April 2, 2024 DMPS Board Meeting & Work Session

001[Music] before we begin this evening uh I want to ask for a moment of silence uh De Moine public schools on Sunday lost a champion of public education uh somebody that thought and F and fought for all of our youth and in honor of Terry cwell Johnson I would like us to have a moment of silence for 18 seconds which represents uh her 18 years of service so please bow your heads thank thank you so much thank you for honoring Terry this evening I'd like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday April 2nd 2024 for De Moine public schools to order Miss Rios would you please take the role yes Miss Alonso Diz here miss compos pres Mr dicks here miss Knox here miss martarano here miss Norris here we have Corum the first

002item of business is approval of the agenda I'd like to entertain a motion and amend the agenda by moving consent item E6 to other for individual consideration may I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda dicks so moved Kno we have a motion by dicks and a second by Knox board members please cast your votes the vote is approved 60 next on our agenda is District recognitions superintendent Roberts would you please present certainly certainly thank you madam chair good evening everyone thank you all for being here at each board meeting we continue to bring forth recognitions at school school board meetings celebrating the successes and accomplishment of our students and staff both in and out of the classroom for just outstanding achievements they truly represent the mo public schools in an exemplary

003manner this evening I am pleased to share with you a few recognitions first it may be that we need to probably consider having a little bit of a nickname for our city and maybe sometimes calling it debate instead of the mo thank you all for indulging that little of humor and that is not only because our community is hosting the national speech and debate tournament for the next two years in a row but this year's tournament scheduled to be held on June 16th through the 21st but it is because the mo Public Schools is home to some of the top high school forensics programs in all of Iowa and Across the Nation first allow me to give a special shout out to someone who cannot be with us this evening Samuel juel he is a

004dynamic teacher at East High School as well as a Scarlet's debate coach but more than that Sam had to attend classes at Drake University this evening so he couldn't be here but he's here in spirit with us being here that we are gr zero for school debate in the state of Iowa I want us to extend our congratulations not only to him for being a dynamic coach but on his selection amongst hundreds of teachers in the state of Iowa he was named as the coach of the here by the Iowa forensics League yes let's give him some [Applause] love in his three years as coach Sam went from having no returning members on the team to now having 15 students regularly competing at competitions and tournaments throughout the state and Beyond those students have enjoyed

005tremendous success ranging from State runnerup finishes to National qualifiers well done Sam and Now ladies and gentlemen you're wondering why we are gr zero for speech and debate it's an honor to have with us the top forensics team in the state of Iowa yes state champions rder Nation Rosevelt high school at the recent Iowa forensic League state championship Rosevelt had multiple students who earned top finishes including several state champions in 10 different categories Rosell won won the overall debate sweep stakes and finished second in speech sweep Stakes giving them a combined score that placed them as a top team in Iowa as if that wasn't enough senior Charlie Tim was named Student of the Year by the Iowa franic League I'd like to invite principal Steve shapa and this outstanding Dynamic and well represented team

006to please come forward to share a little bit about your experience and while they come forward I also want to take special note that principal shaper has been a long time advocate for speech and debate and a key leader in the work that has now landed us as the host City for the national speech and debate tourament Roseville team principal shapo please come forward to the podium come [Applause] on [Applause] thank you Dr Roberts and the board for this outstanding recognition of our speech and debate team our head coach is Parker Klein uh it's his second year as a teacher and Coach here at Roosevelt High School he's done remarkable work with these amazing students and not only are we the best team in the state beating the private schools the public schools the Suburban

007schools um but you would all be incredibly proud of how this team conducts themselves as Dr Robert said I have a history in speech and debate so I've actually traveled with members of the team to Minneapolis for competition I've attended portions of tournaments in the metro area and the camaraderie that they have with one another the way they lift each other up uh when maybe they don't do as well as they wanted to do individually but their teammates do well the spirit and the community certainly represents Excellence through Unity equity and integrity which is what Roosevelt's about but also models what we want to be as a school district so thank you for this wonderful uh recognition uh Mr Klein and his students are the reason that we're standing here tonight and uh am so

008proud of them and the tremendous work they do all the time and super thrilled that so many of them will be competing at ntion this summer here in De Moine and those who aren't will be helping us cuz we need a lot of volunteers so it'll be a true team effort across de Mo Public Schools uh Mr Klein did you want to say anything uh this is kind of impromptu but impromptu speaking is one of the events that we do so hopefully I can do it um I just wanted to say that I'm super proud of all of these students they work just preposterously hard on this throughout the entire season um we are as I as I as I understand it I think we're the only speed andb program that actually practices every single

009day after school except for Fridays um but just the amount of immense dedication and time that people spend on this um can't be understated and I also I'm very proud to be uh the nominee for Sam juel uh winning Iowa forensic league coach of the year what he does with the East High program is outstanding and I'm lucky to have him as a colleague so uh dmps speech and debate is is the place to be [Applause] thank [Applause] you uh we just feel so compelled that we would love to hear from at least just one youth about their speech and debate experience just one I would I love all [Applause] right okay my name is Nisa Bucker and I am the speech and debate State Pros Champion um yes yes yes okay so I'm not

010going to lie guys last year I thought all speech and debate people were weird but this year that my perspective has completely changed and the reason why I love doing speech and debate so much is because speech and debate has really helped me learn the power of my voice not only has speech and debate taught me like advocacy skills and public speaking speech and debate taught me how to love my personality because uh my info is about this pan and this chemical called pieas but it's really it's my personality that carries the speech and through speech and debate I've learned that my personality has worth and value so I'm really grateful for that I'm so grateful for my team too [Applause] okay [Applause] side note nanis is actually the future superintendent of the mo Public

011Schools she and I have had a lot of conversations we were she she plans to Shadow me one day we've had some scheduled conflicts we'll make it happen I promise we'll make that happen um this evening ladies and gentlemen I also uh want to bring to you uh what an honor it is to recognize some future teachers in our midst our friends and partners in this Mission critical work of recruiting and retaining effective teachers the de Mo public the de Mo Education Association um are here to present six students with what is called the future educator scholarship to help them in their journey to higher education each student has identified as a person of color so because of this I certainly want to commend our friends at the dmea for helping in the important work

012of bringing greater diversity and representation to the ranks of Educators at this time I would like to call call and dma representative Jill and Josh if you please come forward to the podium to introduce your scholarship recipients and allow all of us to congratulate them as we start to recruit them this early to become the born Public Schools [Applause] teachers yeah my name is Joshua Brown I'm the president of the Dey Education Association the union that represents our teachers and other education and support profess in the de Mo Public School District and we are super excited to be here to present some of these scholarships we've been presenting scholarships to Future Educators in De Mo public schools for years um and doing and but to bring it out to the light and not just do

013it internally but to be able to do this in the public um it aligns with one of our guardrails and with our goals and values as de Mo public schools and we wanted to make sure that these students got the recognition they deserve not just from the educators of De Public Schools but from all of us so um I'm going to turn it over to Jill dyra who um organizes and coordinates our Dream to teach program to talk a little bit about each one of these students uh good evening I'm jel DHA I am the coordinator for dream to teach here in deoy public schools um so dream to te is a program that uh actively recruits high school students to become teachers we have all five high schools represented in our classes and I've

014had such a great pleasure and an honor to get to know all these guys so I want to introduce them one at a time and then they're going to receive their scholarship uh the first one is Alisa mende so Alisa is a senior at Roosevelt and next fall she is going to be attending Grand View bries Hernandez Bri is a senior at East uh she will also be attending Grand View in the fall and she is a part of our TPA our tpr program so that's teacher par registered apprentice and they'll be all of the kids that are in that program will also be doing a signing um later in May and they will start working and going through college at the same time [Applause] uh the next student is na joke malua Nia joke

015is also a senior Roosevelt uh she's going to be tending dmac in the fall and she is also one of our TP [Applause] students our next student is yadir Kio [Applause] Ramirez yir is a senior at Roosevelt and she will be attending dmec in the fall and I believe she is also signing up for the trpa program uh Naomi nimona is sorry Naomi is Al is a senior at East she will be tending you and I in the fall and she is also a tpr student and last but not least Curtis is a senior at Roosevelt so he's a senior at Roosevelt and they're going to be attending Drake in the fall and they are also a tpr [Applause] student thank you for choosing education yes yes so we're just so proud of these Educators

016they each wrote an essay um explaining why they wanted to be teachers and we were just blown away we typically give out two of these scholarships year and it was just impossible not to give out six so we were super excited that we have six future Educators hopefully they all come back to De Moine and be part of our system and we're excited that they're here and they all came and that they're able to use this scholarship for whatever they need to use it for um to be able to support their education moving forward so thank you [Applause] congratulations thank you future thank you future educator Josh Jill and uh our friends at the dma ladies and gentlemen if you haven't already listened to the latest edition of the podcast that is fastly becoming the

017best educational podcast in the land the become here project our dmps podcast be sure to download it for great interviews with your D dmps teammates and students the most recent interview talked about chronic absenteeism and our commitment as a school district and board to address the national issue Madam chair that concludes this evening's Board District recognitions thank you it's wonderful the next item on our agenda is our monitoring report goal three I will turn it over to miss Alonzo to facilitate the board discussion of the monitoring report thank you we are going going to be monitoring or having our conversation regarding goal three uh and interim goal 3A uh first we have to make sure that certain components for uh components are part of the report which are things that we look for before monitoring

018and before moving forward one we have to make sure board that it clearly shows so if you look at your report what is being monitored the specific goal and the interim goal and I have to go back because I was supposed to read the goal and the interim goal and I didn't read those for you so I will go ahead and do that goal three the percent of black male 11th grade students proficient on the isasp mathematics assessment will increase from 17.7% in June 2022 to 45% in June 2026 our interim goal three a is the percent uh or the percentage of grade 6 through eight black male students meeting Benchmark on the fastbridge math screener will increase from 15.7% in June 2023 to 45% in June 2026 going back to the components that we

019must see in the report before we move forward are we have to make sure that it clearly shows what's being monitored the specific goal and the interim goal do we agree that we have that yes yes it shows data for the three previous reporting periods the curring the current reporting period and the target reporting periods annual targets and the deadline Target do we have that yes yes it shows the superintendent evaluation of performance uh via our um assessment uh uh screener so the fastbridge math for interim goal and our um ice house ma mathematics assessment for goal three do we have that yes and it shows supporting documentation that evidences the superintendent's evaluation via the tables provided it also indicates the next steps do we have that yes yes with all those things in order

020we are ready to have our conversation on the progress of these goals the first part of the conversation to discuss is the data itself with a later part of the conversation being more forward focused we'll begin with any questions that fall into the who what and why categories of inquiry first for the purpose of understanding the current reality of our students as compared to the vision that we have described in this goal Dr Robert under may I Madam Vice chair um on page one um you identify that the percentage of black male students meeting The Benchmark on the math screener is at 16% and this is a drop from 21% what do you attribute this drop to thank you um board member Marano so there are a number of factors that we've looked at and

021and certainly one while we have looked at and and celebrated um a winter to Winter increase um the sort of interim goal around looking at the drop for 6 through 8th grade um we have seen in terms of our Trend data um a dip when students uh move from grades 5 to six um and we are attributing this to just multiple areas and certainly while we are acknowledging these areas we will see later on in um when we looking at what we have to do in terms of next steps what we're doing to address it so one uh We've certainly seen uh students because of their exposure to a very different um instructional model right how students are exposed to instructional delivery in grades um prek through five is somewhat different from when they move

022into grade six um case in point Point um we've looked at the data and what the data tells us is we've also seen some attendance challenges if you may with students as they transition into sixth grade um we have also um looked at particularly for black males this score that that tells us about their sense of belonging when they get to the sixth grade and that number is one that certainly um requires us to do a lot more work around making sure that they feel that sense of belonging um additionally as we think about um our tennis or competencies around the five tennis or comp competencies around soci emotional learning um specifically in terms of uh self-regulation um good decision making and building solid relationships we know that those are areas of growth for students

