001All right, we're going to go ahead and call the board of education regular meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Good evening everybody. Uh we'll start by saying is there a motion to approve the amended agenda for Monday June 8th 2026 which would remove item 62 which is the 2026 2027 school year base wages bargained employee groups chauffeur team sters and helpers local union 238 transportation under the consent agenda. I move the amended agenda of Monday, June 8th, 2026, board of education regular meeting be approved as set forth and that each item is considered ready for discussion and or action. >> Thank you, Director Garlock. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> All any opposed? Same sign. >> All right. We'll begin the meeting tonight with
002hearing from those who have requested to address the board. Board Secretary Schulty. Do we have any requests this evening? >> We have zero requests today. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. So, with that, uh, we'll move on to board reports for this evening. Do we have board reports? >> Yes. >> Start down here and we'll work across if that's okay. >> Okay, I will go ahead and start. Um, so we had our um staff retention um board um meeting here last month. Um, and I just wanted to give an update from HR. So HR is continues to make strong progress on staffing for the 2627 school year. All teachers have been placed and HR is now focused on paraprofessional staffing, transportation, recruitment and filling remaining vacancies across the district. Planning um also continues
003around administrative placements through the impacts of reconfiguration and school closures. In addition to staffing work, HR remains focused on recruitment and community engagement. This month, the team will participate in the NAACP community picnic at Beaver Park on June 14th, where they will host a recruitment and outreach table to connect with potential future employees and share information about career opportunities within our district. Um, these efforts support our ongoing commitment to strengthening talent pipelines from our community. >> Thank you, Director Burns. Director Zimmer. >> Yep. Um, I have one from the academic and achievement core committee. Um so we uh at the academic achievement core committee meeting we featured comprehensive updates across three key areas academics, special education and student services. academic reports focused on the progress or excuse me the process for administering the high school
004civics test for graduation, finalizing the college and career readiness upper academy pathways, including a May 28th parent advisory meeting and a June 5th board work session and continuing development of a new instructional vision and core principles. The special education department detailed efforts on fiscal responsibility following a finance audit such as improving FTE allocation alignment with IEP needs and implementing a purchasing approval process alongside an update on new state law house file 2428 and measures to increase compliance with IEP review timelines. Lastly, student services shared behavior metrics showing decreases and out of school suspensions and restraints, celebrated the state approval for a new year-round K12 virtual academy option, and announced a new partnership with United Way to explore expanding community school models. >> Okay, that's >> Thank you, director Z. >> Um, Ashley took care of
005the uh core committee. So, I guess you'll maybe mention this, Dr. Landon, but we had a great community cabinet meeting. Um, I think we had maybe three items on the docket to discuss, but we really took the majority of the time to uh discuss transportation and um sort of dip our toes into what that might look like for the coming school years. >> Nice. >> Thank you, Director Buyers. All right. Any other board updates? All right. Hearing none, we're going to turn the floor over to Dr. Landon for the superintendent report. >> Yes. Uh, thank you so much, uh, Director Bay, because I wasn't going to talk about community. So, [laughter] thank you for taking care of it. I appreciate that. Uh, so tonight, uh, since this is the end of the school year, we
006wanted to maybe provide a little bit of a summary of our progress and the work in front of us. Um, as we think about our strategic plan, priority areas that we established last school year around um, safe and secure learning, prepared for life, um, staff and parents as partners, and being physically responsible. So, I'll give a little bit of update here to our board as well as our community tonight. Let's start with safe and secure learning. Um, this has been a crucial element of student success being our learning environments across our school district. We know that students cannot learn and teachers cannot instruct if they do not feel supported, safe, and valued. That's why this year the district um with the board support and leadership strategically invested $3.8 $8 million into our behavior supports and
007intervention, making it a top priority. Um, and so with that being said, just want to talk about a few of our results and I will uh preface my report tonight saying I cannot cover everything that we have accomplished across our organization. If you did not get a chance to see our video of highlights from our schools that they did, it was in last week's newsletter. Please go out and watch it. You can hear straight from some of our students as well as our staff members. And as I make the report tonight, I do want to say that this is indeed a team effort of across our school district, the entire Cedar Rapids Community School District from the campus um as well as the district leadership, our board and our community. So let's take a look
008at some highlights. So um as we take a look at, uh the behavior, we can see that uh an area of focus was around our office referrals. So, compared to last year, major behavior referrals declined 7% specifically around fights and f physical altercations um across our school district decreased by 28% and out of school suspensions decreased by 19%. While we still hold high expectations for our students by having in school suspensions, we're able to keep our students at school, but still um holding the accountability that we expect across our system. We also saw a 40% decrease in restraints compared to last year, which is the lowest that we have seen during our agreement with the DOJ. As we move forward um in terms of making sure that we have restorative practices that go along with
009our discipline matrix, I want to talk a little bit about our safe zone sports. Throughout the fourth uh throughout the year, fourth and fifth grade students at Johnson Steam Academy, Cedar Ra, Cedar River Academy, and Grant Elementary had the opportunity to participate in flag football, basketball, and soccer. Um after school, the mission of this program was to improve student engagement, increase attendance, and reduce risky behaviors. 109 [clears throat] students participated in this inaugural year, and the results are outstanding. the students participated. Um the students that participated, we saw a 9% decrease in office referrals. We saw a 34% decrease in physical aggression incidents and stronger connections between students, families, and staff. I would like to thank our safe and secure learning team, Miles and Janessa, for building this program. I also think that they had
010some supports from community grants um that helped to move this forward. And it really does speak to what we've been hearing from our parents about extracurricular activities. We know that the board and our community value uh those experiences for our students and we look to expand those um as we go into the next school year. Also, crisis go um over the last three years we have really u been focusing on how do we create a safe and secure environment but also how do we communicate as a team out to our campuses being able to respond and also with our families. So finally through the full integration of the crisis go platform this year we worked diligently to accelerate our emergency response infrastructure and communication. There were 3,370 messages that were sent through crisis go platform
