001There's a Oh, I saw uh something come through. I was getting up speed on things and it said >> it was really good. >> Can I Can you hear me? >> All right. I now call to order the Board of Education regular meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Is there a motion to approve the agenda for the Monday, September 8th, 2025 meeting? >> I move the on Monday, September 8th meeting be approved as set forth and that each item is considered ready for discussion andor action. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. >> All right. Tonight we are joined by the Cedar Rapids Community Schools Foundation Chair Lori Y who will provide us with an annual report. >> Good evening. Um
002I'm very um happy to be here tonight and thank you for the opportunity to share what has been a really great year again for the foundation. You all should have received the 2025 annual report but just wanted to highlight a few things uh from that report and and a couple of other additional items. We reached a tremendous milestone uh in 2025 reaching $2.5 million in assets with an investment return of 12.5%. And so um a lot of work by many people um over several years. I can't underscore enough um that this success was achieved through uh the very generous community that we are part of. the trust and reputation that has been earned in large part uh through Karen and her work and relationships that she has built and through the our trustees. Uh we
003take our role as financial stewards of these generous gifts very seriously. So uh kudos uh to uh the team and all for that great milestone success. We're heading strong into our new school year with our three main programs, college and career pathways. Uh our professional excellence fund, which in 2025 um impacted 33 teachers across 16 schools, dispersing 20 thou $22,000 uh to those teachers for professional excellence and are ensuring extracurricular funds which reach 420 students. um dispersing $50,000 across various areas of uh academics, sports, performing arts, and enrichment. We've had a significant growth in our fiscal agent program with awareness of parent groups seeking strong uh our strong financial turn returns, professional donor stewardship, and increased liability coverage. So, uh, for those that may not know the fiscal, um, agent program, um, as an example,
004as a parent, I've been involved, um, in as a parent lead in, uh, various, um, either sports, academics, or, um, performing arts programs and helping to fund raise for those programs anywhere from range from programs that we raise $3,000 up to $50,000. And what the fiscal agent program does is we can house those dollars in the fiscal agent program. They're kept tight and secure. Uh the team is able to if we have need to pay out vendors, if we need to do reimbursements, that all flows through the fiscal agent uh program that goes into the pool of dollars. So we get a return if um if the fund does well. as a parent being involved in that I have um it gives me ease because that can be um you know those are do donor
005dollars and I know that they're in good hands in good care and as I transition from leadership in those programs they are always the consistent um as schools you should also um be very glad to have this program in place um it definitely is a liability um having the fiscal agent program be in charge of those dollars uh versus parents um is is a good thing for the schools in the school district um as well. I'm a big proponent of the fiscal agent program and anything uh that I've uh been involved in and that again has had significant growth. We've been able to hire second staff person um in Patty Lucas. She's a part-time uh coordinator fiscal agent program and demonstrates incredible customer service and um and diligence in that program just as uh Karen
006had um prior to that. Above all uh I am incredibly proud that we keep at the heart of our mission and vision in all that we do. uh we model the way uh through the board of trustees. We have a teacher and student representative and what that does uh as trustees that what that does is ensures that we always stay true to our purpose and that we're leading alongside and not for. Uh we always also start each of our board meetings with the mission moment. Um that is our reminder uh that of our why and why we do our work. And I'd like to share a couple of these stories. Um they come from our student enrichment program. Um teachers that have sent thanks uh for that program. And as an aside, uh in the
007first week of the school year, we've had 59 applicants from teachers uh for that student enrichment program, which allows them to enrich their curriculum in the classroom. We recognize many teachers are going into their own pockets uh to uh do those kind of nice and engaging things in their classrooms and we want to be able to help uh in a small way. The first story uh dear Karen, thanks to you and the Cedar Rapids Community School Foundation for funding a student enrichment grant for our Madison Elementary Library. Our students are so excited to read these popular new library books. Many of the titles were requested by students on our new book wish list. The library fairy has brought magic to our library. Each week, the fairy posts a sign by her door of a library
008book that she is currently reading. Many students have written letters and notes to her and are thrilled when she replies the following week. Students have also suggested books that this that the fairy should read. Thank you for bringing joy and happiness to our library. And our sec second mission moment that we had. Hi Karen. I am writing to share a meaningful in a meaningful event that took place today in support of a marginalized group of students uh that are English language learners. I had the privilege of organizing a graduation party to celebrate a truly remarkable achievement. 10 of my elelll seniors are successfully graduating this year. High school pres presents many challenges for our ELELLL students from navigating a new language to adapting to a different culture all while meeting rigorous academic expectations. Despite these
009hurdles, each of these students showed exceptional determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, many of my ELLL students do not typically receive graduation celebrations, and I wanted to change that. This celebration was a way to recognize their accomplishments, honor their hard work, and give them a moment to feel truly seen and celebrated. It was a joyful and emotional occasion that meant the world to them and to me and to the other staff in attendance. I am grateful for the work the foundation does to support education in our community. Lastly, I'd like to end with an ask. Uh we ask that the foundation be kept top of mind to all of you as a trusted and respected fiscal agent as business and community donors further their work to further their support of the vision of CR schools. Thank you
010>> questions. >> I just want to say thank you for the report. I read through the the report that you sent and it's just impressive what this foundation still does and I too am a huge advocate for the fiscal agent program and think that those um when people give money they should know that it's being stewarded well. So thank you for everything that you do. >> Yes, ditto to that. Thank you for everything. Um it's really impressive. And I was uh I had a couple questions. I was curious that 12.5% investment return what how does that compare to last year? >> Uh last year it was 14.6. Okay. So, it's >> slightly down, >> but still great. Still pretty impressive. >> All of that is passed on to the fiscal agents. >> Karen, can you
011get on the mic? Will you get on the mic, please? >> Oh, apologies. It was um 14.6. Um this year's 12.5. And um all of our investments are passed on to the fiscal agents. If you have a balance of any kind, um because that's not our money. we're stewarding it for those organizations. And so, for example, if the pot of money that you have is 18% of our entire budget, you get 18% of the amount of what that return was. So, we pass those um investment gains, whether it's through general checking, CDs, money market accounts, or um investments um right back to the fiscal agents. So they're making good money on on what they have versus having it in a checking account. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much. And then I was just curious with
012the student enrichment program, you mentioned a certain number of applications, 55 maybe. Um are we are some of them going unfunded or are we able to fund most of them? Kind of where is that sweet spot? >> Oh, no. It just that Lori said what had happened just this past week. >> Oh, wow. It opened um it always opens the Tuesday after Labor Day. And so in four days we funded what was it >> 59 >> applications at a total I think it was about $12,680. >> Okay. >> But that will stay open until we run out of the budget and the budget is 35,000. So they're still they still keep coming in. It was just what was received in the last week. So once that budget is cashed then uh then people are informed