023who are transitioning um additionally and I'll I'll revisit this when we get to what are next steps um I think there is an inclination for to also attribute some of the the drop um to the fact that we do not yet have as robust of a program when we think about ver vertical alignment and vertical alignment essentially is looking at how you essentially create a space for professional development for conversations that is that are collegial and collaborate collaborative between two different grade level bands and in this case what we are thinking about is how can we strengthen our approach to vertical alignment and theming between teachers who are in grades five and six and what that allows us to do is it allows us to sort of create a space for conversations where teachers who

024are teaching fifth grade students have a good sense of what students should know and be able to do when they get to sixth grade um additionally it allows teachers who are in the sixth grades to get a better understanding of what students are exposed to what they're learning when they're in the fifth grade to prepare for them to come up to the sixth if I may just ask a follow-up question on that I'm trying to look at the data and and see how I would understand the comment you made about grades five to six so I understand kind between five and six there's a a a difference in teaching style but how would that be reflected in the data is it my asking the question I think the way I'm trying to which is I

025think what you're saying is kids obviously their curriculum uh and their the pedagogy and the teaching style gets interrupted when you go from 5 to six Y how is that how would that be reflected in the data or the data drop and maybe that's not what you were inferring so we we've seen the dip is the question how to what are we attributing the drop in from grades five to six yeah but where would you see that because would you you wouldn't see it this is a isn't FAS isn't this a 6 through eight screener so how do you know that it's happening so grade student so we're talking about sixth grade students specifically okay right yeah so did you you know what their scores were in fifth grade to then compare to sixth grade

026yes you should be yep we have access to students performance in fifth grade to fastbridge yes got it thank you any other questions Dr Roberts how if at all would you relate our results and outcomes in um literacy to our outcomes in in math and this in in the data that you're showing us would you would you at all is that one of the factors in all of the data that we're seeing here um not specific not specifically in this data but in but generally speaking when we think about a relationship between literacy and math what we have seen across the board is um students tend to have some struggles with word problems and word problems make up relatively significant amount of uh assessments yeah so literacy again finds itself into movement in in every

027single content area in the district y thank you um follow-up question to the dip that Miss Marano referred to Dr Roberts can you in the report it says that for the last two years at least we've experienced a dip from fall to winter to what do you attribute that seemingly consistent decline in achievement to from fall to winter for our specifically six through e8th grade black male students in math yeah it's it's between fifth to six no repeat a question no from fall to winter for the last two years there's been a dip so our fall assessment like this year we came in our fall assessment said 21.1 were meeting Benchmark of our sixth through e8th grade black males and then we saw decline in winter to 16% of 6th through 8th grade black males

028were meeting The Benchmark and the same the year prior from 22 to 23 there was a dip from fall to winter I'm interested why why do you to what do you attribute that dip and achievement to yeah absolutely and there are a myriad of factors right some of which I referenced earlier and that is um really esec specifically for black males as you um asked Miss Knox is making sure that we are uh providing the kind of instructional delivery model that truly acknowledges the lived experiences of black males um you know we know that while we have not had a focus with intentionality in previous years um we are beginning to do that now with The Gleam framework and so again um black males are to some extent when they're showing up in schools and

029and they are receiving really sound instruction um we are finding that there are gaps in terms of how we are truly engaging them in terms of a pedagogical delivery model right it's not as culturally responsive as it should be um Additionally you know we've looked at data that uh really highlights um a concerning amount of chronic absenteeism um for students across the board in 68 but certainly for black males as well so I think we've seen chronic absenteeism for um the all student group black male 68 at about uh 42% um and for all students we've seen that number at about 45% or is all way wrong so again um attendance in school is also concern of ours can I ask just a follow-up question and Maria slapped my hand if I'm not supposed to

030ask this but I totally understand uh a decline if I was an incoming sixth grader um in engagement from my fault score you know down to Winter maybe I'm trying to figure it out I'm it's not feeling right I understand that I'm wondering if you see the same dip though for seventh and eighth graders who now sort of know what to expect in middle school math do we is that from fall to winter across the board for all grade levels I do not have that data in front of me but again it's something I'm I'm happy to bring back to the board right that's an average of six through eth so I didn't know if we see a big dip in Sixth and maybe not as big in seventh and eth I was just kind

031of curious how much the fifth to sixth grade transition plays into that dip or if that is sort of across the board our students are just disengaged from fall to winter yeah across the board excellent question and how it predicts whether or not we'll see the same Trend around the dip something we'll definitely look into and I Happ me to get that back to the board thank you Dr Roberts can you quickly you talked about um when black males are not receiving culturally responsive pedagogy what would be an example of an intervention so when that's when they're not receiving um education that they're connecting with how what's happening right so what's the intervention that's happening to course correct that yeah so it's it's a multi-level or multi-tier approach to provide interventions right interventions um will

032result based on the observations that a teacher or teachers coaches and school leaders are making as well as not just in terms of observations of students in classroom but certainly looking at the data that surrounds a particular student's performance and so uh concrete example that I would give is if a teacher uh teaches a particular unit um gives an assessment to test students understanding or Mastery of that unit um when the teacher looks at student performance as demonstrated through the assessment then a solid teacher which we have um you know hundreds of them in our schools would go back and look at where are the gaps right where were there miss opportunities for learning and then the teacher will likely engage either um with in conversations with peers or even with support from their coaches

033or leaders to look at what we call a reteaching approach got itk and if ring doesn't work um in a differentiated way then we can look at what additional interventions um May benefit or support us student thank you go ahead Dr Roberts um with regards to the the transition of course all of our students go through this transition so what do you attribute the spe the transition why is the transition more difficult for our our black males than it is for our other students and how are you attributing I guess help me help me understand why if this fifth to sixth grade transition is so difficult in particular for our black males you know we were looking at um data that includes again the data that speaks to sense of belonging right what be you

034found is um the sense of belonging for black males uh in our middle schools is um significantly low and so you know again while we recognize and acknowledge that this data has to get better um I I know that there are a number of actions that um we are taking across each level superintendent office um in partnership with actually um the dmea and our Middle School leaders uh we're looking at creating some consistent structures practices and protocols um that would create safe spaces that would create spaces of improve educational opportunities for our students um I think ultimately um we have to make sure that we are truly investing in the kind of pedagogical models that focuses on providing students um with a affirm an instruction that provides them with engaging instruction um you know we

035want to make sure that we are not perpetuating some of the same practices that we've had um for many years and that is a one-size fits all without acknowledging that um our education system has essentially failed historically marginalized groups for a very long time because there was not that intentionality um more specifically we have failed black students and even more granularly we failed black males for a very long time um for a number of reasons one of those reasons that we have not necessarily acknowledged in this report in are talking about is bias and Educators and Educators across the board including teachers school and District leaders right our biases sometimes allows us to uh think about perceive and look at black males in a certain Manner and those biases sometimes tend to get in the

036way um what we seen in the Public Schools is there's a lot of intentionality whereby there are conversations happening right we have some R robust professional learning um communities where um there is a willingness of the adults who are in this school system to recognize where those bias exist and try to work on those so that we can truly meet the needs of students it's more than just the technical approach of a teacher who's highly qualified delivering on strong pedagogy based on your content expertise right we have to really look at the the Adaptive challenges um that we're sitting with right and that is um what are the relationships that we building how are we encouraging and invest encouraging students to be present and how are we investing in their abilities or their potential as

037opposed to only making decisions and judgments based on their current performance so the work is so much deeper than just the technical aspects that we tend to look at with quantifiable data and you mentioned those biases and on page to under what's not going well you I I believe are highlighting um where in the data that bias comes into play particularly in the expulsions that our black males are receiving so can you help me understand what is currently happening um that our black males are being deferred or um being put into suspensions and expulsions at a higher rate than our other males um I I don't necessarily see where that data acknowledges that the black males are being suspended at higher rates right at 21% compared to 62% compared to 62% but again even if

038it's 1% of black males being suspended we've talked about the fact that and acknowledged that they are historically marginalized and so um this is something that is top of mind for us so what are we doing um our response uh certainly is multi-layered right one we have invested in a number of different Partnerships with Community Partners uh to make sure that while we have to have a response to student um discipline challenges uh we have a continue of supports that we're providing to students and providing for students especially black students right specifically as we speak about what is happening at the middle schools we currently have um a number of students who are with one of our partners Urban dreams where while they are students who are and I'm use the word who are victims

039of an out of school suspension they're still receiving continuity of instruction um some coaching some social emotional supports uh We've also partnered with um our another Community partner and less talk and they're facilitating a lot of restorative conversations um I I want to make sure that we are also acknowledging that as we think about the out of school suspension rates of black males we've seen not only in the mo Public Schools but nationally there is a lot of disproportionality with how we're suspending um black males and black females specifically black males right the data tells us from I think the national Center of Education statistics that for every um five African-American students who are suspended we only suspend about 2.5 or three of white students and what we have found when we dig a Little

040Deeper it's not that uh black males have the the propensity um to have more infractions um but sometimes so much more goes into how we are responding to discipline but I I commend our teachers our student Support Services team and our leaders for how we are responding right while we have um this 21% of black males who are being suspended um our commitment is to get better um right to make sure that we're not um punishing them because of sometimes what are considered to be um age appropriate or developmental behaviors thank you for the adjustment in the language I I did say at a higher rate and disproportionate rate is what I'm the language I should have chosen so thank you for that Dr Roberts you go on uh page two um under what's not

041going well you the last bullet point you mentioned the variance in school's use of the glean monitoring tool for data collection what do you um what are the factors that are negatively impacting that variance and what strategies do you have in place to address that thank you uh Mr L Diaz and so um gleam um is certainly the framework where we in which we are investing a signifant significant resources right time certainly Financial Resources um but I want certainly the board and Community to recognize that while we have a number of points of Celebration um thus far gleam is in its infancy we're only about 9 eight or nine months into the glim implementation and so the variance we're seeing is based on um one time in our schedule right the one thing that I

042can say with utmost confidence is there's not a single principal um in the mo Public Schools certainly in our middle schools that does not see the value in or has not invested in GLE and so the variance is essentially based on factors that includes time um because there's some again variation with schedules based on what is happening in each building um and just the rate at which we are you know implementing this new and sign ific initiative thank you yeah uh Dr Roberts real quick so what was doing what is going well um on here was um percentage of black students with iep's um main target or growth what specific interventions are in place with those students versus um black mes that are not meeting benjam Mar s is there anything that's helping them out

043that we know of yeah thank you Miss Campos and so yeah this is certainly one of our points of Pride and celebration right um uh when we can get to this place where some of our most uh vulnerable students are marginalized um students with IPS are demonstrating growth one we have made a conscious switch to normal and research based specifically design instruction um two there is much more of a commitment to maintain Fidelity to the implementation of a student IEP right so again making sure that we are uh working with providing support to teachers and providing support to them so that they are designing instruction um that is truly targeted and differentiated to meet um the specific goals of students who have I APS um additionally we are seeing um we we have a lot

044of supports coming from our aea partners um particularly in terms of special education and they're supporting some of the work that we are doing um you know students with IEPs 15% of our students across the district are students with IEPs and and so I know that by having that very goals based and database uh sort of um resource where we have to follow that not only because we need to be in compliance with PL 94142 but because we recognize that these are students who um have a special need and it's incumbent upon us to make sure that there's a commitment on our part to meet that need um the the last thing that I'll say that we will attribute to this growth is often times in the space of special education there is this um

045duality of either focusing on compliance or focusing on instruction while as a district we have seen um really strong practices around focusing on compliance we are also seeing an increase in our instructional practices um let me add one additional um area that I would attribute this to and while we are not quite where we want to be um we're getting a lot of traction based on how we are implementing teaching models in many of our schools where again this is where you have two teachers in a classroom and they are implementing um one of a number of uh models that allows a student to have um just a lot more attention if you may right doing the direct direct instruction or doing very targeted instruction from teachers so those are some of the the reasons