011for emergency situations. Schools also used it to do 169 emergency drills like fire, tornado and lockdown drills. Um and the lockdown drills are for active shooter scenarios but called lockdown drills. I just want to call that out because I want to um assure our families that that is top of mind for us as we think about a holistic approach to our students being safe and families receive communication within one hour of incidents. So 96.3% of any incidents that we had occurred families were communicated within one hour. So huge uh progress in that particular area. So up next I'll take a look at students being prepared for life. Um it's always exciting when we think about our students um graduating and their experiences. Their success defines our success. So when we look at how we are
012preparing students for life, the numbers we would say they speak for themselves. This year we graduated almost,00 students um they earn their diplomas and I like to say they earn more than a diploma. Um our graduation rate um was approaching 82% a massive 5% jump since 2023. our students um they excelled um in um their studies with 1,488 students took AP classes and 826 students uh took Kirkwood courses saving families hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition. Um and that is kudos to our district and our partnership making it accessible and also when our students graduate that they're not just walking out with debt. I think that's a community value. Uh, >> in fact, uh, two Kennedy seniors, uh, Malik Sogar and Audrey Ingraham, they both earned their college associate degrees from Kirkwood a week
013before finishing high school. I'll be looking forward to a cohort of these students. Like right now, we have one and two. We're going to get to like 10 and 20 and 30 as we go forward. U, but truly what defines this year is our historic progress in closing equity gaps. Something I know that this board um is very passionate about. Um, when we look at our black and African-American students graduation rates, um, they are up to 80.5%, that is a 9.2% increase. Our students with disabilities and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, they both saw massive gains um, in graduating. Our English language learners, okay, so in the video that we had last week, um, I say, is everybody reporting on ELLL numbers? There were like three schools that were reporting on those numbers. And that's
014important because that means we have high standards for our students and high levels of support. But here um is something that I found to be just spectacular. Um so the graduation rate increased by 7.6% and over 15% of our English learners. They met full proficiency and will exit the ELLL program. That is 250 students achieving proficiency, marking the highest proficiency percentage of Cedar Rapids Community School District students that we have ever achieved. [applause] And I would be remiss if I did not say little Eli from Jefferson High School, uh, Valdor who's was also in our ELLL program. Um and also for prepare for life um our freshman academy it is on the way and we are seeing an uptick um in our students being on track uh for graduation. We're looking at their attendance and
015their credits. This year we moved from at the ninth grade 79% being um looked at as being on track to 83%. Across our district we also reduced our chronic absenteeism from 36% to 28%. and also just a spotlight on just student engagement um and students being u ready for the world. This year we opened our med lab. I know it probably seems like that's been forever at McKinley, but that just happened this year um the med lab at McKinley Steam Academy um and given us an opportunity to really think about what that can look like across our intermediate schools and middle schools um across the district. Finally, we increased our AP advanced placement participation to nearly 35%, workbased learning to over 26% and dual credit enrollment to 19%. And I would like to say we
016are just getting started. >> Yeah. >> So, moving on to priority area number three. Um, as partners, that's parents and staff members, as partners. And I could say a whole lot here. Um, but I just want to say none of the student success uh we celebrate today uh would would be possible without our staff. um who are the most critical partners in this work. We begin this school year by listening, engaging directly um with our communities. Thank you for talking with me staff as I was out in the buildings with talks with Tuana uh to support our students u our staff members. We focused heavily on workforce stability. Um and thank you to our HR team. Let me tell you um they are a strong team down there and although um we know we had
017to make some shifts um they continue to stay focused on the goals and successfully are reducing midyear uh certified resignations by 67%. I see Tammy is in the audience tonight. I think that [applause] deserves a ROUND OF APPLAUSE. UM she does a lot of one-on-one uh conversations just really trying to understand the needs and the options for our staff members and that is really paying off and that takes a great deal of time and commitment. We also expanded our stars grow your own program to include leadership pathways ensuring our staff members have clear opportunities to advance and thrive right here in our school district. And as you would notice uh several of our positions that we've posted lately, they've been internal only. Um it gives us great pride to be able to promote from within.
018We also know that um a strong culture requires meaningful recognition and our staff members being recognized for their work. So, thank you to our comm's team for putting out our staff shout out program this year. Um and we had 2,414 submissions across the district of just hand clap celebrations for staff members. Just wonderful. Thank you for doing that. Um and no school district operates in a vacuum and our success is deeply linked to the strength of our local community partners. This year alone, community volunteers, they gave 17,270 hours of their time. We also uh prioritized intentional collaboration by establishing and ex sustaining vital engagement groups including uh community cabinet which we heard about today, our student cabinet, our teacher cabinets, um all of them and they were involved in any major decision that we were
019making in the school district. they were willing to bring their voice to the table. Also, which I do believe this is probably going to be a national model, our strategic plan executive committee, um our respect team being able to turn like some of our biggest decisions around budgets and rights sizing our school district into the hands of our community. I'm just very grateful for their leadership as well as our community coalition. All diverse groups of stakeholder voices um helping to stay connected and keeping us moving forward within the school district. I got one last area. Thank you for your time uh here tonight. Um we don't have the uh actual students, so I have to tell all the great things about our students and staff. Uh physically responsible. Uh it is a big deal. Um
020and so this year we implemented a zerobased budgeting. Um and you know, we came in Cedar D right alongside our community. um and worked on it together to make sure that we can have a sustainable future and being able to address a $12 million uh budget, but really um making human- centered uh decisions that still allowed us to honor our staff members in the best ways that we could. Um and also as we work through uh some of the challenges of making sure that we could balance our budget, thank you to our finance team for giving us so many options to consider and the board uh making the necessary decisions. But on the back side of that, we know that uh we still try to look for resources and our um different uh team members.