013of that like educators are aware that that is um no longer available. >> Okay. The program has closed the school year. Yes. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Worthy. Anyone else? >> I have a question. Hi, it's Jennifer. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Awesome. Hey, thank you so much for this work. It's super valuable and I I just always love the foundation and and what uh philanthropic giving can achieve. So, thank you for that. Um, can I just get some clarification? I'm I think that this is an optional program. So, if there's still like a a 501c3, if there's still like a PTA that wants to maintain their own finances, they are able to do so. This is entirely optin. Is that correct? >> Yes. For the fiscal agent program,
014>> you don't have to be one. >> That's what I thought. Thanks for clarifying. >> You're welcome. All right. Okay. Well, thank you, Lori. >> Thank you so much. All right. Tonight, we will start with hearing from those who have requested to address the board. Board Secretary Schulty, do we have any requests this evening? >> We do. We have two requests. >> Okay. With two speakers this evening, we will uh begin you will be given up to five minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker. Board Secretary Schultzy will serve as your timer and indicate when your time has expired. If you have submitted a request to address the board and choose to refrain from speaking in the interest of equality and fairness, your time may not be allotted to
015another speaker to abide by the open meetings law. There will be no dialogue between board directors and the public during this time except to clarify the nature of questions or comments from the individuals speaking. Audience and speakers refrain from using inappropriate language and outbursts as a matter of respect for all in attendance. This board has zero tolerance for profanity, vulgarity, demeaning language, or threats of any kind. Lastly, I'd like to remind our speakers that the board cannot address personnel and or student matters. The board policy outlines a process for addressing and resolving concerns. We ask that speakers refrain from using personal names and information during public comment. Before we begin, I'd like to remind our speakers to state their names and addresses when called to the podium. Board Secretary Schulty, please call our first speaker.
016>> Our first speaker is Kevin Wymore talking on the topic of bond ballot language. >> Thank you very much. My name is Kevin. I live at 451 Pine View Drive Northeast in Rapids. And um I should be able to conclude my uh report very quickly here because it's a simple suggestion to improve the uh ballot language for the November 4th bond election. Um quite simply you could include the term of the bond. Um to my knowledge uh I I did read and other people agreed that the term of the bond uh was not in the in the draft um information that was included with the with the uh attach or the agenda. Um of course it is a to my understanding a 20-year obligation. Um, in 2023, the Marian and Anamosa districts did include the
017term of their bond request um, in the 2023 election. Uh, and I quote, they they said their um, uh, period, their term was 10 years. And so by including this key length of loan language, you give voters more critical information on which to base their votes. Um, and by comparison, and I think this is an important comparison, federal law does require mortgage issuers to uh tell bar borrowers of of home loans the length of their mortgage loans. um and for very good reason and I think there's very good reason to do it here as well as the uh people who uh made the decision uh for the Marian district and the Anamosa district in 2023. Um I hope you take my suggestion to heart. Thank you very much and I appreciate your help. >> Thank
018you. Our next speaker is Ron Corbett and the topic is the bond vote. >> Good evening, uh, Madame President, board of directors, uh, Dr. Grover and, uh, staff. My name is Ron Corbett. I'm live at 286 Thunderbird Road Southeast. Today, I'm representing the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance. We were one of the many organizations that participated in the signature collection calling for a bond vote on November 4th and we're here today to en encourage you to uh vote yes later in your meeting to move that forward to allow the people of Cedar Rapids, Hayawa, and PO that live in the Cedar Rapids School District a chance to vote on that. We uh had a lot of work in front of us when the task was presented to collect all these signatures and it certainly was
019a tedious task but when the burden is shared by a lot of people it makes the task uh easier and actually it it makes it fun. We uh kicked off everything at the June 7th first market of the year the downtown market. There was quite a few people there, probably 15 to 20,000 people. But we set up tables and we had uh an effort. Well, first we had the student clubs. From uh Kennedy, we had the tennis team, boys tennis team. From Jefferson, we had the cheer squad. And from Washington, we had the Adastra and the Interact Club. Uh those students showed up, some of them in mascots, but many of them were there to help uh blow up balloons and pass out balloons to all the kids that come down to the market. They
020tied those balloons on uh on wagons and and strollers and they had had a great time. We had almost all the board members, if they weren't there that day, they were at other events uh stepping up and helping. Uh Dr. Grover and staff members were there. We had a lot of teachers and we had, you know, so many parents that were there that that first day and and community uh volunteers. We collected over 1,500 uh signatures uh that day and it really helped provide some momentum to collect the number that we needed to uh collect. Uh on August 16th, we uh did another big signature drive at the downtown market and this time we had 21 principles >> uh come to the event along with staff and Dr. Grover was there and the board members
021and I would joke with uh President Garlock on several occasions. Um, I what I like about this board and you and her and everyone involved with this is that you weren't asking somebody else to do something you weren't willing to do yourself. And we appreciate that. When people see the principles there and they see the superintendent and they see the the board members there, they know that you're committed to it. And I know you are. And all of you, all of the board members have contributed financially out of their own pocket for the campaign. That's leadership. And uh we collected the signatures and finished it up on the the last day of the Labor Day weekend on that Monday at the Hawkeye Labor Council uh which they're also supporting uh this effort that uh gave
022us a little bit of a cushion to allow you to go through the the list and and uh verify everyone which I think has been done successfully and you were board. This will give this the people of the school district a chance to speak their voice. But let me just tell you, people are already stepping up and and amplifying their voice. organizations that have already supported this. The Cedar Rapids Education Association, Hawkeye Labor Council, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City Buildings and Trades, that's the plumbers, the pipe fitters, the electricians, um, uh, the carpenters, the Lynn County Board of Supervisors, the Lin County Historical Society, which is the aka the History Center, Bruce Moore, NAACP, Tanninger, YPN, Newokco. foundation to the Zack Johnson Foundation, Matthew 25, all these organizations, their boards formally endorsed, their executive directors formally
023endorsed this this effort. The mayors of the three towns, Mayor O'Donnell, Mel Dodson, and Mayor Van Kirkov from PLO. Uh, state senators uh Bennett, state senate uh Donahghue, state senate stay, state senator mccllintok, republicans and democrats in the house. Representative Cooling, Representative Elhert, Jordan, Ramirez and Wilson. These are all people that have formally endorsed this and there'll be more before the the time comes to vote, but we would hope that you would uh vote yes tonight and move this on to the citizens so they can have their say. Thank you. >> Thank you. I will now give the meeting over to Dr. Grover to share her report. Thank you, Vice President Roundtree, and um just a huge thank you to our community uh for the report we just heard. I'll pick up with the bond