046we can attribute to the growth and successes we seen Dr Roberts on page two and what is not going well you've talked a lot about absenteeism and 45% of 6 to8 black males are chronically absent I'm curious what specific strategies are being deployed specifically for black males beyond the traditional engagement strategies I know there's a campaign right now around absenteeism but what are we doing differently to help get these young men into schools yeah thank you for that question so the the the approach that we're taking to get black males into schools is the very same approach we're taking at every student in the school right anytime one student or a single student is absent um that's a concern for the teachers who are teaching them and certainly for the leaders of schools and so

047we have a number of approaches one we're starting in terms of big picture we you recognize very early on when we did a deep data analysis that chronic absenteeism was an issue for us as a district and while we have inv invested in English and math curriculum um a culture responsive framework and we're seeing where there is Improvement across the board in our instructional practices if students do not have butts and seats they're not going to be able to benefit and so um we've started with I'll start with the the high level um everyday matters campaign right we're uh as a an entire District we're invested in that additionally uh we have a number of attendance teams who are consistently monitoring student attendance um and are working collaboratively with our school teams right to provide

048support to strategize around what is happening um with students why are they absent uh we have um a number of teammates who are going above and beyond by calling the homes of students who are chronically absent um they are visiting the homes of students who are chronically absent and they're not doing this in a transactional manner they're actually um trying to get to um sort of the root cause analysis trying to understand what are the barriers to students um not being in school what are the barriers that are uh that's preventing students particularly in much lower grades but specifically since we talking about our Middle grades um why are they not there and and while this um last point that I'll share is not yet necessarily scientifically proven um I think there has to be

049a recognition and acknowledgement that yesterday's student is not today's student and so we have to um pivot in how we're supporting students by creating School environments that truly truly meets the needs and um there is no unwillingness on the part of our leaders or teachers to do so we just have to be able to do so um with a a commitment and been much more consistency just a follow-up question to that um if we have adults visiting uh families or homes what what access or what data do we have access to that we could say these are the things that are affecting someone not attending school yeah those are the the the data that we get um is based on those conversations right those relational conversations that goes beyond just the the transactional um I

050have um had the opportunity to benefit from some of the the brief conversations from either our success managers or Community Schools coordinators or um even teachers who have called or visited homes to try to ascertain um what is getting in the way and and and some of uh the reality that is faced by many of our families um goes beyond what um the a typical school system can address uh but in this instance I do not characterize the mo Public Schools as a typical school system because we are truly investing in making sure that we we we we treat every single student and their family as an extension of our own families and so um teammates are really knocking on doors right um going above and beyond recently had a conversation with a parent who

051has three students in the mo public schools and shared that uh the reason uh he could not um send his students to school regularly regularly is because uh he had some car troubles and I shared that information with some of our directors and um one of our directors shared with us as a team that um and it was a good reminder we have an automotive shop here at central campus and let's try to find a way to make sure that we sharing that information with some of our our appearance um we are going to make sure that we are are really being really thoughtful and creative and Innovative um as we creating approaches to really go meet the needs of all of our parents and students you know I I even shared um because I

052want to make sure that everyone understands that when we think about our chronic OBS antism issue this is a this requ issue and and I too and this is certainly not a point of bragado doio but one way I recognize that I need to also model um similar to many of our principles who either call homes or visit homes I have a small list of students who are chronically absent and I've been visiting homes you know I jokingly shared recently that I visited A Home of a dad who uh when he came to the door initially the first minute and a half of the conversation he denied that he had students who attended the morning schools because here I was showing up at the door at 10: in the morning dressed in a suit and

053tie uh I can see why he probably thought I'm not giving you any information so I have a different strategy the next time I it I'm going to wear a dmps sweatshirt so anyone who wants to volunteer to give me sweatshirts please do so but what came from that conversation is something that I know our principls have been experiencing after about two minutes into the conversation he shared with pride at one each of his three students are now in school and two he had his own personal challenges and it's not often that we take the time to find out what is getting in the way and uh Miss Lonzo Diaz that's exactly what our teachers our support staff and our principles are doing and I'm proud of the work that they doing to try to

054make sure that we're getting a dent making a dent Into The Chronic Ops inm issue thank you Dr Roberts can you help me understand just some of the numbers here and pardon my inexperience if these are dumb questions what's the end number here what's the do we know what the when we talk about percentages I think sitting in the audience or watching at home the drop is abrupt and I'm wondering if we talk so much about this being a smaller sample size and so a smaller variation of student not doing well on these assessments might move the numbers more abruptly than um than it would in a larger group um and so what's our what's the end number what's the the number of students that we're talking about here when we talk about our um

055our 11th grade black male students when we get down to that number I don't have that end number here but it's it's significant enough for us to um acknowledge that yes we need to make sure that we are providing the kind of supports to um black Mill 11 grade students and then we talk about these things in relation at the board Table to where our priorities are and how we're going to budget for them so I'm wondering over the time and this is this is probably not a question you have an answer to but I think I'd like to know going forward what are we investing and what have we invested in these goals and guard rails so that we can be transparent about are we actually doing what we say we're doing in this

056governance model which is putting budget dollars toward these priorities so I I guess I I don't know if you know that off the top of your head but how much money have we put into this uh this particular um monitoring Point yeah so what I'll share as I think about our um General funds we last year we invested 59% of our um funds were invested into our instructional model um as we are in the midst right now of revisiting and refining our Golds and guard rails in the coming weeks um the CFO and I and the rest of the team will provide the board with a a level of specificity around where we're intending to put our investments um into our each of our three goals and five guard rails so that we can truly

057um not only move the needle but keep our finger on the pulse of how we're getting traction um with these Investments and and again this is not going to be a sort of stagnant U approach it's going to be dynamic because we are likely to make pivots um throughout the of the year as we continuing to monitor how we're progressing Dr Roberts on page one under what's going well um you identify that 22% of black males have made aggressive growth can you help um us understand what is attributing to this aggressive growth of that particular population of students yeah we certainly um because we've not H we have this goal right that really inspires us to focus on black males but also an acknowledgement and recognition that as we have looked at our historic Trends

058um we have essentially um failed black males and so as a result of that uh we have seen an increased focus on black males across the entire system additionally there is um a an investment by our teachers and leaders to make sure that we are looking at uh cultural responsive pedagogy that truly meets the needs of those students right uh again I continue I'm continuing to refer to our gleam framework which provides us with some guidance to make sure that we are exposing our black males to grade level instruction instruction that truly is engaging and values their culture and lived experiences an instruction um that is affirming of who they are and instruction more importantly that is Meaningful that is relatable to them right that that that makes them feel inspired to want to be

059there and be active participants um in any given lesson so those are the areas that I attribute to sort of that growth it's a point of Pride um but we are going to celebrate momentarily but also recognize that there's still so much work for us to do we don't want to sit in this place of Celebration um with uh what we're seeing as um aggressive growth and again aggressive growth is anything that is um just about or above the 75th percentile so again something for us to celebrate but not to sit there um thank you for that and um Madame Vice chair let me know if I'm out of bounds but you just attributed that growth to gleam but then we're also hearing that gleam is an area that we're struggling with from the standpoint

060of of proper walkthroughs and implementation and things like that so if we could in the future rather than just using this highlevel um cloud of gleam as both what's going well and what's not going well I'm having difficulty really grasping and and Ling with the the pieces that are under the what's going well as gleam and what's not going well as gleam and um so for for future if maybe we could get down a little bit into truly what what about gleam is going well and um where those struggles are as well um mam board member if you may indulge me I I would love to provide some clarification and so um both things can be true at the same time right where again gleam is in its uh infancy of implementation probably about 8

061or 9 months and so um when I think about what's going well I can certainly add um and highlight for the board's benefit a number of points one um the fact that we have teachers and leaders who are embracing the framework the fact that we have teachers and leaders who are engaging in a lot of intellectual preparation so that they can become conversent with the framework um if I pivot to look at the converse of what's not going well um certainly you know we we have teachers who because of um the learning curve are not necessarily implementing um each of the letters of that acronym with Fidelity just yet um so hopefully that is helpful um I I neglect it to but allow me to also share that as I think about um one of

062the reasons that we ought to attribute and this is probably one of the most important reasons to the the aggressive growth of black males is because of black males because of who they are right this perception that that that black males were not as capable as or are on performance while students who have other identities um are capable of and ready um for school um is it's a pentious myth and one that we have to stop um here in the mo public school so um the the number one reason that I certainly should have led with is as we think about why are black males now demonstrating some growth it is because of black males who are now given an opportunity to show who they are and the fact that they possess an incredible amount

063of intellectual horsepower that we have just not cultivated thank you I appreciate you um mentioning that mindset as it is something that we as a board work on as well so thank you any other questions if not we are yeah sorry I just have one I I think we're all um acutely aware that sense of belonging for all students right in addition to um black males where you're seeing it significantly and attendance are massive factors in why academic outcomes aren't happening and I I guess I'm and maybe this is a conversation when we get to budget but the handson Grassroots showing up knocking on doors showing our young people that we care using community- based organizations all of those things seem like really critical levers and I [Music] I'm I think wondering if that is

064a strategy that works so if there's evidence that that type of more aggressive approach to show up connect identify barriers try and knock the barriers down if the evidence shows that that's a strategy that works whether it's for all students or ideally for our students of color should we be thinking about that and if so what's going to come off the plate of teachers and or whoever are doing those types of who will need to do that type of work so I mean is is it is it an evidence-based strategy that showing up kind of knocking on doors in the positive way in the support of how can I help it would seem it would work right yeah thank you that's an excellent question um certainly a point for us to uh consider you know

065there's a substantial body of research that really shows a documented association between um teachers or adults in the pre2 system who are intentionally building relationship or rapport with students and how that certainly inspires students to want to go above and beyond and so while we've used home visits and knocking and doors as just two of our strategies um there it's certainly not an exhaustive list but to your point Madam chair y yes I will certainly be you know continue to come to the board right um request for uh resource allocation to make sure that we're giv um schools exactly what they need to be them best their best selves and so yeah to your point while teachers are not likely to have anything additional removed from their plates but we are also not necessarily putting

066on a teachers plate right um this sort of non-instructional work we we expecting them to knock on doors but um that's something that teachers organically do right that's why we tend to think of Educators especially teachers as superheroes seriously um uh we're not in a place where we can necessarily predict right now well what we are likely to remove from their plates because of this additional necessity for us to continue to make sure that we are engagement families but that's why we have additional positions um that the board has approved right Community School coordinators success managers counselors and so um I'm happy that you raised this because I want to make sure that we are creating spaces to continue to have these these these really robust and healthy conversations about um what schools need in

067order for them to be successful as we engage families just a followup just just just just just yes just a followup comment Madame chair you mentioned um an aggressive approach uh that is being implemented to reach families and students and I believe that if it's something that works for the district and works to effectively connect with families from my perspective I don't see it as an aggressive approach I see it as a necessary approach to relationship building which is something I think that is um that should be done um it's not it's not aggressive I think it's it's a way to connect with families and it's notal necess right it's a natural way to connect with people and it's I just have to say that it's not aggressive that's all any other questions if not

068we're going to move on to our were how questions who would like to go first I think I asked all of my questions well okay how uh under what is not going well on page two the suspensions and deferred expulsions and students having decreased access to school as a result is troubling how will you aim to increase the academic aspect of student the student experience when they are UND deferred expulsions and suspensions because some will happen yeah thank you madam chair uh so while we have this ambitious goal of having zero suspensions um again because we know that our students are bringing very um different or diverse set of experiences to us we will have instances where they will be part of an out school suspension group so there are three areas that we have