021We were able to secure 5.6 million in grant funding this year also to continue some of the programs. Uh so part of this commitment to long-term sustainability. We know um is rightsizing um our facilities and we will continue to have the necessary feedback and engagement um as we move forward. So, I'll just like to um as we think about moving forward, tonight represents a report on the four strategic priorities that we've been working on all year long. I'm looking forward to getting feedback from the board as well as well as our strategic plan executive committee um as we move forward to adopt a new brand new strategic plan and really um is the plan is being built in so much consideration. um the board um your stakeholder socials that you've had, the surveys that we've
022sent out. Again, the number of committees giving their voice to us understanding um what our community sees um as the right path to the future. So, thank you so much. Um and again, thank you so much to all of our staff members, our family members, and all of our partners across Cedar Rapids um who has been a part of this being an extraordinary, exceptional year in so many ways. Thank you. That concludes my report for tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Lannon. Okay, let's move on to our consent agenda. Um, are there any items on which a director has a comment, question, or further discussion? >> Vice President Drainski, I have a comment uh before we vote on the consent agenda. [clears throat] There are a number of change orders on tonight's consent agenda, and you
023may have noticed that those happen fairly regularly. I just want to remind everyone that we have many construction projects going on. Um, so it always looks like there are a lot of change orders and indeed there are, but I want to assure everyone that our operations folks are keeping close tabs on that and they uh give us a like a running dashboard so that we can keep track of where they're at. Um the industry standard for change orders is 3% of the cost of the project. Right now the change orders for Washington are at 1.28%. Jefferson is 1.03% Harrison is at 1% and the average of all of our construction projects comes out to 58%. So well below the industry standard of 3%. So, I know when I see all those items on the consent
024agenda, I'm like, "Oh, no." Um, but we are keeping tabs on that and we are well within what is acceptable practice. So, just want everyone to know that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Go. And I noticed that several of these are actually decreases, which I like those change orders. So, appreciate that. >> Um, I actually Yeah, thank you. I actually uh I had just asked because I you know just being in the room since November really I was like can you explain a little bit why we decided to do the construction on Jefferson and Wash I know I've gotten that question out in the community. Um and so I got a really nice answer so I thought I would just read it to kind of uh you know just give a brief recap. Um
025so the purpose of the dedicated construction for freshman academy spaces and the college and careermies is to create learning environments that support our broader goal of ensuring every learner is future ready. This work grew out of several connected priorities. Community feedback following the 2023 bond process, the district's strategic plan, the need to improve high school outcomes, and the desire to expand equitable access to high quality college and career readiness opportunities. So, uh, the current spaces at Washington and Jefferson were not sufficient for the full academy model. Some existing CTE spaces were outdated, underutilized, or not configured for modern hands-on instruction. Other areas did not have the flexibility, equipment capacity, or adjacency needed to support academy-based programming, freshman seminar experiences, collaborative teaching, career exploration, and industry aligned learning. These limitations were also observed during the school
026tours connected to the 2023 bond plan planning process. So while declining enrollment is an important consideration, the need here is less about adding general classroom seats and more about creating the right kinds of spaces for modern career connected learning. So this construction supports several key objectives. strengthen the nth grade transition through freshman seminar and smaller learning community structures that help students build belonging, academic habits, career awareness, and a clear plan for high school success. Uh expand access to CTE, college credit, career exploration, and industry connected learning within students home high schools. Improve high school outcomes including attendance, graduation rates, academic performance, student engagement, and post-secary readiness. modernize learning spaces so students have access to safe, flexible, career aligned environments that reflect current workforce expectation and allow for handson applied learning. So Kirkwood and the Lynn
027County Regional Center remain important partners and provide valuable CTE opportunities. However, off-site programming alone does not fully meet the needs of all CR CRCSD students. And some families have commented commented that I don't want to just have to send my kid um to another site to get the education I'd like to prepare them for their career. Um so creating or excuse me transportation can be a barrier especially for students at Jeff. And so in addition some courses have limited seats or waiting lists given the number of students in the district. So creating stronger academy and CTE spaces within our high schools helps reduce those access barriers and allows more students to participate in career connected learning without leaving their home campus. So I thought that was a really good way to that level set me
028so I thought I would I would share it. So thank you Jillian Dr. Lane for that response. >> Appreciate that. >> I'll just I'll just pull one thing out and make a comment too. um you know, as we prepare for the CTE stuff, things are really starting to happen. And so there were, you know, like 60 items in the consent agenda, but I don't want to um forget to just mention, you know, there was a purchase of a new electric vehicle for Jefferson as well as some mobile lifts. So there's that automotive component that is going to be um up and running for this next year, and that is really exciting. So both of those funded through um one through MSAP and the other through the Perkins grant. and I just um I'm really looking
029forward to those opportunities for our kids. >> Thank you, Director Burns. Any other comments on the consent agenda? All right. Are there any items that a director requires to be pulled from the consent agenda for a separate vote? Hearing none. Are there any items on which a director needs to abstain? All right. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Noting that we are removing item 62 which again is the 2026 27 school year base wages for bargained employee groups chauffeers teams and helpers union 238 transportation. Do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> This is a roll call due to the personnel report. >> Director Garlock. >> I. >> Director Burns. I. >> Director Zimmerman. I. >> Director Buyers. Hi. >> Vice President
030Dimski. >> Hi. All right. So, the consent agenda is passed. We have two items tonight under learning and leadership. We'll first hear from Tammy and the teacher handbook advisory committee on amendments made to the teacher handbook. >> Good evening. Thanks for allowing me to be here tonight and talk about the work we've been doing and the lift that we're prepared to take. um uh Aris Colbert was going to be here tonight as well and she is a little bit under the weather so we're going to do this without her but with her um blessings. So you do have the handbook language that um correct you have the handbook language that is being proposed for 2627. While you're not acting on that tonight, I wanted to talk about why that is important and why that's the