024here uh in just a few moments, as well as we appreciate uh the suggestions that we heard on the floor. Also, I'd like to start tonight uh with our student spotlights. turn our attention over to Pierce Elementary School. This evening, we're honored to recognize McKinley Allen, a remarkable fifth grader from Pierce who truly embodies what it means to be a Pierce Panther. She is a young lady well on her way to being college and career ready. McKinley is a student who consistently challenges herself to do her personal best. She demonstrates curiosity and perseverance in all learning environments. While in small group settings, she naturally steps into a leadership role, guiding her peers with both confidence and collaboration. Beyond academics, what makes her stand out is her kindness. She treats others with respect, offers encouragement, and
025sets an example of what it means to be a positive member of our school community. McKinley's dedication, leadership, and compassion represent the very best of Pier students, and we are proud to celebrate her this evening. Congratulations, McKinley. Now, I'll move us over to Oh, yeah. Thank you. Look in the audience. Sometimes they're here. We love it when you come, so please come. Um, we'll move you over to Wilson Middle School where we have Kyrie Sanders. Our next spotlight is an eighth grader, Kyrie, and he is always positive in school and athletics. He never puts classmates or teammates down, but instead he builds them up. He is responsible in class and respectful to adults in the building. Kyrie is a great school leader and a role model at Wilson Middle School. All right, our last student
026spotlight of the evening is Vera Ael. She's a 12th grader at Washington High School. She is a proud alumni. I always love when they go back to their middle schools and their elementary schools of Kinwood Leadership Academy and Franklin Middle School. At Washington, she has embraced new opportunities by participating in orchestra, show choir, and student senate. Academically, Barah has challenged herself with four years of French, nine advanced placement courses, and 10 Kirkwood concurrent enrollment classes. As a junior, she earned her CNA certification through rigorous Kirkwood coursework and now works at a care center using that industry credential. Vera exemplifies what it means to be a future ready warrior. Curious, hardworking, and prepared to achieve her goals. Let's congratulate Vera. [Music] Now, move us over to our priority areas. Priority area number one, safe and secure.
027We're excited to share following our second week of school that we've seen significant improvements already in student behavior. While we expect 100% of our students to behave properly 100% of the time, uh we're very proud of the progress that we're seeing. Physical aggression is down 23% compared to the same time last year. Just two quick shout outs. Um in terms of setting clear expectations, uh and our staff members working hard with our students. I visited Cedar River Academy. I had some time to to walk the hallways with the building principal and talk to staff and students. Um, and I can say that it was a noticeable difference even just in the hallways and the classrooms. It is clear that staff spent significant time working on expectations and student recognitions. They are setting the stage for
028a great school year with their early behavior numbers that we're monitoring showing a 32% decrease from last year. also had the opportunity to visit Wilson Middle School. We have a new principal, Getinger, um and the whole team. Um I witnessed their new processes that they have in place and they were persistent. Um they've been hard at work on setting expectations and ensuring students are maximizing their learning time. They've seen a 20% decrease in physical aggression from this point last year. This is important to us because we are striving for safe and secure um knowing that our students are supported and their environments where they are ready to learn. Another opportunity for our families to engage us um in our safe and secure efforts. We will be hosting our safe and secure learning nights here at
029the ELSC on September the 16th from 5 to 6:00 p.m. Um I would encourage parents and staff members to come out. This is a great um opportunity um not just to hear from us, but we can hear from you also where you can have some of your questions answered. If you ever want to know uh or share anything about safe and secure learning, we invite you, we will be here uh to support you. Please join us. It truly does take a team when we're thinking about how we move forward with safe and secure learning. We want to also highlight our district operations team. Uh when principal Monarch at the Harrison and Madison Harrison at Madison this year put out a call for help to address traffic flow. Um I have a few people u that
030live in that area so they know what I'm talking about. We did have some traffic flow challenges um at the newly combined school, but our operations team, they were quick to respond. So, thanks to the efforts of Rob, Mike, Andrew, Connor, Drew, Chris Gates, and Chad, the team partnered with the school to design a new and improved traffic flow plan for pickup and drop off times. They also rolled up their sleeves to help direct cars during dismissal, ensuring that the changes work smoothly. Um, and their collaboration has paid off. The improvement not only makes things easier for staff and families, but it also helps students get home more safely um and efficiently. So, I want to thank you to this dedicated team and I want to also say thank you to our parents and our
031community members who were patient with us as they work through these new processes. Moving us over to priority area number two. Uh, thank you. I do have a little bit of a report tonight. We are back in school. Um, September is attendance awareness month. We have an attendance goal that at least 80% of our students that they attend school 90% of the time. We have seen an increase from 78% last August to 86% this August. So, thank you again to our parents and our families. We're starting out strong in September with our students attending school. We know that that is a first step in learning is to be present in school. So, thank you again over at priority area number two, prepared for life. Let's talk about our preschool efforts. Certainly, um this is um
032hats off to our board of education. This has been a legislative priority for our board for the last few years. Uh and we are seeing some increases. We have increased our enrollment for preschool. We are currently at 811 students. Um adding 2172 new seats uh this school year. We've also partnered where we're offering free half-day preschool and tuitionbased full day preschool option. We actually still have a waiting list for our full day uh program. And so we will continue uh with efforts and partnership with community partners such as Head Start and others to make sure that any um student in early childhood education that they will have a place where they can start school early. Thank you. Um priority area number three, um I wanted to give an update here to the board of education
033around our fine arts conversation. um just want to thank um our teachers as well as our community member for their heart uh and passion around the arts and bringing it to us as an opportunity to partner together. On Tuesday, September the 2nd um members of our executive cabinet along with director Newman and I we met with teachers, students, and community members interested in improving fine arts programming in our district. Uh the conversation is surfaced uh areas of improvement um and potential solutions. So, I really appreciate that they came to the table um with some solutions um and opportunity to bring others to the table. The group agreed that there was a collective will as well as an exciting path forward to work together to improve programming on behalf of our CRCSD students. We're committed to
034working uh together and our next steps include smaller planning group convening to plan a larger engagement of interested staff members. We've already had at least 20 staff members um that have indicated that they would like to participate in a larger group. Uh and we welcome that. Our next meeting is scheduled for 911. Priority area number three, uh our staff recognition program. I think this is kind of hot off the press. Uh thank you to our communications team. We're excited to announce that our staff shout out program officially launches next week. This program allows staff and families to recognize any Cedar Rapids Community School District team member. That means anyone can um submit a staff recognition as well as any staff member can be recognized. Staff members who are recognized will receive a postcard at their