069focused on to make sure that we are minimizing that disruption or Interruption of their academic Pursuits one um students who are at home um are benefiting from um our virtual teachers who are reaching out to them um to make sure that they are providing some continuity of instruction and I believe at our grade six through 8 level we have four dedicated teachers who are doing that work um additionally uh we are certainly keenly aware that when we have students who are in possession of an IEP or a 504 plan um that already puts them a little bit behind the curve and so when they are suspended and have to be at home uh we also make sure that we are providing as much support as possible to uh maintain some compliance with their I goals

070and um then thirdly um again we we talked about our part ship with some of our Community Partners we we're sending those students into those spaces so that they have the option at least to have some structures where they can benefit from continuity of instruction it's not ideal I actually want us to get to this place where um our restorative uh practices are so strong um that we are not suspending students right inevitably we will have students who are probably finding themselves in that place but um I want us to get to this place where we're not you know as recent recent as today I looked at our our suspension data by schools for each one of our schools and you know we have schools who to date have only had two suspensions out of

071school suspensions and then we have schools that have exceeded 100 200 suspensions and so there's a variance and so you know we're going to we're going to continue to look at and examine um what are those practices that are happening in Pockets um that allows a school or School leader to make certain decisions while acknowledging that um every single school has a very unique DNA very different set of experiences with your students and so uh we want to make sure that we're not pointing fingers out or blaming School leaders right for that variance in data but finding ways to support them thank you Dr Roberts on page two and what are we going to do next next steps the last two bullet points reference um the teaching and learning Team Staffing fully Staffing the team

072to dedicate more resources towards Middle School the next year and finding ways to support the transition can you um uh connect those two dots and and maybe talk a little bit about is this class size we're after or uh how are those two maybe related in at the middle school level yeah thank you so we are certainly going to have a comprehensive approach by looking at um three different areas one Personnel Resources um two we want to look at support that comes from um the district office and and that includes our teaching and learning team our student Support Services team and then three make sure that we are are being thoughtful about resource allocation uh and this includes every aspect of our financial resources uh you know while we are continuing to follow and um

073to Great extent we have to formulas right around how we're allocating resources we have to get to this place right in in in sort of contemporary prek-12 education where we are allowing ourselves to the greatest extent that is um within the parameters of what is legal and moral to make sure we allocating resources in an equitable way right based on the needs you know our 10 middle schools have very very different needs and I think if we continue to be rigid around a formula um we're going to miss the mark on how we are being sort of um equitably supporting them so yeah uh finally what I'll share is for next year in terms of middle schools as you reference the second to last bullet point we are looking at having um two curriculum coordinator

074positions that will be filled uh we are currently in the final stages of hiring a middle school um director uh who will support our current Middle School um teaching and learning director and then uh we are truly excited about the fact that we are also in the Final Phase or stages of hiring a chief academic officer uh because as a as a school system we have not um Shi away from sharing that we want to make sure that we are instructionally focused and Chief academic officer will certainly help us in that regard Dr Roberts uh page two under what's not going or what you're going to do I'm sorry how will you make sure that the collaboration that you address on bullet point three from the bottom up takes place effectively or that it works

075to get the results that you want to see yeah thank you um the one thing we are going to try you know we wish we had more time than any given day um there is no POS at all of a desire amongst our teammates right whether they're curriculum coordinators instructional coaches teachers or leaders to want to do the work or engage um we are finding ourselves in this um navigating this dilemma where we just don't have enough time and so one way that we want to be thoughtful about that is um utilizing our professional development days and certainly um every single opportunity that we have um during the summer and we may need to think about um how can we compensate teachers uh and some of our our Personnel to either be there after school

076or to make sure that they're dedicating some time during the summer um time for which they're going to be compensated right again because we're asking them to leave their families um we're asking them to go above and beyond um as a district we have to find a way to make sure that we are inspiring them through um a number of other means so we have to find that time um we cannot make excuses about why we're not creating the space for them to really collaborate with each other to have really strong plc's um or what we call UPS right Universal sort of um planning so we have to find that time Mr Alonzo Diaz yeah thank you thank you thank you anyone else How are um how were voices from uh student facing levels so

077like our School principles or a school based Administration or teacher leaders that are in the buildings how did they influence the Investments that in your next steps um and and your what what we're going to do next steps and the Investments that we're going to make to see the meal move rapidly towards achieving our goal yeah um our school level Personnel are a critical part of our decision- making we are far from and as I certainly can speak to the last nine months um we are not a top dung decision-making organiz ation um we know that again I've used the the term with this uh with the board before uh the Japanese term Gamba that translates into the place of value and essentially the place of value is in schools and classrooms and so um

078all of those Mission critical decisions that we are going to make will have the voices of um our teachers we'll have the voices of support staff and the voices of leaders um and you know I can say with the utmost confidence that I believe that our our cabinet members understand that um philosophically that's where we sit right now you know and I have to tell you some of the feedback that we continue to get from our teachers and support staff and school leaders um really has driven and inspired so much of the Innovation that is happening um right now and that will happen next year so the decisions will never ever um be topped down without getting some input from those who are closest to the work y any other questions what can do to

079help what can the board do to help yeah thank you I really appreciate that question and certainly in indulge me um you know I've shared uh on a few occasions that as I think about the the professionals who are in the district particularly those who are in positions of leadership um I start with a cabinet for example the 12 member team um whose mission it is to um just really make uh strategically aligned decisions to ensure continuous Improvement there is a total of close to 400 years of educational leadership um and so I think just the board continuing to do exactly what you've done and that is to just allow us to have uh sort of that that professional um flexibility to make those instructional operational decisions and one of the things that I've appreciated

080about uh the board is just your willingness to not only ask the questions or how we're doing but to push and challenge our mental models so how you can help is to continue to to ask those challenging questions continue to push our thinking uh but also to make sure that you you're having this proclivity as a board um to respond favorably uh to the district when we come to you with a recommendation about what we know to be best around instructional delivery around operations um for our schools anyone else just to note um Patrick I was looking up that nvalue on Tableau and it still has our old goal listed as goal three so um if it's still the ninth grade algebra 1 goal so if we could update the public T public facing Tableau

081dashboard so that that's um accurate that'd be great we will I'm seeing head nods at the back of the room already we'll update that thank you Al anyone else no madame chair s Presa back to you thank you thank you Maria thanks for leading us through that conversation we will now move forward with deciding whether we as a board accept the monitoring report may I have a motion and a second to approve item C1 Alonzo so moved Campos second we have a motion by Alonzo and a second by Campos any discussion or does anyone have any questions board members please cast your votes the vote is approved 60 next on the agenda is the public forum followed by the consent and regular agenda we provide speakers at The Forum an opportunity to address the board

082for up to three minutes regarding items that are not on the board agenda we also allow any person the opportunity to speak to the board for up to 5 minutes following the presentation of an agenda item if anyone one wishes to speak during any portion of the business meeting please email rosa. Ros Demoin schools.org the same speaking protocols apply to all individuals who wish to address the board speakers will be called individually and we ask they State their name and address prior to providing comments students and minors do not have to provide their addresses guests of the board are encouraged to speak to matters relating to the programs services and operations of dmps please remember that Iowa law prohibits us from discussing specific employees or their job performance we ask all speakers to avoid references

083to 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 gaveled out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escort Ed out by District security as a reminder to the board and public the board will not engage in a discussion with public forum speakers as it is Our obligation to discuss only matters posted in the public agenda for the sake of transparency and opportunity afforded to all Community stakeholders matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff Andor board followup at a time after the meeting thanks for your participation we appreciate your feed feedback and input Miss Rios do we have any speakers for the

084public forum yes we do first up I'll call D Marion Marion Del Marian my address is 1232 25th Street and I believe we missing someone should we wait a little bit or a board member okay thank you uh I got to tell you uh I'm going to have to Pivot just a little bit because uh that session went a little longer than I thought it was going to go I had uh someone to help me with my presentation today and they had to take off that was my grandson um I grew up in Chicago but I've been here now in Iowa for 34 years and uh I've done a lot of volunteering in the mo public school since the mid90s uh tonight we had uh three generations here myself my oldest son and my grandsons

085uh my oldest Grand son uh and just real quickly uh they had to leave because my oldest grandson who's 12 years old uh he's a tutor and so uh he needed to get to uh tutoring some young people in uh West de Mo um what we talked about tonight um well I wish I had more time to talk about it because I think I could hit you help you all hit a lot of those benchmarks um the first of all I sent you all an email I'm not sure everyone got it to talk about what I wanted to discuss tonight if you did not get it I'm going to resend it again I sent it to the entire board uh a couple of requests I'm going to be requesting that I meet with the board

086members I I'm told I can only meet with three at a time uh what I like to discuss tonight and what was in my uh in my my topics and also in my email is to address uh bullying drugs and violence in all the mo schools uh the second item was to improve parental participation and the third item was to improve uh the spirit in all schools now when I moved here 34 years ago uh my oldest son was five now he's uh he's 38 I have three sons graduated from Iowa Iowa State and you and I and I have two grandsons and I have a granddaughter uh I've invested a lot of my time in the de Mo Public Schools even though I live in West de Mo and uh there there probably a

087thousand of individuals that can back that uh my oldest son created a platform called the inclusive cultural University ICU uh I believe that platform will address a lot of the issues that we spoke about tonight now even though uh I'm an African-American black mail uh the platform is designed for all students all teachers as well as parents and so uh I'm hoping to have some dialogue with you all at a further date can't go into details tonight because there's not enough time and as I said before the last time that I was here you were signing your contract uh tonight was certainly a little different for me I I gota be honest with you but I'm looking forward to discussing with you all at a few at a further at a later date in terms

088of how we can help the de Mo Public Schools um I'm a little bit saddened in terms of some of the things that I've seen in the mo Public Schools uh and me volunteering my background is in Corporate America but my passion has always been schools so from that thank you for your time and thank you all for what you do thank you D thank you next up is RJ Miller Next is Colin [Music] coulure my name is Colin Coulter I live at 3270 Garfield Avenue I teach biology and chemistry at East High School um and will be returning next year due to the EXC the administration um I'm here today to bring you the latest research on the consequences of a smartphone based childhood This research conducted over the last 10 years and drawn

089from many different fields has been compiled by psychologist and Professor Jonathan height in the essay publication the Atlantic uh distinguished board members the research is clear there are no benefits of a smartphone based childhood when compared with the massive drawbacks if you're unfamiliar with the statistics let me review them here rates of depression and anxiety which had remained steady around the globe in the 2000s Rose by more than 50% from 2010 to 2019 in that same period the Adolescent suicide rate Rose almost 50% and tragically for girls age 10 to 14 the suicide rate has almost tripled mental health is not the only thing that's changed loneliness and friendliness friendlessness among teens and adults began surging around 2012 accompanied by clear decreases in reading math and social skills the percentage of high school seniors who

090identify on a survey that life often seems meaningless has doubled why this dramatic increase in Social and psychological problems Dr hey writes that the answer can be stated simply it was around 2012 when adolescence traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved much of their social lives online particularly onto platforms designed for virality and addiction the problem of smartphones and social media is one of collective action and this is where the school board has a large part to play We recognize that we should all ditch social media but the cost of being the only one who does it is too high schools and school boards are in a unique position to support cultural change by communicating with parents guidelines on smartphone and Tech use three recommendations from Dr hey follow first schools can communicate

091to parents that uh young people should not have smartphones until high school or later young people can easily get by with a flip phone and monitored internet access at home the second piece of advice that school schools can communicate is that students should not have social media accounts before age 16 by avoiding making an account young people can still watch videos on YouTube and social media and Instagram but without the account algorithms cannot Harvest data necessary to make it an addictive experience the third recommendation that school boards and schools can communicate to parents is that young people need more Independence free play and responsibility in the real world parents must replace screen experiences with real world experiences however a fourth and final recommendation is where the schools are most pivotal and that is phone free