031foundation for our work. >> Is Justin coming out? >> Am I doing something wrong, Justin? >> Okay, that was on board. Hold up. >> Having my masters in educational technology is going to make a lot of my friends out there laugh at the fact that the microphone isn't working cuz that's the good. >> Am I going to use this or are you going to use >> use that? But right now, nobody can hear you. They can kind of hear you but not really hear you. Do we hold up? >> Keep going. >> Do you want me to just talk loud? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we have a handbook that's in place that that handles how we do our staffing. And many of us have lived through staffing before. We've had buildings closed. We've had
032somewhat of reconfiguration between Wilson being an elementary and a middle and a two or eight. And so we've ebed and flowed in our district. And this handbook has served us well. What we saw when we got deeper into it that this is really an unprecedented scale of lift where um going by we hope that what we have in here is going to work isn't enough. we have to make sure we have everything in here that sets us up to be as successful as possible. So, we've enhanced some clarity and we have created more consistent support and transpar minimizing this disruption to students and giving staff um some choice in here. So, looking at the updates that you will have and that you'll act on in a meeting, the existing foundation is still true. there isn't
033major changes. I don't want any of our staff to feel anxious about huge changes in our in our handbook. So, the the core foundation exists. Um, we have clarified and expanded some definitions. Um, as an example, we've added a definition of a transition placement pool, which we'll see more as we talk about tonight, which is a tra a place exactly what that says, where people who are in that transition sit for a second because we have a place for them. we just need a minute to get it done and do it correctly. So, we've added some definition. Um, put in a place where we can do some pausing on realignment within buildings so that we might be saving some space and and make some adjusted clear space for people coming in. Um, and as you
034can see, there was some new things added, but really continuing to make sure that we are minimizing the process for our students and our staff. Even though we know, >> Justin, I don't even know what to tell you about this. Even though we know, it's easy to say minimizing, but we are going through a big transition and we're closing buildings. >> So, oh, and there we go. I'm like, I don't have my glasses on. So >> an [clears throat] example of key changes um a teacher in a reconfigured building for example um are going to be asked much earlier on the process. So we will have a a first round transition placement group that will happen first. They'll get the ability to tell us what they would like to do just like they always have.
035But that process you'll see a calendar in a second will happen much early on. So, we'll have preference forms that we have always had, but they will be more tailored to the current situation. Then, we will also have pulse checks for those buildings where it might seem like there's less movement, like the preK through 4, but do those people want to do that? Like, we want feedback from them as well. That might actually create some openings for folks moving over in there. So, there'll be two kinds of check-ins that will happen very early on. And then we might actually preserve some openings that way. And I talked about that earlier that we might tell principles, "Hold a second. I know that person has always wanted to teach second grade and they're in first. Just give
036them a second. We're not going to move them quite yet. >> We might need to save that space. >> The annual staffing will always continue the way we have it. That's when we get our second count of student numbers in February um where we look at is this right for our DM model." So we'll have our first round going on our October count and what we know about our sections and I I'll share that in detail in a second and then we'll have our annual placement of staff. Okay. So beyond the fact that that the handbook is there, that's our start, that's our transition, but that's just our framework. What we're going to make sure we do is we're handling all this with care and clarity and consistency. um after that handbook is is in
037place. So that's just the groundwork. We're working carefully with our communications department about FAQs, staff timelines. There will be toolkits for our principles as well as all of our building folks. Our teacher cabinet will have that as well. Um, then the staff input engagement, the forms I've talked about, there'll be an FAQ, a system that will go up soon, and then their ability to put questions in as well. And, um, an advisory committee that has been put together that I will share the names in a second have already been our thought partners pushing back and giving us input um, all through us ready to roll out right at the start of the school year. I want to also pause and say we have a whole school year that we want our staff to be engaged
038with students, caring, and doing the work that we know they're so good at. So, by putting this out a little early on, knowing that they've done what they need to do, then let us worry for them while they do what they need to do for a whole year. >> So, our guiding principles are the same. They always are. When we staff, it's going to be amped up. And we have a process and a plan in place in human resources to divide up this work and make sure everybody is feeling that um the consistency and care that we want them to have. So how's this look for just our timeline work, our actual work, not the the piece for our staff itelves, but right now and through June, our handbook revisions. Um you guys are going
039to be considering this. We'll have our staffing workflow map and the FAQ development starting in June, which is this week as well. Um, our advisory team are is going to finalize and work on the preference form and the pulse checks, what those look like. We have a a strategic piece of that. They're going to give us feedback working with our comm's team on the tools and all the graphics that roll out for that. We have our principal, our ELT meetings. August 1st and 2nd and we will have their toolkit ready for them to roll out on that day. Um so August to fall that's where the perspectus are finalized of the the model how many sections are actually in a building and the rollout presentation at all the inservice at the start of the school
040year. Then the placement tracking system and all that work. Our goal is our first major milestone is winter break. That folks that are in this transition placement pool should know the majority of them should know where they're landing for the following school year before they go home on winter break. That's our that's our lofty goal. >> Uh this is these are the members of our advisory committee and I will point out they have offered a bi-weekly check-in meeting with us all summer long. they are um just really committed to this process. There's a variet I should have put years of service on here because it ranges from two years to 30 and we have um a couple people in here that closed pul closed [laughter] and they're back on it again and it's nice also
041to hear from them that we survive and it's okay and we're going to thrive. We have three principles on this as well. And now I'd like to take it from that high level to what okay what's this really mean? What's this mean if I'm in a building? And I want to preface this by saying I took real school buildings and real numbers. But I don't want anyone to think this is the actual crystal ball. This is exactly what's going to happen. But this is a big what if. So it helps people just just visualize what's Tammy really talking about. >> So the first thing we would do is make sure all the available teaching sections are identified. And I should have really clarified I am talking about teachers. I'm not talking about paras or secretaries.