035school within two weeks letting them know why they're being celebrated and by whom. We also aim to notify employees direct supervisor or principal of each recognition. Going forward, we will highlight these shoutouts in staff newsletters, board reports, and social media and more. Priority area number four, community uh foundation update. Um, as we think about being physically responsible, the district has received a $2,500 grant from the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation to support field trips to Orchestra Iowa, giving students opportunity to experience live symphonic music as part of their learning. Thank you to our community partners. Kennedy High School has received $2,500 for Trees for Kids, a grant from the Iowa DNR to support campus beautifification projects led by the Kennedy PTO. And priority area number four. Um, a lot of attention here already tonight as
036it relates to our bond signatures. This is another opportunity to say a huge thank you to our community. This is indeed a community effort and you heard about all of uh the people engaged and involved, people from all walks of life, backgrounds, so much support um in terms of signatures, in terms of statements, resources, all the things. Um and so that leads us to this point here tonight. We did receive 6,82 signatures collected. So, thank you to the Believe in CR schools committee. Um, and we also had the signatures uh verified by our board secretary uh which tonight uh we will be um submitting for your consideration 6,199 verified. That still gives us um enough signatures to get on the bond uh for the November ballot. Again, we want to thank the efforts of Believe
037in CR Schools Committee and everyone everyone who took the time to collect signatures to represent the desires of our community. And that concludes my report tonight. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Grover. Next up, we're going to have Director Humbles, and she will provide us with our staff highlight. Uh the board of education would like to highlight Mrs. Becky Herman. We're celebrating the celebrating the dedication and growth of one of our own, Becky Herman, a teacher at Iowa Big. Becky dedicated more than 200 hours to the 2025 Iowa Steam Teacher externship program. She spent about six weeks full-time on site with New Boo Co. here in in Cedar Rapids where she supported their operations, gathered fresh ideas to bring back to the classroom, and saw firsthand the 21st century skills our
038students need to succeed in today's workforce. This isn't Becky's first externship experience. She returned for a second summer with New Boo, continuing to strengthen the bridge between education and realworld opportunities. And she didn't stop there. She is also helping girls who code plan their fall session. We are so grateful for Becky's commitment to lifelong learning and for the valuable insight she's bringing back to her students. Her work is a powerful example of how educators are preparing future ready learners. Thank you. [Applause] >> That's awesome. Okay. Do we have any uh directors who have board reports? I know Director Tamisky, you have one. Is there anybody else or is that it? All right. Director Tamiski, >> I do. >> Great. Uh, I have a report for the facilities and finance committee. Uh, Chris Gates provided updates
039on several facility projects, including McKinley Science Lab, Harrison Elementary, Hoover, and Vanurren Elementary, and the Jefferson and Washington College and Career Readiness projects. They also shared progress photos, estimated cost, and timelines. Um, he also reviewed Pebble projects in summer projects. The Franklin Track project and Kennedy building automation upgrades are still in progress. Uh, this year the operations team offered Pebble grants for school initiated projects. Eight schools received up to $25,000 each. Erskin, Harding, Grantwood, Pierce, Nixon, Wilson, Roosevelt, and McKinley. Carla Hogan uh she shared updates on recent bond sales and Chad Schumacher provided information on the upcoming bond vote. Uh Chad also discussed the board policy on naming district facilities and shared overall construction uh costs for the Jefferson and Washington projects. So as you can see the team has been quite busy uh over
040the summer and uh we were excited to get that update as a committee. That is the report. Thank you so much. All right, moving on to our consent agenda. Upon cons consultation with district leadership, I learned that we need to have further discussions relates to extended learning opportunities, which was in section four of the consent agenda. Specifically, we need additional documentation related to program participation. District leadership anticipates that agreement will be presented to the board at our next meeting on September the 22nd. Are there any other items on which a director has a comment or question or requires the item to be pulled from the consent agenda? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda without item four as stated earlier? So moved. >> Is there a second? So >> moved. >>
041Second. Second. >> This is a roll call vote. This is a roll call vote due to the personnel report. >> Director Taminsky. >> I. >> Director Borcharding. >> I. >> Vice President Roundree. >> I. >> Director Humbles. >> I. >> Director Newman. >> I. >> Director Buyers. >> I. >> President Garlock. >> I. >> Thank you. All right. We have three items uh tonight under administration. First, we will start with a resolution ordering an election on the issuance of $117 million general obligation school bonds. I will return I will turn it over to board secretary Schultzy for delivery of the petitions and a few words. >> Great. A position a petition requesting an election on the issuance of bonds was filed with me on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2025 by the believe and see our schools
042committee. The petition requests an election be called on the issuance of general obligation school bonds in an amount not to exceed $117 million to provide funds to remodel, repair and improve, including architectural, civil, electrical, HVAC, safety and accessibility, structural and technology upgrades to furnish and equip McKinley Middle School building, Wilson Middle School building to convert to elementary programming, Roosevelt middle school building and Kennedy High School, including constructing, furnishing, and equipping additions to add high school college career programming and expand commons and kitchen areas and site improvements. In order for the board to accept the petition and call the election, the petition must be signed by at least 25% of those voting at the election of school officials. At the previous election of school officials, there were 21,425 ballots cast in the last election of Cedar
043Rapids Community School District school officials on November 7th, 2023. 25% rounded up is 5,356 signatures required. The petition turned in has been signed by 6,82 people and upon verification I counted 6,199 signatures from eligible electors. There were 603 signatures that did not meet eligibility criteria. Eligible electors must reside within the Cedar Rapids Community School District and provide all of the information asked on the petition, including their signature, a street address, city, and a full date. Since the signed petition with sufficient signatures has been submitted, it is recommended that the board adopt the resolution ordering an election on the issuance of 117 million general obligation school bonds on November 4th, 2025. >> Are the signatures? >> Okay. Before I open it up for other board members to comment on that, I'm uh President Gardlock would like
044to have comments about the bond. >> Yeah, thank you, Vice President Roundtree. I want to just offer my thanks to the entire community. Uh this has been a process and it has involved a lot of hard work both by district personnel and by folks in the community starting with all of those people who served on the facilities master plan committee. They sat through monthly meetings pouring through pages and pages and pages of data um and they stuck with us so that we could make uh come up with a plan that really represented what the community wanted um in terms of facilities. I want to also obviously give a shout out to Ron Corbett and all of the work that the economic alliance has done to help us move this issue forward. As Ron highlighted earlier,
045it was a massive effort on the part of many many people to gather up the pet the signatures for the petition. So, to all of those people who wore their I believe NCR schools t-shirt, uh we say thank you and wear your t-shirt proudly. Um I know everyone on this board um supports this bond issue. We all know how important it is for our students to have the best possible facilities that we can provide to them. So, I appreciate the support of individuals in our community and the community as a whole for getting behind this uh signature drive and we are looking forward to getting this on the ballot um and providing what our students deserve. So, thank you to everyone. >> Absolutely. Were there any other comments from other >> I would like to