092schools giving teachers permission to individually restrict phones in their specific classrooms is not enough and has become a burden on teachers Dr height writes that the only way to get students Minds off of their phones during the school day is to require all students to put their phones in a locker at the start of a day a policy that is becoming known nationally as a way for the day I want to encourage the board to look into the practices of other schools districts and states that have prohibited phone use during the day and I'll end with this a great philosopher once said that half measures yield half results therefore if the cause is worthy dedicate yourself fully thank you thank you thank you next up is Michael Farley thank you for letting me speak my

093name is Mike Michael Farley I live at 3221 Southwest 33rd Street I'm a retired physician assistant my wife and I have lived in De Moine since 1982 we sent our two children to De Moine Public Schools one daughter attended Edmund's magnet school back in the day sorry for the history lesson then Kenan middle school and was a member of the Roosevelt High School class of 1995 our son attended middle school and then Roosevelt class of 2003 tonight I represent Iowa CCI a Statewide membership organization that believes that change comes best from the bottom up we have thousands of members across the state rural and urban who have been speaking out and organizing against Governor Reynold's attacks on public education over the past year we have lobbied against the voucher bill which in its first year

094of operation has siphoned off greater than $100 million from public education in Iowa most recently we worked against the area education reorganization bill which is another name for cutting and defunding the area education agencies we believe that this is a part of a long-term strategy to starve public education iOS C thinks that it's time for citizens to rise up and push back on these policies you folks know better than me because of a recent history that every year you get less money to do more work they say they give you a raise but it doesn't count for inflation and so it's not a raise at all and you know what this has led to Belt tightening budget cuts cultural and arts cuts staff Cuts teacher cuts increase class sizes it's it's just inevitable we know

095you can't do it any other way and yet this leads to polic these policy decisions lead to more criticism of public education failing our children we believe that the bo school board and the superintendent need to do more within their limits to push back against the Reynolds anti-public School agenda CCI members are very concerned that superintendent Roberts supported the confirmation of McKenzie snow as lead Iowa Department of Education Miss snow has a t track record of working for private P private school vouchers and how will that help Mo Public Schools Thrive iow CCI completely and wholeheartedly supports dmps students teachers and staff we will continue to push back against funding cuts to public education against any expansions of the school voucher program and we are against legislating criticism of teachers we are against micromanaging and

096developing Curriculum by legislative FIA we are against Banning Public Health policies in public schools and we are against the free exchange we are against attacks on the free exchange of ideas in the classroom and the school and public libraries 30 seconds remaining to support us in these efforts thank you very much you thank [Applause] you Sheree [Music] mortiz Sher you're short you have to make all kinds of adjustments problem thank you board and superintendent Roberts for this opportunity my name is Shere morti I live at 2904 East 22nd Street on the east side I'm a proud eastsider I'm currently president of Iowa CCI action fund and I'm a retired De Moine public school teacher with 40 years of service for the district I'd like to begin by first of all extending condolences to the family

097of Terry calwell Johnson on behalf of Iowa citizens for Community Improvement Terry was a Guiding Light and a pillar in the community and a leader on this board I had the privilege to teach her children at Brody Middle School Terry was a great parent and an outspoken supporter of public schools I'm here today because our Iowa CCI membership has some concerns regarding ing the enthusiastic support of superintendent Roberts for Mackenzie snow as director of our state Ed Department here are some of our concerns she is unqualified her undergraduate degree was in political science she has no experience in public classrooms or as an administrator in public schools I appreciate her trips to the De Moine classrooms but what could she sincerely gain without a found foundation in teacher education you mentioned she can read instructional

098code that's a basic requirement that doesn't qualify her that's like saying a doctor can read an EKG it doesn't mean they're qualified to make institutional decisions McKinzie snow has a track record of advocating for private school vouchers we need leadership that supports funding for our Public Schools we need a department of D of Ed director who is respected as an advocate and champion of public schools she is not that vouchers will continue to funnel hundreds of millions of tax dollars to private schools annually that is a blueprint she has been hired to support and expand at the detriment of our Public Schools iow CCI has a track record of supporting initiatives that uplift the de Mo community and everyday people we have a saying we all do better when we all do better superintendent Robertson

099board we want to work with you we believe that every child no matter their zip code background race gender identity ability has an equal right to a quality education that means fully funding all public schools across the state urban and rural so that every child gets an accurate and honest education that prepares them for their future and an opportunity to pursue their dreams students deserve an opportunity to grow and learn and together we can defend student students their future and advocate for a more affirming and supportive educational system and to our teachers and support staff at De Moine Public Schools as well as our parents and our students we see you we hear you and we support you and we will fight for you and with you thank you so much thank you thank [Applause]

100you thanks speakers Darton and brown good evening all good evening yes my name is Darion Brown good day to you Dr Roberts glad you're here and the board members of the de Mo school school public schools my name is dartan I live at 2723 Columbia Street Highland Park and I'm a product of a fine Iowa public school education that I received starting at Webster Elementary Amos high at middle and North High School class of 67 I also serve on the board of IA CCI a Grassroots Statewide organization that fights for racial environmental economic and probably educational Justice I came here today to speak briefly on the subject of vouchers you probably don't need me to tell you the financial impact of the governor's voucher initiative this board will be dealing with the Fallout for years

101to come if we don't change course this is a public school district and as our new superintendent we should expect you to zealously stand up stand up for and protect what we consider an invaluable public Source much respect to you Dr Roberts but your endorsement of the governor's pick for state director of Education just now elevated on a party line vote may have undermined your standing with those who know the history history and trajectory of school privatization efforts here in Iowa we would expect our superintendent of schools to zealously protect the interests of deor students at Via the Tim honored process of nurturing the parent teacher Administration Partnerships that produce the sort of outcomes that we can all be proud of anyone remotely familiar with the education process understands you got to have adequate financial

102support to get it done after listening to the P of parents and teachers over the last few months of board meetings online I'm home and I get to listen it's great I know this community loves its Public Schools parents love their kids and want the best for them as do their teachers at this moment in history though we have a legislature and a governor making the attainment of that goal much more difficult at this point I strongly suggest that dmps become more involved in providing this community leadership with f focus on winning back increased resources for public education the more you partner with each other parents teachers everybody the more we partner with each other the greater your voices become as we take on these legislators that are fixed and fixated on passing these miserly

1032% budget increases for the largest most div diverse district and the State Community Voices must be heard they must be heard in spite of the fact that sometimes we can't regularly attend meetings like this thank you for listening to all of us the board superintendent Roberts and most importantly the parents and students of dmps you guys deserve the best by talking together by acting together we can get it done thank you thank you thank you thank you Jennifer Nessa good evening I'm coming to you tonight as a licensed clinical social worker former school-based therapist current behavior strategist mother of two tmbs students and a concerned Community member I want to acknowledge the tremendous pressure that the district and its staff are under due to Chronic underfunding by the state recently we have heard stories from

104our csc's bfls Librarians and more all of whom play important roles in our schools we hear about the continued disparities in academic outcomes for our black and brown students we hear discussions about chronic absenteeism building authentic relationships increasing feelings of safety and improving student sense of belonging to address these issues we have The Gleam framework El and I am kurriculum we're changing hiring and retention practices all of these strategies are incredibly important however one solution that has not been discussed in a robust manner is mental health and wellness even though I know that we all agree this is an important issue in order for us to understand the scope of this problem one in five us children ages 3 to 17 has a mental emotional Behavior or developmental disorder and more broadly 87% of teens

105and young adults report the regular occurrence of mental health challenges in addition since the pandemic and as we heard earlier tonight smartphones rates of depression anxiety and Suicidal Thoughts Are On The Rise the Surgeon General has stated that this has most heavily impacted those who are already vulnerable including youth with disabilities racial and ethnic minorities lgbtq plus Youth and other marginalized communities we must make it a priority to develop and Implement a comprehensive approach to mental health and well-being people may be wondering we have school counselors social workers some schools have mental health therapists staff receive PD onal and Trauma we have Behavior strategists and soon we'll be implementing anal curriculum isn't that enough and unfortunately the answer is no there are many reasons why first the strategies that already exist are not integrated into

106a comprehensive mental health and wellness system within the district the philosophies and practices that do EX exist are not consistently implemented nor are they adequately monitored and there is little accountability if existing policies and best practices are not followed there are not adequate supports provided to schools to help them build functioning teams and systems particularly schools that the district knows needs that targeted assistance mental health professionals that are present in the building may not be consulted or utilized effectively and there's confusion regarding the similarities and differences between seal programs and Mental Health Services they are not one and the same an experienced mental health professional is not part of the decision-making process at the highest level of the district and this sends a message that this voice is not valued we do not have a

107mental health literacy program which which is an essential component of a mental health and wellness system with all of these challenges the result is an inequitable system schools vary widely in terms of offering a full range of mental health and wellness Services as well as having appropriate systems in place to provide both schoolwide supports and data-driven decision-making processes to determine which students would benefit from more targeted Services I'm extremely concerned that without the board's guidance through goals and guard rails which Drive District leaders priorities and budgetary decisions that the current disjointed approach will continue this is an urgent matter we can cannot be the model for urban Education Without A systemic approach to mental health and well-being we must do better our students families and staff deserve better thank you than thank you let's call

108for speakers those are all the speakers thanks to all for sharing your thoughts this evening Miss I believe you have the consent motion I do I do I move that the board adopt the balance of the consent agenda items in accordance with the recommended action for each item on the consent agenda including bills previously authorized certified and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of 11,422 8468 we have a motion by Alonzo is there a second excuse me second we have a motion by Alonzo and a second by Marano is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions board members please cast your votes we did the we amended we took off six yeah okay the consent items are approved 60 next on the agenda are a series of public hearings

109we have item F1 public hearing for B 9186 Mitchell secure entry the public hearing will come to order is there anyone wishing to speak to item F1 hearing no one I'll close the public hearing superintendent Roberts would you please introduce the matter certainly Madam chair I recommend the Board review the proposed plans and specifications prepared by Studio melee for sec security entry upgrades at Mitchell Early Learning Center hold a public hearing and approve the plans may I have a motion and a second to approve item F1 Marano so moved dicks second we have a motion by martarano and a second by dicks is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions board members please cast your votes the vote is approved next item is F2 public hearing for good rail secure entry the public

110hearing will come to order is there anyone wishing to speak to item F1 hearing no one I'll close the public hearing superintendent Roberts would you please introduce the matter certainly Madam chair I recommend the Board review to propose plans and specifications prepared by OPN Architects for secure entry upgrades at goodr middle school hold a public hearing on a approve the plans may I have a motion and a second to approve item F2 motion the Campos second we have a motion by Campos sorry yeah we have a motion by Campos and a second by Marano is there any discussion board members please cast your votes the vote is approved 60 next item F3 public hearing for Perkins secure entry the public hearing will come to order is is there anyone wishing to speak to item F1

111hearing no one I'll close the public hearing superintendent Roberts would you please introduce the matter certainly Madam chair I recommend the Board review the proposed plans and specifications prepared by RMH Architects for secure entry upgrades at Perkins Elementary School hold a public hearing and approve the plans may I have a motion in a second to approve item F3 dicks so moved h second we have a motion by dicks and a second by Alonzo is there any discussion board members please cast your votes the vote is approved 60 next item F4 public hearing for property conveyance to City of De Moine East 18th and Easton the public hearing will come to order is there anyone wishing to speak to item F4 hearing no one I'll close the public public hearing superintendent Roberts would you please introduce

112the matter yes Madam chair I recommend the board approved the the conveyance of property at East 18th and Easton to the city of De Mo following this public hearing may have a motion and a second to approve item F4 alono so moved knock second we have a motion by Alonzo and a second by Knox is there any discussion board members please cast votes the vote is approved 60 next on the agenda we have our other items first item is G1 Personnel recommendations receive file and action superintendent Roberts would you please introduce the matter yes Madam Sher I recommend the board receive file and approve my recommendations that the contract be terminated effective immediately for the reasons that set forth in the notice may I have a motion and a second to accept the superintendent's recommendation