042That's all in a different this is truly our certified teaching staff. So cabinet will be looking on the facility capacity and all the needs, the section projections, all of that. Then the preference and interest forms are reviewed. So that's the second spot. Teachers enclosed and reconfigured Gibson. We're going to we're going to roll through Gibson right now. They're going to complete a full staffing preference form telling us what they'd like to do. Um, they're also going to have teachers in all the other reconfigured buildings will complete something shorter, letting us know where they're at. Is this a time that they want to grow and try something else or are they like, I really have to stay here and here's why. Then we review, we look at that, and we're going to talk about, do we
043need to preserve openings? We're going to have meetings with all the principles that are impacted. Um, do we have to delay some realignments to get this over here? is their capacity for what we need to have happen. So if we look at Viola Gibson, we'll do all that work. The projections will happen. We have the handbook language in place and now we have some actual numbers to look at. If we were to take all the current fifth grade teachers that could possibly feed to Viola Gibson, that's 16 that are out there right now in the way that these schools would flow to Viola Gibson. Now, there's a little bit in here where maybe Maple Grove might have a little bit of a boundary shift to West Willow. So, there's a little play in there. And
044those are all like in the weeds that cabinet will be working on with the reconfiguration. The what if projection I had, well, what if we say there's going to be 12 sections of fifth grade and 12 sections of sixth grade because that building itself can have 27 core core um classrooms. So that would be 24. So then what would we do? Well, if all of them wanted to go, that'd be really tough. However, I'm going to click ahead for a second. It might not be because this is Harding's number of sixth grade teachers that are going over. So potentially, if every sixth grade teacher and every fifth grade teacher wanted to go, we would still have room for everybody over there if that's if that's what happened. But let's say we're just going with fifth
045grade. They only want to teach fifth grade. Then we would have to talk about how we maintain a specific percent for the students that are coming over here from these buildings and their staff coming over with them. So that those are the the in-depth conversations that when I talk about percent movement or holding some openings, that's what we're discussing. So we would evaluate other people's second choices. maybe people's second choices just solves this problem as we look at it big big picture. So we'll look at it very holistically and make sure that we get what's best for our students and our staff. This was the Harding one I popped to very quickly. Um right now what we have at Harding is three core dedicated sixth grade four core 67. Um yeah I did it. Hey,
046if somebody's like out there having a game, I said it. Um, so we have four core that are teaching sixth and seventh. Adding that together, there's seven that could teach sixth grade. They're licensed to do that. Um, and then we also have the exploratory teachers at Harding. And all of that is what cabinet and structurally people are working on in academics and on all other areas. It really isn't our staffing work. It's just work that we will help once we know what those numbers are. So, we've got one of these elementary schools in here. What happens then? And then I'm done. This is my last like little moment. So, Nixon is one of the schools that we would take those fifth grade teachers and they're at Viola Gibson and now they have nine teachers. It's
047closed. They have nine core teachers and there's the grade breakdown and other educators are in that building. So, we know they're going to have preference forms. We know we're going to have openings and places. Where do they want to go? But we um probably need to look at where they're going. They're going to Hayawa and Kenwood, I believe. Going to have to dive in and look at that boundary line and how many are going which place. So, we make sure we have some locations for teachers to go with these kids. Okay. So this summer we've got our modeling and everybody's working on that strategic piece. In September we'll be doing our staff preferences. So all staff will that are impacted will get those forms either the quick pulse form or the big preference check. In
048October we'll have our section counts and then that's when they'll be telling us okay you're ready to go to work and we'll be ready to start our transition pool placement after November 1st. Then in February, we have our normal annual staffing. That's when our people coming off. A leave of absence still needs place. Like the the normal work that we do every year. >> Questions. Thank you. >> When do we have our enrollment projection for the next year? When is when is annual verification when do they try to get that done? Carlo, do you want to come tag team with me? >> So, we've talked a lot about this for next year, and we as soon as we can get counts, um October 1st is count day. It takes a little while for us to
049get those numbers solidified and then we'll get them into the staffing model and then we will roll up those numbers. So if um Fiola Gibson has X amount of students in second grade, we'll roll those to third grade and then we'll start look putting it into the staffing model so we can see how many teachers based on the new boundaries we need and how many sections there will be at every building. So we'll be working on that work in October. >> Okay. Oh, because it's we're always a year behind a little bit, right? [music] Correct. Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate you asking that because I know that, you know, much much of this uh depends on our enrollment or section counts and um so I'm yeah I'm just trying to assess
050if we're way off on those numbers or if we have a higher percentage of permitting kind of where do we how do we what's our contingency plan? >> Yeah, so we're working on that right now with our permitting. Um we have a huge spreadsheet thanks to Jillian that she's built with all of our students that are permitting and um we will keep that updated and we'll be working on transitions of teachers uh on June 17th with all the area chiefs of if we have to move any teachers for the fall of 26. And then we'll do the same thing next year. We're going to be looking at okay this is how many sections each one of these buildings has based on the boundaries that we have identified based on the students that are permitting and
051then that's why uh Dr. Oo talked about that we'll start the transition pool placement in November and December, but then as you know through the summer we continue to make adjustments. If we um have more kindergarteners coming into Pierce than we do um Maple Grove, then that's when we start adjusting those teaching numbers. And we say that we'll have all the teachers moved and everything um before August 1st. So there's always a little bit of give and take over those summer months making sure we get it right. >> Any other questions? >> Are there any like financial impacts when we're um what do you call it? Preserving or that pool um keeping those open or is there anything that the board could should consider there? I'm just trying to >> No. Okay. No. >> Okay.