046add a comment there and and I just want to say that not only is this incredible incredibly important as President Garlock said for students but it's also integral for staff and our staff deserve this as well. They deserve they deserve new learning facilities that they can teach in with um modern approaches um with consistent heating and cooling with appropriate lighting with all of the things that this effort will bring. So again, um, incredibly important for students, but also really vital for staff. Thank you. >> Do you like me? >> You can go first. >> Oh, >> go ahead, Nancy. >> Oh, me. >> I if you wanted to. Sorry. >> Okay. I just want to say thank you to everyone. And I think this is a time for us to stand up and give a
047standing ovation for all of the hard work that went into this. and let us know that we believe in Jesus. >> Amen. >> That was all I had. >> Well, that was awesome. And I I concur and I secondh what Director Humble said. Um I know the work isn't over. A tremendous amount of work um went into getting us here. Um that work coming from Ron and his team and all the volunteers and I I see some of you here tonight. Thank you so much for your hard work. um it's harder than you think to get that many signatures um on a petition and then I can't even imagine how um board secretary Schulty feels after combing through all of them. Um so the work the work isn't over but I think it was really
048important to listen to our community. So I want to thank our community again for sharing your thoughts um and helping us get to a plan that this community can invest in. Um, I just that's very very important that our community feels that they're they're behind it too and from what I'm hearing they believe in this. So, thank you. Thank you for all the hard work. >> Yeah, I'll toss in something as well. I um I was going to mention that community survey that was huge in just shaping out this um entire plan. And um I'd also love to have a standing ovation at every uh meeting here on going forward. Uh but no, just there's really good energy. I also the team with Chad and Heather going to each of the schools and getting that
049input from our educators. Um the staff was really crucial in in us making some of these um updates and switching things around and considering different perspectives and um so I just everybody I think we've covered all the groups but truly this was a concerted effort by so many different people and um I'm really feeling this like energy and enthusiasm. So let's keep it up and uh appreciate everything that everybody's done to move this forward. Yes. So, well, that leaves me. So, Oh, did you? Yeah, you went. Okay. Yes. I just We're not going to do it, but I Another standing ovation would totally be in order because we have really Y'all want to do it again? Okay. We have really witnessed the hard work and thank you so much for your dedication, your sacrifices. Chad,
050my goodness, thank you. Thank you so much. And let me not start calling names. Ron, thank you all so very much. the community really did uh rally. They asked the questions. They showed up for the information sessions. And I just get excited every time I see the Believe CR shirts, you know. Um we saw one person in the community that has worn his shirt so much it has holes in it. He truly believes. Okay. So, if we can keep that momentum going, that is going to be absolutely awesome. And again, a heartfelt thank you. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the resolution ordering an an election on the issuance of $117 million general obligation school bonds? >> So move. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Second. >> This is a roll
051call vote. >> Director Borcharding >> very much. I >> Vice President Rryree >> absolutely I. >> Director Humbles I. Director Newman. >> I I I director Buyers. >> Hi. >> Director Taminsky. >> I. >> President Garlock. >> Hi. >> All right. You can clap. I heard somebody. Yeah. >> Very awesome. All right. Next is a resolution authorizing provide issuance and securing the payment of general obligation school capital loan notes series 2025 and authorizing the execution of a loan agreement. Before approving, Carla would like to share some information about the process. >> Good evening, board of directors. Um, so we sold uh $15 million of capital loan notes against our Pebble funds um for college and career readiness at Washington and Jefferson. And so we actually did a negotiated sale for these bonds. Um, typically the
052district does sealed bids, but due to underwriting fees and the increase in underwriting fees that can be really high up to 2% of the amount of the bonds being sold, uh, we worked with Piper Sandler and decided to do a negotiated sale. So, we hired an underwriter um through a bid process and Bayer won that bid and they charged us only 375% uh on these bonds for the uh underwriting for the sale and um we saved on that about $45,000. Um, the district also had a A+ rating on this sale. So, it was the same bond rating that we've received uh over the a number of the past sales we've had with a stable outlook. So, that's really good for the district. Um, so the PAR amount on these bonds is actually 13,775,000 with a
053premium of 1.224 million. So the bond the coupon on the bonds is 5%. But because we received a premium, the bond yield is actually 3.3655%. And during that sale, the board had authorized uh President Garlock and myself as board treasurer to approve the sale as long as it came in below 3.85%. Our total cost over time, including our upfront and uh fees, is only 3.576%. So, we were super happy with this sale and we'll probably be using a negotiated sale for our upcoming uh save bonds in the spring um so that we can continue to save on underwriting fees and still uh get a good interest rate. Any questions? I don't have a question, but I do have a comment. Carla, I appreciate your diligence in working through this process. I know you put in
054a lot of extra time and effort to figure out how to go about this in a way that would actually save us uh some money. So, kudos to you for saving us, it looks like, $45,000. Um, in in these economic times, it every penny counts. So, appreciate your diligence and your hard work on that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else have a comment? >> All right. Well, is there a motion to approve the resolution? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> This is a roll call vote. >> Vice President Roundree. >> I. >> Director Humbles. >> I. >> Director Newman. >> I. Director Buyers. >> I. >> Director Taminsky. I >> director Borcharding >> I >> President Garlock >> I >> All right. The last administration item is a
055resolution appointing paying registar and transfer agent and approving the agreement authorizing the execution of the same and approving the tax exemption certificate and continuing disclosure certificate. Are there any questions from the board for Carla? All right. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> This is a roll call vote. >> Director Humbles. >> I. >> Director Newman. >> I. >> Director Buyers. >> I. >> Director Taminsky. >> I. >> Director Borcharding. >> I. >> Vice President Rryree. >> I. >> President Garlock. >> I. Tonight the learning and leadership presentation is regarding a staffing update. I will re go ahead and give the mic over to Darius at this time. >> Hello everybody. Um thanks for giving me a few minutes to just talk about
056where we are on our journey uh for this school year. and and we thought it's appropriate to say amazing journey because we do have an amazing opportunity to serve so many great students and it really is amazing and it's a journey because we do kind of have that start to the school year and that kind of end to the school year and all the parties and celebrations that come along with it and um there's a lot of folks who take that journey with the kids every single year and so this is an opportunity for us to kind of highlight who are those people who are the adults who are given 180 days or 1,080 hours to our kids. So, who's on the journey? Let's start there. We have currently 2,684 total employees. That includes,35 teachers
057and 71 administrators for this school year. And I thought it'd be important to kind of show you how our years are being served. You'll see that onethird of our staff is actually with less than four years of experience. And then things kind of taper off from there with one person at the 52-year mark and that is our very own Barry Wilson right at Kennedy High School says he has no plans to retire. So we're doing something right here because Barry is saying that we are doing great things and he is serving kids every day for us. To break it down a little further, I wanted to show a highlight as to how our staff reflects our student population. So you can see our student population is 52% male, but our staff population is 25%. Um,