113Alonzo second we have a motion by Marano and a second by Alonzo is there any discussion board members please cast your votes the vote is approved 6-0 next we will discuss the pulled item E6 professional learning Unbound Ed superintendent Roberts would you please introduce the matter certainly Madam chair I recommend the board approve unbun Ed as the provider professional learning focused on imple implementing grade level engaging affirming and meaningful instruction gleam may I have a motion and a second to accept the superintendent's recommendation moved Dix second we have a motion by Marano and a second by dicks is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions so I was the one who pulled it uh so I might as well ask my questions um I think Dr Roberts and I foreshadowed this in our

114conversation $2 million is not an insignificant sum of money and so I think I'm looking for three pieces of information one what is the total to date that's been sent on spent on gleam to um how spe specifically will this $2 million support professional development and three is this an FY 2425 request or should we expect that there'll be an additional expenditure in the fy2 budget those are the three questions thank you madam Sher uh the very specific amount I do not have here I am looking at at my team I believe that um we would like some time to come back to the board uh to provide um sort of specificity around um the actual dollar amount um secondly yeah this is an investment certainly going into school year 2425 um and uh thirdly

115you know we have shared at a number of meetings um our commitment to invest in gleam you know the question of is ask before we make such a sizable investment are there uh sort of competitive Frameworks um that we can use in order for us to get to the desired outcome and in this instant instance the desired outcome is for us to really demonstrate um how invested we are and committed to ensuring that we provide a research based incredible framework uh that truly meets the needs of historically marginalized students um particularly around providing them with uh an Exemplar instruction model um an unbun ed uh as an organization that has created this framework is the one that really stands out heads and shoulders above anything else um and so that's the reason for investment you

116know I'm I'm happy to uh work with the team to furnish the board with any additional information that you need um that will sort of show or make a compelling case as to why we need to make this investment if we are going to um say publicly uh how invested we are in ensuring that we are closing the Gap not only instructionally but creating opportunities for students who have not uh in previous years had those opportunities created for them um then it really allows us or we should be inspired to uh put our money where our mouth is so to speak and I know that this board um in my nine months here you have demonstrated um an unwavering commitment to make sure that we are supporting um not only all the students we serve

117um but there has to be a willingness to make sure that uh we are looking at our decision making um through the lens of equity are we giving every single student exactly what they need for them to be their best selves and and for them to certainly uh be able to to close the gaps that we have seen plaguing um the mo Public Schools um for a very long time so Madame chair and board um I amused about coming back to the board with very specific numbers and um and even if it pleases the board as well to make sure that we also providing you uh with an outline maybe in the form of a scope and sequence about what it is we are invested in uh what we intend to offer so typically when

118uh the board is going to make such a sizable investment um I think the question of returning investment often comes to the Forefront um uh we are not positioned at this time because of how early we are in implementation uh to accurately predict a return in investment and but uh we believe that based on sort of the earlier findings um this bodess well for what is to come and I appreciate you indulging my healthy skepticism I think one of the things when um when I came to the board was hearing from teachers about the multiple new Frameworks and new ideas and so it sounds to me as though kind of the strategy that you're taking is elel um curriculum our math curriculum gleam as the framework that's kind of where we're all in in terms

119of investment of professional development funds absolutely you know and let me just share with the utmost confidence that um I recognize that one of the challenges that has plagued uh public education and Public School Systems um is initiative fatigue right this proclivity to always move towards the flavor of the day the next new thing that comes around just philosophically um that's not who I am it's not how I led and having done my own thorough review of um El and IM and certainly gleam uh we are likely to uh see a district that it really that really sticks with um those two curriculum and um the framework for a very long time are there going to be opportunities where we are going to find supplemental materials based on um new and and in credible research

120yes but in terms of the the curriculum framework and certainly curriculum curriculum and certainly in terms of this framework gleam is where we're investing our time let me also offer publicly one last thing Madame chair and that is um I don't want us to have a practice where we are essentially uh married to any consultant or partner right uh there is a time limit um on on on such an investment right I believe that we have um more than enough qualified individual in the district individuals in the district who will eventually be able to TurnKey um some of the practices in years to come and so for now I believe that uh it would behoove us though to make sure that we have this investment up front great thank you and I just have one

121final question just because of our budget constraints are we spending all categorical funds so the professional development are are we spending any general fund dollars on this or is this categorical and Title One there is an investment in in um some general funds but mostly we're looking at accessing our federal funds um we are in the process right now of engaging in some very spirited conversations uh with the Department of Education around what that means for us um right again because we you know find ourselves in this space of navigating um policy um policy and air quotes with um Sol solid practices so the funding sources um right now are intended to be a significant um amount coming from um federal funds if and when that changes um I am happy to come back to

122the board with an update about the funding source for this investment great thank you any other questions board members let me make sure uh board members please cast your votes the vote is approved six nothing now we have our information only items uh first item is board time use evaluation Q3 for those of you interested the board publicly monitors how it spends its time um with the goal that a majority of the time is centered on uh discussing student outcomes as was evidenced today um an example probably embodied in the monitoring report the second item is I2 P County conference board meeting minutes from March 2024 so next we have items of privilege uh who would like to begin or who would like to share I'm going to try and make it through this it

123is with profound sadness that I address all of you today as we mourn the passing of a cherished member of our community Terry Caldwell Johnson Terry was not only a dedicated advocate for education but also a friend mentor Confidant to many of us as We Gather here our hearts are heavy with grief yet also filled with gratitude for the remarkable Legacy Terry leaves behind her unwavering clearly I can't commitment to the students of De MO her passion for Equity inclusivity thank you and her tireless efforts to affect positive change have left an indelible mark on our community Terry's leadership wisdom and compassion were evident in every aspect of her work from her insightful inquiries about data to her advocacy for marginalized communities including black males in our district she led with Integrity courage and grace

124even in the face of her own battle with cancer Beyond her professional contributions Terry touched the lives of many as a friend mentor and confident her kindness oh gosh empathy and unwavering support made a difference in countless lives and her memory will continue to inspire us all as we honor Terry's memory and Legacy let us all all so recommit ourselves to the values she held dear let us strive to continue her work to Champion equity and inclusivity and to ensure that every student in our district has the opportunity to thrive to Terry's family and loved ones I offer my deepest condolences and heartfelt sympathy know that t Terry's Legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of all who had the privilege of knowing her that was my hat now my committee chair hat

125to um fill the district for vacancy I understand that filling the vacant position in a timely manner to ensure the continued effectiveness of the board however I trust that you all will agree that it is essential for us to take the time to honor the memory of Terry I've discussed with the Committees and would like to propose that we postpone the next steps of the selection process this will allow us to approach the task with the clarity and focus it deserves while also demonstrating our respect for the legacy of our departed colleague tissue anywh tisue have some Sorry Miss Marano is this a discussion item are you seeking feedback from board members at this time or is this a recommendation you want to put forth and we can get feedback from Individual board members afterwards

126I don't want to um this is not an item on the agenda so I certainly don't want to violate um I think the general discussion Y is just to understand people's scheduling constraints and assuming um that is possible for us to navigate through so um members if you could let Miss Marano know what schedule or scheduling constraints you might have next week uh as soon as possible ideally tonight before you leave that would be great thank you great thank you um I just want to bring this up last week I think it was last week or the week before I can't remember um I along with a couple of our um board members went to Perkins Elementary School for a um Library ribbon cutting ribbon cut cutting renaming of um their library of Harriet Curley

127and I just want to take or give thanks to Perkins Elementary School danana and everybody from the NAACP that organized it I felt really welcomed it was a really beautiful event um and I just wanted to um give thanks to that and then also dmps um High School um they're going to have a um the high schools are going to have an Art Exhibit um at P County um April 1st to the 26th so I just wanted to let everybody know about that um my little seventh grader is so excited because I let him know that we're going to go to Art exibit and he was excited because he love he loves art um did I say seventh grader I think my seven-year-old not my seventh grader my seven-year-old he thinks he's a seventh grader

128my seven-year-old is really into art so he's excited to go to this Art Exhibit thank you Miss Campos other board comments um thank you Kim for your beautiful comments thank you so much um I wanted to also lift up something else that's on the horizon which is the polar bear Gaya it will be on Saturday April 13th there is still time to purchase your tickets it's downtown at the Marriott our staff works so hard uh on this event and the dollars really go to all the extracurriculars and making them available for the students at North so um and obviously so much to celebrate there including but not limited to team frostbite um so please mark your calendar Saturday April 13th attend if you can attend please consider donating um and helping out to make sure

129we have another great year at the polar G polar bear Gaya thank you Dr Roberts before I turn it over to you for the superintendence report I will let everybody know that as soon as we have information with regards to um the recognition uh for Terry calt Johnson we will make sure that it's available uh because I know a lot of people have expressed interest in wanting to make sure that they um show their respects uh to Terry Dr Roberts do you have a report you would like to submit at this point Thank you madam chair um brief remarks there's a proverb that says that when elephants fight the grass gets trampled upon essentially it's a metaphorical look at what happens when people who are in Conflict can unintentionally harm bystanders particularly those who are

130not as powerful as those who are in Conflict I've been a public school teacher and leader for about 24 years I understand the trans transformative power of the American prek-12 public school system I've seen its highs and lows and I've been in spaces that many who are in positions of policy haven't there to go I've attended more funerals of young people than most more prison visits than most I've attended more graduation cermonies than most and so when I stand in this role that has been bestowed upon me to serve in partnership with the board and Educators who have made a commitment to provide 100% of the students who knock on our doors with a quality education that will essentially change their lives I expect that there is this inevitability of conflict my approach to this

131work of leadership to attaining the vision that we've set and to making sure that we change the trajectory of all of our students will not necessarily always align with many stakeholders what I want to reassure everyone who has decided to partner with the mo Public Schools if you've done so for the last last several decades you're currently doing so or you plan to do so know that I would always lead from a place around decision making that is best going to meet the needs of students servant support teachers and certainly uplift and Elevate leaders I have never and will never ever politicized my approach to leadership it doesn't have to align with many who are in positions of policy but I want to make sure that there is no doubt that my commitment to being

132a Relentless and ferocious advocate of public schools falls in the ears of those who will listen and I also want to share that with the utmost humility that I am not someone who typically should up in the place where I will turn the UT cheek if children will get hurt I am enthusiastic about and excited to continue to partner with every single stakeholder whose presence philosophy and commitment touches the students of the M public schools in this amazing community that I've called home but my humble request is that we work together in Partnership my humble request is that we continue to put students first in every way shape and form and finally I will say that no attacks on anyone who is intending to do the right thing will serve us well when elephants fight

133the grass gets trampled upon thank you madam shair concludes my remarks you thank you for joining us this evening we greatly appreciate all of you being here the meeting is adjourned at I can never see the clock thank you 7:32 we're going to take a brief break and move into our work session we are going to only have two work sessions the first is the fy2 budget and then we are not doing goals in guard rails this evening we will then move into a closed Personnel session so board members uh 5 minute break and then we will reconvene for budget e board members we are coming back together in two minutes two minutes e okay team we are going to start our conversation on the budget I think just to frame this a bit this

134is our third budget session I anticipate there will be a fourth yes one more uh budget session I have shared with all of you the list of questions that were submitted to Dr Roberts and Shashank um they were not expected to answer those for today so um just to set expectations appropriately and I think that's all I want to say on budget I think it would be helpful Shashank in your comments to talk about anything that has been coming up at the public budget sessions as well sure okay thank thank you Jackie so what we plan to cover is largely a balanced budget and the 24 legislative sessions and as you had mentioned the questions from the board will be addressed in the next meeting so timelines recap board session today we'll publish it on