052Doesn't change anything. >> Just part of our slowing down the process within those are things like just >> internal realignment within a building. we might say, "No, don't move your first grade teacher to kindergarten yet. We might need to bring a kindergarten teacher over." Just just preserving some things and giving a pause. >> And I appreciate the pause, the considerations, the adjusting. Um I think these are all necessary as we as we move forward. So, I appreciate that. I I'm I'm just kind of curious. Do you know if um what percentage of our elementary school teachers um do we have any data yet that ex that they're interested in moving to that intermediate? Do we have >> a poll check on that? Honestly, we we don't that's we're going to start real soon. What we
053do know is they just come at me with questions as they do all of you. They want to know what the curriculum is, who the principal is, like what's the start and stop time. So, there are things that other people are working on that are outside our work as the staffing group um that once those are answered, then we'll have a better answer for >> are they ready to go or not. >> Yeah. And the last thing that came up because I know it's it was mentioned some of these parent meetings were were concerns around you know stability for the adults but also what does that look like for our students and familiarity with certain teachers. So I think it was like I know like the Harding example maybe it was not that one but
054incoming students who are unfamiliar with those faces like how do does that weigh into our placement process? >> That's when we talking about like say Nixon that Nixon staff where they would go they're dividing between Hayawa and Kenwood. So, we would want to see what are our numbers. Um, how many kiddos are going over to Kenwood? How many are going to Hayawa? And where do we need to like save a little space, make sure they go? Um, and I'd remind us that our fifth graders that go to sixth grade don't go with folks already. We need to work on that internal transition um as a part of our transition plan for all these kids that are moving. Like, it it might not be just that you're going to get to see at each grade level
055a teacher that was in your building. that's just not going to always be able to happen, but we need to work on it on the end as we're helping kids move over there to make that transition as seamless as possible. >> I appreciate you reiterating that. Yep, that was that Nixon slide, right? Just a lot of information at once. So, thank you. Appreciate that. >> Anything else? >> I just want to say thank you, Tammy. Um, it's it's good to get ahead of this as you guys are doing. >> I know for families, it's always about where does my student go? where's my student going to end up for our staff? I think it's the same question. How is this going to impact me? Where am I going to be the year after next? So,
056I appreciate the work you've done and the honestly the team of people who have volunteered to give up a lot of their time this summer. I that I think shows the commitment of the staff in this district to this reorganization plan and doing it and getting it right. >> So, thank you to all of you. >> Anything else? Yeah, thank thank you Tammy. Thank you also Yurice if you're watching on TV at home. Appreciate it. And the team that that worked on this. Um I particularly like the idea of trying to get as many of those teachers with students as possible and the timeline. Um knowing knowing what's going to happen before winter break is fantastic. So thank you. Appreciate that very much. >> All right. Carla could just just stay up there because the
057next presentation is from Carla on exploration of an early retirement option. >> Yes. So, I'm gonna be talking to you about a supplemental voluntary retirement incentive program. And so, um, as we talk about this, we're going to take a little bit of a look at current district challenges and goals for the framework, why the district, um, is making some of the decisions that it's making. So we have financial and workforce challenges because we have declining enroll uh student enrollment and associated revenue pressures. The school district is looking at the reconfiguration and the consolidation incentives or initiatives. And we also need to generate recurring annual cost savings. And so we we're going to show support to our workforce while we're restructur ststructuring and minimizing disruptions just like uh Dr. Tammy Warro just reported. Um we're going
058to have early leadership succession and transition planning especially for our building administrators. Our organizational goals include re recognizing and rewarding employees for their years of service, supporting employees in making informed retirement decisions, creating advancement and career growth opportunities for our staff that remains. Maintain positive employee relations and organizational morale while facilitating workforce transitions in a respectful and strategic manner. Our strategic objective around our challenges and goals is to implement a voluntary retirement incentive or workforce transition strategy that addresses financial and staffing challenges while honoring our employee contributions, supporting succession planning, and preserving a positive organizational culture. So we are uh proposing a supplemental retirement incentive program for um the 20 uh627 school year. And so this proposed supplemental retirement incentive program will be in addition to the current uh voluntary retirement incentive program policy that