058our staff population is 85% Caucasian, while our student population is 55% and then our African-American, our Hispanic, as well as our multi-racial populations are higher than our staff reflection at this point. So that's that's our who that's that's the folks who are doing this journey. Let's talk a little bit about now departures because you know every year there's people who leave the journey after the last year before the new folks join. So we have some folks who who left every year, but the big things that I wanted to highlight today were just around why because an organization we want to retain. We want to keep all of our employees. And so when looking at it, 18% uh 14% and 18% depending on the year are left to retirements. And of course, some of our retirees
059actually come back and work for us too, but they do depart temporarily. Personal reasons are the one category you don't get a lot of details on and we're going to strive really hard in human resources to push a little harder this year so we can find out more of why those personal reasons are the personal reasons. The big two are the highlights there. Career changes and mobility. Career changing meaning I'm leaving the occupation the the career of education. Uh mobility being I'm just leaving you. And so we are hoping to do everything we can u to to improve there. And so you can see the national average is around 16% and we're trending closer to that every single year. So we're getting closer to folks departing for different reasons rather than career change and mobility.
060Uh and then the last thing I wanted to highlight from this slide is what we've been calling the just in time interventions. And so human resources for the past two years has been working really hard uh to try and meet with individuals who may be looking to leave especially in the middle of a school year. And so last year alone we we did 30 just in time interventions with employees, individuals who said that they planned on resigning or they had resigned. Um, and we had an opportunity to get them to reconsider and about 28% or 28 of the 30 did and they're still with us, which when you're thinking of that number, that's that's roughly the equivalent of an elementary school's worth of staff members. Okay. So, when looking at how our folks are feeling,
061we we had a just in time survey there and I want to go over a couple of highlights. First and foremost, the two things that came out in those just in time interventions as well as our engagement surveys. And we've done engagement surveys for milestones. So, our 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30-year um members of our staff, plus we've also surveyed our brand new teachers. So, we gave them a 30, 60, and 90day survey last year just to see where they were. diving into those and finding the through lines. The first thing that we saw was that behavior intervention is is something that brings up a lot of curiosity um a lot of conversation. And then the second one that was a really big thing was input and weight of voice in our decision-making process.
062And that's both at the campus level as well as the district level. And so in response to that information, Cedar Rapids Community School District has taken some steps this year to address those areas. So number one, we devoted $2 million uh to helping with personnel so that they can assist differently with behavior intervention. And I know that presentation's been done by by Riyles already. He's he's working hard to make sure, right, Riyles? Yeah. Yeah. And then the second one is the the CRCSD district communication plan which was a big presentation last board meeting. Um just wanted to make sure that I brought that back up that that's that's to empower our staff, make sure that they feel the voice u all the way through. And I and I forgot to mention the slide before. So
063I do I do want to just say a couple of other things to kind of go along with those departures. When we looked at those departures and they can you may have a lot of questions. I'd like to also bring back 2425. Recall we ended up actually cutting from as we right-sized removing 200 positions from our overall roster of educators, which is quite a bit. Um, but that allowed us to have some funds so that school buildings could add things beyond the core numbers. And so they were able to add back 99 positions through that backpack fund. We talked a lot about that supplemental that every school had. And then another 59 positions came from that $2 million that we're using for our behavior intervention. So that's who and that's where we are now. Now
064we start talking about our future, the people who are either joining us on the journey now or will be joining us on the journey. So I I I wanted a couple photos just to kind of highlight some of our staff. So right there in the middle of your screen is Mr. Lane Sheets. Lane is a a former teacher intern who is a full-fledged teacher in our district. He took the opportunity um while getting his full teaching license to teach through a unique program that we're able to offer here in Cedar Rapids Community School District with a sort of an alternative lensure. Um Cojo Azot is also another person who's going to have a different alternative lensure. um he's from a country where they speak French and so as a native speaker he can get native
065speaker authorization. U in addition to that we have had some people who are getting CTE authorization individuals who have worked in the trades worked in business and because they have enough hours they can actually receive authorization from the board of education and we can employ them in our classrooms. So we're not just taking folks who've gone the traditional route. We're using as much of a cutting edge or bleeding edge as we possibly can with the rules to get the very best educators in our classrooms with our students. And these are opportunities that didn't always exist before. And I also want to make sure I bring up a couple other pretty big highlights. Number one, we have the highest student teacher placement number that we've had in the last five years this year because we know
066when we have student teachers, they tend to stick around when there's an opportunity for them. I am a former student teacher myself. Uh secondly, we can you can see a couple of photos there in the bottom middle and in the far right. Those are kind of things where we're being recognized by colleges and universities. The one on the right is actually from Cedar D uh just before a board me uh board meeting last December uh for our pinning ceremony where we were actually celebrating students at University of Debuke who were our paras who were teaching in our schools today. and we had about 17 individuals recognized there. And then the bottom one um is actually an award we received uh last May from the University of Iowa as great allies and partners in finding uh
067career opportunities for professionals graduating from the school. Uh and we are the only district in the in the state that's been recognized for the past three years, which is the most anyone could be. So, it speaks to the partnerships we're building and how we're really trying to make sure that we have the best individuals working with our students. Also want to highlight something that's also like brand new. I actually have your handout. I forgot it in my office. So, I will get it to you before we leave tonight. But the STARS program, which stands for students, teachers, admin, retention, and succession. It's an initiative where we're looking at really growing our own. When we say everyone equipped, empowered, engaged to excel, that means that we've got to be talking about our staff, too, because we're
068part of the everyone. And so we we've been working really hard in the last couple years to make sure that there is a pathway, a clear pathway for students. We have about a 100 students right now who are being served. Um many of them at Kennedy High School. We've got individuals who have been doing it for the past two years there. Jefferson High School is joining the ranks this year. We're going to have some afterchool opportunities as well as during school opportunities. In addition to that, I I want to shout out Mr. Neely there. Uh Sean has been a teacher in our district for more than 20 years. He went to our principal pathway uh program we did last year in December and he said that that moment made him consider becoming an administrator. that