1355th April the community discussions started the first meeting that we had community meeting was yesterday at North uh the interesting thing is Caitlyn Clark's game was on so we had two people who showed up thank you for being so uh humility that you understood that some people might want to see kayen CLK but we we we did our presentation and uh they asked some good questions uh the April 16th meeting which is the the last meeting which Jackie was alluding to is when we will uh adopt the budget certify the budget having all the questions which the board and the community had asked responded to so we have another meeting tomorrow morning bright and early at East and this is the schedule for the rest of them this is the first time we'll be doing

136it in two different Lang languages Swahili and R and in Spanish at central campus so balanced budget but this is a slide which I presented before so I'm not going to delve on this so where has been the property tax rate for the last 3 years as we can see the property tax rate for Deo residents have been declining when I came to the board before the SSA was approved I had come with a 4% assumption and that gave us a property tax rate of 14.70 with 2 with 2.5% SSA it's going to be 14.68% not a huge difference but it's beneficial to the district I when we had this public hearing last time we had called there were around five or six uh persons who showed up for public hearing ing I called all

137of them I typically don't have an opportunity to call back so my experience was interesting uh one person whom I called who are you I said I'm shashan kurora calling from D public school and she hung up so I called up again left a voicemail I had one other person who actually called me up later just yesterday I called the person up another person I called up and he says it was a lot of background noise he was driving a truck so he says I'll call you back later the third person I called up left a voicemail did not call back so unfortunately I could not have a meaningful discussion with anyone of them uh so what are the identified reductions and how are we bringing it down to zero I think the board has

138seen that we are reducing 10 FTE in high schools which is purely based on Lower enrollment and there was 4% FD across the department which is $2 million we had worked on a health insurance plan which was Pharmacy driven so what we had done was we went and did an RFP around 8 months back to engage a consultant who on behalf of the district did an RFP with different Pharmacy benefit managers pbms and they were the likes of Wellmark and uh CVS and uh there were four others six six of them all national level pbms the health insurance cost for the district is approximately $18 million as part of the negotiations we were able to sign a contract which will reduce the health cost by $1.5 million the pharmacy related costs with no impact to

139any covered member they would still get the same drugs they got before this thing so for a covered member they will not realize anything has changed at all and as a district we'll save $1.5 million to the best of my knowledge I don't think so any school district has done this in the state of of Iowa to reduce Pharmacy costs and this equates to almost 20 fdaas interest income we've been fortunate to some extent that the interest rates are high and we have employed our investment policy to the best that we could we had the cash available so this is going to add an additional $3 million in interest income the SSA portion as the board knows when we make a budget projection our first estimates we take 2% as SSA and the SSA that

140was approved was 2 and a half% so that half% increased SSA is going to give us $1 and A4 million the last item is something that we have not done in the past and this is using our spending Authority Reserve which is we over a period of time have generated a reserve in our spending Authority and we are leveraging that Reserve to reduce the budget deficit I'm pausing over here before I move to the next slide if board has any question what does that reduce our fund balance too and is does that cash out our fund balance no it does not so the the objective or one of the board goals that was laid out well before all our time maybe Kim was probably there I'm not too sure was our spending Authority should be

14115% or thereabouts our spending Authority is a little bit higher than 15% right now so we are leveraging that am amount it still will not dip our spending Authority below 15% so we still maintaining the board objective and goals and not hurting that I know we've talked about this several times and I did not understand that we actually could spend that money if we didn't have enrollment connected to it and so I just can you just make sure in and in the most simple terms possible to talk through how I mean I know we're at I mean I read the report we're at 25 to 30% and so we have more than enough to be at that safe ratio of 15% but um we've been there before and is the reason we haven't done it

142as a board because we had that guardrail around um set for Target by the board no so I will I will try to explain the best I can and and please ask me as many questions because Jackie this is a little complicated concept so I've got it down to the slide which I would want the board to look at when we say budget must be balanced that is the revenue that we will get in the current year plus fund balance which is basically the Surplus from previous years being added to the revenue of this year how is this fund balance generated Revenue less expenses any balance remaining is what is the carry forward fund balance from previous years those two things added together should be in excess of the annual expenditure for the year mhm

143so so so that was one the 20 25% that you're alluding to is Sol y ratio our spending Authority is not that high it is somewhere closer to 16 to 177% taking this amount so 1% of spending Authority approximately equates to around 66.5 million so if we take down $55.25 million we are still above the 15% threshold is this a practice that we should do every year in case we unable to achieve our Target I would not suggest that but can we do it once in a while to do it especially in a year where we are challenged and we unable to hit the target I think we can and again I would not say that we are the only District who has done that there are districts who have done it in the past

144this will give us less wiggle room if future it does impact usim to your point yes it does but but if we were not at 15% or above 15% I would not have used the fund balance at all it's because the board goal is at 15% and we higher than 15% now if you continue using it and it starts coming down to 15% then at least I would not support it if the board says go and do it that's different but I would not support it if it's below below 15% I think as we go through the conversation I'd be curious to understand I think we're going to continue to have a lot of budget challenges I'm sure you do too and the last thing I would hope we're not doing is kicking the can

145to the next year in the next year and so we haven't made the tough decisions yet that I think uh we need to make and so I just be really curious to understand and just think through that a little bit were there things that were on the cut list and obviously not teaching positions but I just want to make sure that we are um I think every year is going to get worse and if with reimaging education there's a need for additional expenditures and I know that's more Capital money but it it it feels like we're plugging a hole and that that may be the recommendation of the board I think I just personally am struggling a little bit with this so it'll be helpful to understand what are the tough choices that are still

146being made as opposed to just plugging it with the fund balance may I M thank you madam chair for um those reactions uh I certainly don't want to offer and Shashank if you can go back to the slide with identified reductions because um I certainly have heard the board charge both Shashank and I loud and clear about making those tough decisions and I believe that we have not only have we made tough decisions around um uring cuts but I think the team has um sort of cessed around um stretching our Innovative muscles around how to get to this place right of uh moving steadily towards reducing our deficit so case in point um the the work that Shashank team did to make adjustments to or benefits and doing so in a manner to with $1.5

147million where it does not impact our teammates I think that speaks to our commitment Innovation um the 4% FTE across select departments which landed us at $2 million I think that that that again this is certainly not an attempt to be applauded but um it shows that that we have um the proclivity to make those tough decisions as we recognize our budget and financial position um certainly I want to commend our business and finance team um just for getting us to this place where they have in a prudent way looked at in in investing in um The District's resources to land on that interest income of $3 million right so um those are places where I want us to certainly acknowledge that we are pushing the envelope so to speak um the fund balance though

148Madame chair certainly um if the board has an appetite to hear a little bit more of a less technical discussion from Shashank that gives us a better sense of what this means for us right and I am 100% align with you madam cheer we canot we should not kick the financial can down the road when it comes to sort of addressing the deficit so this is a really healthy conversation for us to have just a question Shashank I may not be connecting two things correctly here but the interest income is that would that be affected in next year for instance because of the fund balance I mean even if interest rates stay high we've got two inputs there now that we will not be able to plug and so it it hits two areas and

149and so that's you know and and they're talking about rate cuts by the end of the year so um all of that could impact two places instead of one now that that fund balance is lower and Patrick to your point I was earlier on hesitating this for exactly that reason because this is a benefit which could be good for the district for a shorter period versus a Perpetual period like the pharmacy thing that I am bringing out is a in perpetuity uh but something like interest income as long as the interest rates remain high we definitely are taking advantage but at some point in time they will no longer continue where they are today thank you going on to the legislative sessions sorry I should ask any other questions before I move forward sorry can

150you just recap the history of utilization of the fund balance so you know over the past 10 years maybe just put it in some perspective of how many times have we actually used fund balance I can what I can do is next on April 16th I will bring a chart as to what why Dr Robert's predecessor and my predecessor decided to even bring this thing to the board of having that 15% Target for spending Authority and 20% but to speak at a higher level Jackie the district was on the negative trend line M and our spending Authority was as low as 1 to 2% and if it had become negative we would have been in a position that Dr Roberts and myself would have had to go to the state to present a plan to

151say what is it that we will do to bring it in the positive territory the state would have given us some time but if you were unable to do it they would actually appoint their own persons to make decisions for the school districts and both of us fully realize that that is not a situation that we want to be and so does the board so we have to the best of my knowledge never ever used because we never really had enough fund balance to leverage some of the things that we have done whether it is the budget cuts that we've been doing for the last at least four to 5 years Esser where we have been able to spend certain things which otherwise would have come out from a general fund has helped us build

152this healthy fund balance but Esser is also going away by June 2024 we will no longer have the cares act slsr funds available so we have to be prudent going forward that utilization of the fund balance could happen once in a while but that should not be a situation that we are depending on going forward so so to your point we have never used the fund balance before because we never really had it except in the last 3 4 years that we have managed to really make that take and and I will bring I think I think we should have at least last 7 to 10 years data and that chart it's a line graph that we have that will very clearly show why this is important and my only other question is in light

153of what I think is a not insignificant amount of thinking around next year the district reimagining education not all of those are capital expenditures likely and so how where are we going to have the financial flexibility to make the changes that are being recommended so you're talking from an operating standpoint not from the capital standpoint well I think I mean my sense is it's a little of both right I mean there's Capital there's building but there's more than building right there's lots of work and expenditures that are going to go into these changes and so do we run the risk of not having the money to do that sure if we're spending this money this year because we may not be at the point where we're above 15% and not have fund balance to spend

154on trying to accomplish some of those things so I'm trying to just look a little bit longer term to understand um maybe it's not that total number so I I think I'm trying to be as cautious as possible if I'm to understand the changes that are being proposed for next year thank you madam chair I'm very very helpful as well so Shashank what I'm hearing is uh there is an opportunity for us to um come back to the board on the 16th with um additional detail uh that presents I would say what I'm envisioning right now now two to three different scenarios as to why this is um the most prudent decision right now even as we're considering those Maj major initiatives such as the REM imagin education which will have a much longer term

155impact um and then to provide that sort of trend data uh that Madame chair is referencing in terms of you've answered the question around have we ever used the fund balance but I think I want to make sure that um we are aligned with the board around um not putting ourselves in a position where um we are looking at a short-term fix I know when you and I have spoken um that's not what we envision but I think there's still an opportunity for us to provide the same level of Enlightenment to the board yeah and I'm just one voice so I really want to ask other board members to speak up on this I just that's just one perspective well I think um I was just thinking of Terry's voice I I had actually saying

156what's the what is the loss like what is the what what is the opportunity loss on this path and I think maybe just helping us to understand what opportunity loss would come with us do using money in a sort of unprecedented way from for those of us that have been at least recently at this table um so I think there's that and I think maybe for me also is um maybe this is a one-time use because there is a bigger plan for reimagining education and and thinking in that way but maybe just helping to give us a little assurance that why why this is okay right now because we're not going to come back and do this again because we have a plan down the road just just a little Assurance in that way sure

157I mean that is I get it it's what a savings account is there for right to help out in different times just making sure exactly so in the legis sorry and any further questions before I move to this okay so from the from the changes in the legislature that is going to impact us directly are largely three things which is the AAS the teacher minimum salary and supplemental state area and I've have tried to cover all three of them so the so the big changes that are coming in is broadly divided between fi25 and fi 26 and fi25 what they're saying is in special education there is no change in fi 26 90% of the funding will go to AA 10% of the funding related to special education will come to us but it is

158to be used for special education so total dollar pool for special education is not changing media and education service is a little different where they are saying that in fy2 60% of the funding will go to the district and 40% to the AA we can still contract and get the same services from AA and fi 26 100% of the amount will come to the districts so we have discussed on our executive cabinet and we will be evaluating whether that 6040 split that we have that 60% that funding that is coming directly to the districts a do we still want to leverage AA or do we want to do something in-house or leverage a third party now having said that the flexibility which this change has provided to the districts is in case we don't use

