we can give every single child in the MO public schools, that is 30,000 students, the educational experience that they need in order for them to contribute to the changes that are happening in our society, in our community, and in our country. In addition, strong public schools truly build strong communities, and strong public schools usually result in increased property value. So, we're asking you to partner with us by ensuring that we accumulate the amount of signatures we need in order for us to get this
036onto the polls on November 4th. We are currently at about 5,000 signatures and by next week we know that you will get us to that amount of about 7,224 signatures. You've shown us that you're ready to partner with us to ensure our students have what they need. So I want to encourage you to ensure that you go to um I think it's yes fordsm.com and you'll get additional information about signatures. Additionally we'll have a number of folks and want to thank our school leaders, teachers and staff most of whom are championing this work. I would say 99% of whom are saying this is the right time this is the right thing for us to do. This is not about any individual p any individual's personal agenda. This is about children who deserve this. So please
037support us with signatures and let's change and revolutionize education here in the mo public schools. Madam Chair, that concludes my remarks this evening. >> Thank you. And Dr. Roberts, I believe that at some point in September, we're hopeful that the signatures will be coming to the board. >> Yes, ma'am. And then there'll be a discussion amongst the board and then a decision will be made hopefully to put it on the board agenda. I know that that everybody's very excited to put it on the the ballot. Um and you're also going to be offering a lot of public sessions. So if people have questions about the initiative, those are going to take place, I think, in later September and October. Right. >> That is accurate, Madam Chair. Myself and uh our campaign team and Matt Smith
038and others will certainly make sure we avail ourselves to a number of sessions. faith-based community and the larger community as well. >> Right. Uh I'd like to Manson you. Okay. I'd like to now entertain a motion for us to go into close session. I move that the board go into close session per Iowa code section 21.51A which states a governmental body may hold a close session only by affirmative public vote of either twothirds of the members of the body or all the members present at the meeting to discuss records which are required by state or federal law to be kept confidential. Close session regarding the enrollment or educational placement of an individual who is required to register as a sex offender under Iowa code chapter 692A. >> We have a motion. May I have a
039second? >> I also second. >> Uh, we have a motion by Dr. Mayberry Maize and a second by Miss Alonzo. Uh, Miss Rios, could you please take the vote? >> Yes. Miss Alonso? >> Yes. >> Miss Compos? >> Yes. >> Mr. Dixs? >> Yes. >> Miss Knox? >> Yes. >> Miss Martana? >> Yes. >> Dr. Mayberry Mace? >> Yes. >> Miss Norris? >> Yes. >> The motion passes seven to zero. So, just a note to uh the board. So, the board is going to be moving to room >> 2002. And when our close session is complete, we're going to come back here. We'll have a discussion, a very brief discussion about the budget calendaring process. We'll have a much deeper conversation at the next board meeting and then we'll have our conversation about the governance
040manual. So, those will both be listed as work sessions. Right. Correct. >> Okay. The boss says yes. All right. So people can wait here if they choose to at this point. Yeah. >> Okay. We'll see you in a little bit. Thank you.