069one night that had a lot of planning that went into it, a lot of difference makers in the rooms and and now Sean is an administrator and associate principal at Taft Middle School because of in large part those conversations he was able to have and and think about the growth that we can have for our students. And then last but not least, I I would be remiss if I didn't bring up Susan Hester there and that first day of school photo frame there. Susan has been a parro with our district since about 2020. She was one of the individuals that was pinned at that pinning ceremony in Cedar D last year and now she's a teacher of Maple Grove and last year she was even able to do some subbing work in the interim and
070so she actually worked in Wilson using a different program we've done which is some online or proximity learning. So she's been in a lot of different roles helping us out in our district uh so that we can really empower our students. Now, I I do think that the other thing that always comes up is a question about retention, right? And so, we've talked a lot about our pathways and how people can grow and strive. Um, our hiring guide is not way different as far as our teachers go as many of our other districts, but what is different is our growth opportunities that we offer to our teachers. So unlike many other districts in our state, we have this lane chain pro lane change process where individuals can submit additional college level courses um or education
071further education courses that will actually go toward their wage. And so unlike many other districts, there's people throughout our pay structure at different years of experience and different years, different amounts of lensure based upon the the amount of work they put in. So the red line there represents the traditional route. The red line is precisely what you would get with a with a basic 3% increase every year. And of course, we don't always get 3%, but when we do, that red line would be that staple 3%. That blue line actually represents if someone's taking advantage of those lane changes. So, if you took a lane change every year with coursework, plus you got that 3% increase, you can see it's a substantial change in about 11 years. And again, that's a very unique thing here
072we do at CRCSD that is not necessarily true in a lot of other districts. And then the other thing I like to bring up, oh, I forgot I took that slide away. The other thing I want to say on that slide very briefly is we also offer the courses here in CRCSD. So they're taught by our teachers. People can sign up right here. And they're not a very costly thing. They take like $15 to qualify for a course and then they can move you on your on your lane and you can make quite a bit more money. Very unique thing that CRCSD does and is very attractive to folks when they come here. And then last but not least, what about this year specific? Um, we're looking at retention. So, we're going to be focusing
073on mentorship, culture, and recognition. We've touched a little bit on the culture and recognition in terms of what what folks are looking for there. Both working on that behavior and then also their voice. But mentorship, that's that's a really big thing. our our new teachers have said 90 90% of them have actually said that it's one of the top reasons why they're here is the connection to their their fellow colleagues in the workplace. 95% of our brand new teachers said that induction was critical for them. And 90% of them also said that their fellow teachers are huge in shaping what their experience is like in that first year. And our goal is to expand our early pipelines uh this school year. That's going to be really critical. that's going in the recruitment component there. Um,
074and that goes back to our STARS initiative. That's helping create those pipelines and making them early. And we hired about 80 teachers last school year or last school year and the year before during the school year. Um, that gives us a great opportunity to connect with people who are graduating in the spring or graduating in the winter. Um, and get them to come join us in CRCSD before they hit sort of the free agent market. So, that's going to be something we really try and tackle for this year. And then last but not least, work with our community uh to to really help grow our own people, offer those unique opportunities and bridges into our community because people love when our staff buys homes, when they lay down their roots right here in CRCSD because
075you know they're going to stay. And so we're going to be working with our communities to help get those roots even deeper for our brand new staff members. And that concludes the presentation. Well, thank you, Darius. Um, thank you so much for all of that. Are there any questions from any board members for Darius? >> I have a I have a question, Director Roundtree. Um, so looking at that, um, the growth opportunities, the lane changes, I see those in the agenda and I it looks like kind of a lengthy list. How do we promote that to our staff and about I mean just like rough ballpark percentage of our staff participates in that most years? Great question. So, um, we try to promote it in both the handbook and actually for the last year and
076we'll do it again this year. We we try and actually have a day or two where we have a Google meet that all staff's invited to, particularly our teachers because the because the lane change process looks different for each work group. Uh, but for our teacher group, they kind of have an hour Q&A. It's actually done with our HR department as well as their their teacher union. It's kind of a joint presentation so that they can understand the process. And I can say even before we started doing that last school year, we were averaging about 700 lane changes a year. So, and you factor in there were about 1,200 teachers. That's significant in terms of people who are taking advantage of that lane change. >> And those lane changes are available in other work groups
077as well. >> Yeah, it's a it's a depending on the work group. Lane change is typically language we language we use for our teachers but there are comparable programs for many of our work groups. Yes. Um they may not have as many lanes. The the percentages may be may look and feel different but many groups do have something that exists which promotes going back to school getting that additional education or taking additional certification. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Had a question around um thanks for the presentation today first off. um when we're kind of looking at these different demographics and departure reasons um as we're understanding like staffing stability and areas of need, are there certain um departments that we're seeing higher turnover in and um any areas of uh that we're just a
078bit nervous about across different departments? Can you speak to that a bit? >> Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a that's a that's a great question. I would I'll answer it this way. I don't know if this gives you the best answer, but hopefully this will this will get us to the ballpark. Um, from what I've researched, the state of Iowa has about 2,000 jobs that go unfilled by licensed teachers in that area every year. About 1,200 of them um they just try and make do and about 800 of them are with people who get the additional license or uh a conditional or something along those lines just to make ends meet for the year. Um the the big trouble or the big challenging areas are a lot of those specializing areas. So you're talking your fine
079arts, your music, your PE, um project lead the way. A lot of those courses that that can quite that require quite a bit of specialization and special ed is at the top of the list almost all the time. And so those are things that we're pretty sensitive to here in CRCSD. um it does mirror a lot of what we're seeing where it's not necessarily that you have a high number of turnover, it's they're hard to fill because you just don't have many people who are graduating with that lensure. >> Um I would say that's probably the the best way to answer. That's where our focus and our attention is. And typically when we're looking at specialists teachers early January, early February, if people are already applying for jobs, we're we're talking to them and we
080may not even know what school they're going to be in yet, but we know we may need them. >> Okay. Yeah, that's great. I was just kind of curious um because I'd heard that within that. So with our grow your own programming, an emphasis maybe in those tracks, right, where we see that consistent um turn. Um and then also uh had another thought. Oh, just curious because we have that kind of bottleneck are do we have any specific strategies that we're employing to make sure that we're ahead of that um whether it's attending various career fairs or I don't know incentive programs or other things to fill for example those specialized roles. >> Yeah. So I'd say right now we certainly try to reach out to the college and universities a little ahead of time.