159that 60% in 25 or 100% that's a total saving in our general fund dollars so far that was not the case because it was a flow through we used to get it and we used to give it to AA now if tomorrow we say we don't don't use that 60% in year 1 and 100% in year 2 that is a saving and to give an idea that 60% in year one is approximately around $2.7 million which is $1.3 million for Media Services and 1.4 for educational services so that is $2.7 million so that is a discussion which we need to have to decide do we want to leverage AA change of game plan or bring it as a general general fund savings do you have a question I just have an editorial comment that I'll

160keep to [Laughter] myself no no just a question on special education though so our model is different obviously and so for FY 26 how will our funding look different if at all for just for special educ for special education so it should not look much different I don't see much of a change Dr robberts do you see anything at all not much of a change um but in FY 26 I think we will be in a position where we'll have to decide if what model do we want to pursue around these changes um yeah what person of aea services for special education are we using I would we use primarily all in-house services so 100% we don't use any AE Services special at all we are self so really that regardless of what choices are

161made in that aspect won't impact us will impact us no yeah the other big impact was on the teacher salaries so the change is that in fi25 47,500 will be the minimum salary in year one the same thing for fi 26 will become 50,000 we have a subset of teachers in year one who are below 47,500 so based on where we land as far as our negotiation there would be a certain amount that we'll be receiving from the state to bridge that Gap there is no additional funding that we have seen which is going to come between year 1 and year 12 it's only for year 1 or for year 12 and year 12 also is with 12 years experience is actually a teacher who is year 13 because it is with 12 years experience

162but in between if there is any Gap we are not getting funding based on what we are seeing we should be fine we should not have a shortfall Because by the time a teacher is on year 13 the salary would be 60 or 62,000 starting from year 1 to year 12 but for year one there is a shortfall it is a very convoluted way of calculating how the money will be coming to us they have divided all the school districts in 10 groups we fall in group 10 which is all schools with an enrollment larger than 3500 yeah okay so so so that's an interesting thing Patrick 70% of the school districts nationally have less than 2500 students so the way they will calculate for us is they will since we are in that tier

163of schools they're going to see what is the shortfall for all those different schools and come at an average amount that will be given to all the school districts I think the intent for that is that schools which are already paying above the minimum should also get some amount but in case we are shot and we are still not able to hit 475 the department of management would do an additional calculation to make us whole so we will not be out of pocket but it's a little roundabout way basically to help the schools which would which are already paying an excess of 475 so this just to clarify this is over the expectation is that every school district by FY 26 is at 50k correct we don't get any additional funds so it's a 2-year

164investment to make us whole if we need to made whole for new teachers correct correct and then for year 12 what where are we on the pay scale we in comparison to 60 we we are higher than 60 I don't know the exact amount but we're higher than 60 got it thank you absolutely I don't mean to put too find a point on this but I think I'm going to try just for those of you who are watching at home so all of the news about teachers getting a big pay raise the largest school district and the biggest portion of teachers really did not Ben benefit from this am I hearing that right at least in year one okay at least in year one I think next year it'll be a bigger difference because the

165amount is $5,000 just want people to understand that that it's not if they have in their mind that everybody's getting a big raise then that's not the case that is accurate the other change which is coming in is for the par Educators they are saying $15 minimum per hour would be paid all or most dmps Paras and Associates already meet the minimum there's some part-time Metro workers which don't but we will do the math we'll see what exactly it is and then we'll find out how much we are getting from the state just to be clear I think Su so Susie had sent up that pay schedule for this year MH and then the do25 makes a majority of these people these individuals over 15 or they're currently over 15 go ahead so for are

166you talking about the dmps Paris and Associates yeah so the do25 is only going to the Food Service employees okay only that's you know in it over what other asme employees received for the par educator and the associates currently they don't meet the minimum but they will next year um however we're still going into negotiations with our es contract yet so that isn't completely finalized and then Metro our part-time employees are under the 15 um dollars an hour but I don't know that that's included in the this 15-hour minimum for par educator salary if that makes sense Susie the distinction being made uh around the increase for our food and nutrition staff does that have anything for the benefit of the board and the community anything to do with the Enterprise fund yes okay we

167were able to do that because it's Enterprise fund funds so are we getting money from the state to are they subsidizing for us to meet the minimum yes if there is a minimum and that is why if you seen that it says state has allocated $14 million this is at the state level so if any district has a shortfall including dmps we would be made whole by the state for one year for one year only that is correct and thereafter we'll have to account for that cost from our general fund yeah and food and nutrition is an Enterprise it had build up a balance yeah it cannot get into negative general fund cannot subsidize food and nutrition but it had a positive balance so we could leverage that right thank you absolutely the last item

168was the supplemental state aid this is a chart which everyone has seen the average for last 10 years is 2.04 and this year is 2.5 Z so and the next hearing for for budget is on 16th any questions in general maybe we can take a few minutes to talk about where we are with goals and guard rails and just how we're navigating time line so we're not doing goals and guardrails tonight um I think Dr Roberts and Maria we were going to meet tomorrow to figure out if we wanted to do the interims we we I think maybe the broader conversation is we don't have goals and guard rails done and we also have to approve an a budget on a timeline and so how are we thinking about that and I know we had

169talked about potentially an addendum or having another conversation but I just I think for the sake of all board members too want to get on the same page around how we want to handle it so I think what we had discussed in the last board meeting is we will come back to the board with the costing for the goals in the second board meeting which is going to be I think May 21st oh the second May meeting the second meeting yeah I think it's May 21st yes uh so as far as the budget approval goes two things which are critical for the budget approval one is the property tax rate and the second is the budget must be balanced uh as far as goals and God rails goes in case there's an additional cost I

170I my feeling is a lot of it will be reprioritizing the existing dollars from one bucket to the other bucket there would be some additional cost hopefully it should not be too Lodge but in case it is there we have a situation of amending our budget so in fact I would be coming to the board to amend the FI 24 budget some sometime between this month and next month 25 so we can always include that additional cost in case it is there over do board members have questions on that I just think that there are a lot of unknowns right now and you know just tonight we approved a really um large expenditure um that is completely aligned with meeting our goals while honoring our guard rails um and I I certainly don't want to

171hit pause on any of that because we have existing goals and existing guard rails to honor um so I think as a board just being cognizant of the fact that um if it truly is just a a shift from you know from the math goal to the pre-existing math goal to a college career postsecondary Readiness goal um we when we are monitoring when we are evaluating when we are are doing those checkins we need to understand and appreciate that we also are are not giving the full opportunity to properly fund these in year year one or year zero for some of these so if we have the opportunity to amend the budget is that a one-time Amendment or do we have the ability to do you have the ability to come back to us if

172we find ourselves in year zero needing to make an adjustment can we do that so typically we have time till end of May to make Amendment for the budget historically we keep track of that and go only come only once to the board for that approval but when we discuss it in May of 2024 and we decide we need to add additional dollars in fy2 budget we can come to the board till May of 2025 to make amendments so you have almost the full year to make those amendments and we're not limited by number of amendments if we wanted to make 50 amendments we could that's kind of ridiculous but absolutely Miss maror just want to make sure I understand so if we were to settle on the goals the guard rails the interims the

173understanding of the investment in May that body of work wouldn't take effect until June or July I don't know if it's June or when when the gos and guard so I just want to make sure I understand I think the point that you're making is we got to fully fund a go or guardrail if we expect success yes and I I even if we approve this you know approve goals in guard rails in a month and make necessary budget um whether we have an amendment what not the reality is is if we are going to be changing inputs TR changing strategies changing resources um our the superintendent and team need to I I want them to be having very thoughtful conversation and consideration around what that looks like like summer PD is already planned right

174summer you know PD is probably already planned for next school year um if it's anything like it used to function so I just want us to to recognize that us making even if we do push along or push for for um changes to happen now we have to we have to be we have to understand that it the change is not going to be implemented the inputs are not going to be implemented the PD is not going to be implemented um the wraparound services for our teachers um staff will not be fully implemented in two months or by August I mean I get I'm I'm not disagreeing I'd probably want to hear that from superintendent Roberts to make sure that there's agreement there because that I thought we were all moving towards the trajectory of

175goal implementation and approval by Dr Roberts and the staff for this fiscal year so I just I hear I hear you and I your point is right yeah and I I was defin I I agree I think that we were on a a Time a different timeline than where we're at right now and so yes please Dr Roberts yeah thank you um m m so yeah it's one of the reasons why and I know that we are delaying tonight's goal approval because again I believe our consultant is not here but the reason that uh the team and I worked uh diligently towards having our goals and interim goals ready for review and approval tonight is because our timeline crunch um is becoming concerned in um but it's not to the point whereby it's going to

176significantly impact uh some of what we already have in place such as planning and preparation for summer profession development right teaching and learning team and others we are focused on that be getting those in place because we are currently working um sort of or anchoring our work I should say in our school year 23 24 goals and guard rails uh we're not going to implement um at least with any sort of uh intentional action goals and guard rails that will be approved for school year 2425 until uh after day one of school year 2425 can you say that again yep so up until the very last day of this school year we are going to Anchor 100% of our decisions in the existing goals and guard rails and interim goals and guard rails the soon

177to be approved goals and guard rails for school year 2425 will not take effect or will not have our Focus until after the first day of the school year 2425 is that helpful mhm so to Kim's Point summer professional development this year will be about the old goals and guard rails or will it be forward facing toward the new thank you excellent question it's going to be forward facing because again while we are still waiting the approval our team certainly understand the importance of time and we are working behind the scenes to make sure that um that that uh delay doesn't handicap our preparation right for us to move diligently towards again goal and guard real achievement or attainment yeah and I think Just for future conversations when you are making recommendations of various different

178strategy resource input adjustments um just so that we as a board are cognizant of when when that request comes to us when it's when we say yes and when we're approving it knowing and understanding that as we're monitoring there's going to be adjustments made and um so recognizing that during our not only monitoring conversations but our evaluation ation Kim because our Consultants are not on with us tonight can you shed some light on what best practice is in this area with our governance because I can't imagine that all school districts set goals and leave them there has to be a best practice around shifting given the fact that there will be this transition from the time the captain says turn the boat until somebody in the Boiler Room actually turns the rudder you know I

179mean like there's a there's a delay there that we have to expect so what's best practice you the I mean ideal state is is we would back map from from when it is that we needed to make budgetary decisions for any possible changes and I think that we as a board did that however it was a very it's been a very tight timeline um so best practice recommendation is that you don't um evaluate the superintendent on success of meeting goals while honoring guard rails unless there has been full budget um and allocation of resources and so you know if if you as a superintendent are telling us we are we are allocating based on where we're at right now and and we are okay moving forward with that then you know I we're so close

180I I don't want to certainly Harbor on the the us not being exactly where we want to be by the date that we want to be there but I just I I think it's important for us to recognize that if we don't make it it's okay but we need to be thoughtful that i' I'd like to suggest that we I think we recently found out that we weren't going to be able to have the conversation tonight and so on goals and guardrails I think we are freeing up sometime this week and potentially adding time next week and I'm just wondering if we want to think about any way to have a goals conversation with our consultant even if virtually to review interims later this week it's just a suggestion for people to consider I'm honestly

181for it I don't really want want to delay anything a little bit more um I think we are on a good push to it and I I don't want to delay it any further I don't want to stop I mean we let's get go go through and virtually if we can do it virtually so bear with us we'll sync up tomorrow at 10 10 or 10:30 and see if we can come to a quick resolution on that great conversation other questions for Shashank as it relates to budget okay thank you board thank you thanks for finding the thank cost savings thanks to the staff that are here too that are helpful as well thanks okay team we are going to move into a closed session uh ladies and gentlemen gentlemen when I say five minutes

182I actually will actually abide by five minutes and go to the bathroom real quick but um we're going to come back into a Clos session and five minutes