059the district currently has. So the eligibility requirements uh employees must qualify under the current retirement program eligibility and the criteria established in board policy 511 meaning they have attained 55 years of age at the time of retirement and um meet one of the following service requirements. Option A, they have at least 20 years of continuous service as a teacher andor administrator. or option B are eligible for a PR-rated benefit with at least 5 years of service as a teacher andor administrator and were hired before June 30th of 2019. Our benefit administration is that these uh these funds will be deposited into a 403b account during the employees first year of retirement eligibility in accordance with board policy 511. All the incentive uh payments that we have for our voluntary retirement incentive is funded through the
060management fund. The program duration uh will be a one-time offering and applies only to retirements that will be uh effective at the conclusion of the 2627 school year. So the financial package uh criteria and deadline teachers will receive a 20,000 supplemental amount and the criteria will be that only 40 teachers will be accepted into the supplemental program and it will be uh based on a first come first- serve basis and the deadline for this will be November 1st. Our current um board policy does give uh all of our employees until February 1st, but in order to qualify for this supplemental 20,000, you will have to notify us by November 1st. And then for building administrators, we're looking at a $20,000 supplemental amount. And the criteria, we will only take the first five administrators into the
061program and it will be on a first come basis. And the deadline will be 45 days after the board resolution is adopted. So we will be bringing the board resolution to the board on 6:15. And so that will mean that the deadline will be uh July 28th. We will be meeting with all administrators um after the um resolution is passed virtually that are um eligible for this program so that we can give them updates. And then once fall hits, we will be doing a virtual meeting with all of our teachers. But since they're gone for the summer, we won't do that until fall. Um, like I said, additional teachers and or building administrators can retire under board policy 511 until February 1st, and they just will not be eligible for the supplemental program. Um, this
062will cost the district up to 80,000 or $800,000 for teachers and $100,000 for building administrators. And we currently have a balance in the management fund to cover these potential um expenditures. Are there questions? >> Do we have any idea how many teachers andor administrators would potentially qualify for the for this? >> I don't know. For teachers, I haven't done a deep dive into teachers. Administrators, I have seven. >> Okay. teachers are is a little bit tougher to look at. Um, >> yeah, >> because of their years of service. Uh, even for our administrators, I had to go back to Vista and pull up all of our people and look at their personnel records. Um, so I just haven't done that for for teachers yet, but I can do I can do that and look at
063how many are are currently eligible. Um, we really never have 40 teachers take early retirement. 20 years the full 20 years and 55 and that's 92 teachers but with the prorated is the different >> yeah I'm curious about that number too only because of potential staffing charges in certain buildings or like a high density um or even hard to fill areas you know special education ELLL that sort of thing do we have be interesting to see that side by side so we kind of know where to anticipate those departures. >> Yeah. And that's one thing um as we look at teachers um all teachers who fit the criteria and the eligibility will be eligible to participate. You can't section them out and say these teachers can apply and these cannot. You just >> um you
064can't do that based on um board policy and uh regulations. >> Totally. I think just for the board and for district staff to be anticipating that. So we know where are those um areas going to exist and how to fill them and get a head start on that potentially. >> Yeah. And that's why we're doing the November 1 deadline. It does um line up very well with uh Dr. Warro's uh timeline so that she can get those teachers um out of their placements so that we have room for other people to fill in. Mhm. >> That was what I was actually going to ask is it I I >> assumed that was the strategy was that we're we're giving incentive. The incentive is based on getting those decisions earlier so we can make better decisions
065on the staffing >> beyond that. Okay. Absolutely. >> I want to make sure we said that out loud. Absolutely. That's that's the the hope is that people who if they're thinking about it with this incentive they will give us early notice. >> Is this a model that we've seen somewhere? Have we actually used something like this? Can you talk about how we >> we have we did it in 2010? >> Okay. >> Um so the district has done this before. Um having a supplemental amount for for retirements. >> It's just been a while. And I guess I'm thinking then those positions do we know without knowing what the positions are, but if they're fully replaced, if they're partially replaced or they're just, you know, >> Yeah. And so it will depend on, you know, if
066it's a fifth grade teacher that leaves and in and when everything shakes out. We don't need as many fifth grade teachers as we currently have. if it's um kindergarten, you know, it will just depend on where we see the retirements and then how through the staffing process we're able to move teachers um into the true vacancies that we have. >> That's helpful. Just trying to discern, you know, the um the amount we're putting out there, right, for the incentive program and then the benefit of that and yeah, >> weighing those side by side, >> but a lot of things to consider. So, >> yeah. What? >> It was more than >> Dr. Waro, if you if you're responding, could you go to the microphone? Thank you. >> In 2010, it was actually $25,000. Oh, wow.
067>> So, it was a bigger amount. Um, and you could go to your because that archives because I was trying to figure out where was that and when was it. So, it was a bigger amount um even then and more people took advantage of it. There is not a crystal ball on this. And so we can pull our numbers and we can have that, but then we might not know if they're ready for yet or if they're like what their life decisions made. Insurance is a big decision because that's something they're we do want people to know they have their post-employment health plan that can start in right away. That's not um that wasn't there before in the in [music] the year uh when they gave it in 2010. So, I think that number had
068to be higher to help people with their insurance. So, there's a lot of things that we will just have to support people with in that decision-m, but there is no crystal ball on what's going to have a person take it. We might have to be asking middle school people, do you want to go teach freshman academy because that was a nth grade retirement. Like, we are going to have to have those discussions. Um, but this gives us room to make some room. >> Yeah. I think it's also important to see the projected um retirements as well to understand you know what were we maybe what were people already planning to do and did you know did that align with the number we already had projected if that makes sense um just to see the validity
069of the of this incentive program and um I don't know if I basic just trying to reiterate that like if we know how many may retire Um are we incentivizing it's it's just for the um expedited timeline, right? Okay. Just >> if they would have already retired or if you know so I understand the the gold incentive program just trying to get um more data around you know how many people and then how many people choose. We can pull that data of um we can put them into a pivot table and tell you how many are elementary teachers, how many are middle school. >> Um >> yeah, and just how many are >> that are eligible. Yeah. >> Anticipated without the enhanced incentive, but I'm excited about the incentive program. Just kind of curious about
070what those look like side by side. >> Do we do we know typically how many people retire in a year over the last few years? >> I don't know. >> Less than 40. The answer was around 40 for those that >> didn't around 40. Okay. >> Yeah, we can go back and look at the previous years and get you like the last year, five years of data. We have spreadsheets that have all them listed and we can tell you the last five years how many teachers have retired each year. >> Maybe you said this, Tammy, but why did we do this in 2010? [music] >> So that was 40 was at the retirement lunch and so that wasn't just teachers. So we've we haven't had 40 teachers. And so I do think not just getting
071it sooner, but there might be people on the bubble like I'm going to go in the next couple years. This may help push that like not just earlier. Um 2010 was coming off of a 08 like go into what was happening in '08 and 09. our district had lost a lot of funding and we were looking for turnover savings then and they and Carla can talk much better to this than myself but we will save in turnover um savings and that's Dr. Benson was here at the time and initiated that to actually just save money. We needed to to still hire but hire at a lower salary, >> lower cost. >> Yeah. Okay. >> And may I add one note uh here? I just want to uh say to the board, I think you all
072received an email from one of our teachers just inquiring. I think part of the motivation is not just about trying to create space, but we are redesigning, reconfiguring our school district. And for some people, they've been in their their jobs, their roles, their grade levels for so long and maybe they weren't thinking about it, but they are now because, you know, maybe they don't want to um invest uh you know, for that particular change. And so I do think uh just your consideration is honoring um people's opportunity to kind of decide how they want to move forward within our system as well. >> I appreciate you pointing that out because I remember the email and so >> full circle. Thank you. >> Yeah. Other questions the board members? Again, thank you. Appreciate it very much,
073Carla and Tammy. All right. We have a couple of uh board governance items on the agenda tonight and that's the appointment of the school board secretary and treasurer. And we're going to begin with the appointment of the board secretary. Um the re resolution I'll read the resolution. It reads as a resolution for the appointment of secretary of the board of directors of the Cedar Rapids Community School District in the county of Lynn, state of Iowa. Whereas chapter 279.3 code of Iowa provides that the board of directors shall appoint a secretary. Therefore, be it resolved that Jillian Schulty be hereby appointed as the secretary of the board of directors beginning July 1, 2026, and shall qualify for set appointment by taking the oath of office in the manner required by section 277.28, and thereafter shall hold
074office until a successor is appointed and qualified, and be it further resolved that this action shall be entered into the record into the minutes of the school corporation. Is there a motion to approve the resolution appointing Jillian Schulty as the school board secretary? >> I move that the board of education appoint Jillian Schulty as a school board secretary as set forth in the resolution. >> Moved by Director Garlock. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Director Zimmerman. This is a roll call vote done by said >> indeed. >> Secretary. >> Director Carlock. >> Hi. >> Director Burns. >> Hi. >> Director Zimmerman. >> Hi. >> Director Buyers. I, >> Vice President [music] Dreski. >> I So with that, I have the honor of doing your uh oath at this time. >> You'll have to let
075us know if we stand in a bad spot there, so you can't I'll say it loud. All right. And raise your right hand. Do you Jillian Schultey swollen solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and you'll faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge the duties of the office of secretary of the Cedar Rapids Community School District in the county of Lynn State of Iowa as now and hereafter required by law. If so, respond by saying, "I do." >> I do. >> All right. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Y. [applause] >> All right. The next appointment to it will be the board of uh treasurer. The resolution reads a resolution for the appointment of treasurer to the board of directors of the
076city rabbits community school district in the county of Lynn state of Iowa. Whereas chapter 279.3 code of Iowa provides that the board of directors shall appoint a treasurer. Therefore, be it resolved that Carla Hogan be hereby appointed as treasurer of the board of directors beginning July 1st, 2026, and shall qualify for set appointment by taking the oath of office in the manner required by section 277 uh.28, and thereafter shall hold office until a successor is appointed and qualified. And be it further resolved that this action shall be entered into the record in the minutes of the school corporation. Is there a motion to approve the resolution appointing Carla Hogan as the board treasurer? >> I move that the board of education appoint Carla Hogan as the board treasurer as set forth in the resolution. >>
077Thank you, Director Garlock. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I'll let you choose who who won that one. We're giving it to Director >> Director Zim. >> Director Director Zimmerman. Okay. Uh this is a roll call vote as well. >> Director Garlock. >> Hi. Director Burns. >> Hi, >> Director Zimmerman. >> Hi, >> Director Buyers. >> Hi, >> Vice President Drainsky. >> I All right. right hand. Do you solemnly swear that you'll support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa and that you will faithfully and impartially to the best of your ability discharge the duties of the Office of Treasure in the Cedar Rapids Community School District as now and hereafter required by law? If so, respond by saying, "I do." >> I do. >> All right.
078>> [applause] >> I do want to uh just briefly take uh the opportunity to note that this will be the last uh full board meeting for Mr. Zimmerman and uh he'll be headed down to Liberty High School to be the principal. I'm sure they're they're very lucky to have you and uh we will miss you um greatly but excited for you and your family and this this next step forward. So, thank you, Adam, for all you've done over the years for the Cedar Rapids School District. It's very much appreciated. [applause] Uh the next uh I want to provide notice that the board has an open enrollment closed session scheduled for Monday, June 15th, and the next regular board meeting will be on Monday, July 13, 2026. Do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting?
079>> So moved. >> And a second. >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose, same sign. All right, we are adjourned at 6:35 p.m. Thanks everyone.