081Um so hopefully anybody watching doesn't steal that strategy. And then uh be beyond that in all sincerity we do try and go to a lot of college and career fairs. We're using as many platforms as we can. Uh we're trying to use the most current platforms because Monster for instance might not be as popular with college grads today. So we try and find out what's the what's the one that's going to have us connect the most with um with the students. And then we we try and go above and beyond just the minimums there because that's going to give us an opportunity to stand out and attract. And so, um, you saw, I think, the photo of Dr. Warro, who's in the photo with me on the with the award there. She is she's a
082a fairly new position as well. We we got that position last school year and really with the intention of having someone dedicated to this work. And so, a lot of this would not be happening without Dr. Warro. It's it's a combination of both the recruitment and the retention. And so, she's on the forefront of both. And so she's scheduling us, getting us connected, and making sure that we can we can get to have some facetime with folks. Plus, those opportunities where we're speaking at colleges and universities with their ed students, that's not unintentional. That's to try and get my face and their face in the same place as early as possible. And then you couple that with getting more student teachers and hopefully that'll help us immensely. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> I have a
083question. >> Yes. Um, sorry I don't I can't see if there's hands up or if there's a line. So, sorry if I'm just jumping in here. >> Um, thank you so much for providing this information. I know that I've been requesting this information for eight years since I've been on the board. Um, and it may have been requested for longer. I really appreciate the effort that's gone into this and being able to look at it um, kind of differentiated out by groupings. My question there is, has the data been normalized since it's being presented in percentages? Has the data been normalized to reflect the same sample size or are we talking about like 35% of 100 participants in one and 44% of 50 participants in another in another just kind of wanting to understand what
084that data looks like across the years. >> Yeah, that's a good question. And so I'm I'm going to try and look through it really briefly, really quickly. Um because I tried to take out quite a bit of the data that would have been a little bit more challenging for that purpose. Uh I tried to keep our sample size pretty similar. So our our workforce is about the same every year. It's not going up or down a ton except for the reduction we did uh going into this school year. So that kind of represents our demographics as far as our staff goes. Our students, we've lost some students in the last couple years. Carla presented on that last year. So that may look a little different. Um and then the percentages are based upon the number
085of individuals who resigned. So it it's it's representative of all individuals who gave information and and so I wouldn't say that it's one year compares to another in in terms of raw number because you could have one year that has higher attrition but 100% of the individuals who were resigning had to give a reason even if their reason is just personal reasons. >> I I'd like to jump in here if I could for just a second. I Darius I very much appreciate your report and all the data that you've provided as director of borcharding uh said it's it's data that we have the board has asked for. So really really appreciate your work in getting that all collected for us. I I would just like to add to the conversation that right now we are
086focused on HR and the data that you are providing to us. But I think it is important to remember the bigger picture here that if we want our staff to stay, if we want staff to find this a district that is a desirable place to work and to come here and apply for jobs, that it's more than just an HR responsibility. And I feel like some of the some of the things that we're doing will help us with that. the investments that we have made in student behavior, addressing student behavior issues is a is a big thing. Obviously, we just tonight accepted the the petitions for facilities and facilities, as director Borching said earlier, facilities matter for kids, but it they also matter for attracting staff to the district. So I I feel like we're
087making some progress in make sort of the comeback of the Cedar Rapids district to make this a place where people want to come to work. Um so while I appreciate all the reporting that you gave to us tonight, I I guess my charge is uh for all of us to keep putting mechanisms in place, keep putting initiatives in place that make Cedar Rapids the place where everyone wants to be. students and staff alike. So, thanks Darius. >> Thank you very much. >> I do have a question. I'm looking at this looking ahead, the priorities, recruitment focus, diversifying candidate pools. What What do you guys have in place currently for uh as it goes to >> Sure. >> Well, I'm referring to diversifying. Yeah. >> Uh the candidate pools. >> Yeah. So, uh, so we we
088spent some time developing a a program last school year, um, and it's ready to launch. It's also part of the STARS initiative. I just knew I only had so much time tonight. I didn't want to keep you all till 9ine because I could talk about this all night. But, um, part of that program is to actually allow us to go to schools uh, and colleges, universities around the state and around the nation that represent uh, demographics closer to our student body. And and we're actually trying to create an environment where we can have some host families who be willing to kind of host those student teachers u just to make sure that if if that's a barrier, we take that barrier away because we know people come here for multiple reasons. One's the weather. No,
089I'm joking. But but we know uh but we know that once people come here and they meet our students, they're going to want to stay. And so anything we can do to give them that opportunity to take barriers away is what we want to do. Um I I have been saying and I'll keep saying and our team has heard me say this before is kind of three ways we look for highly engaged staff. What are they saying? Are they staying? And are they striving for that next step in their in their path? That's how we're kind of defining it on the HR side. And so anything we can do to help folks come here so they stay here and they're saying the right things and they can strive in their role is what we're trying
090to do. >> Very good. That's all right. I sorry um you touched on it briefly, but there was something about a substitute. Can you offer more information about our substitute Phil or um just how we're um keeping up on that or how that's going, especially in times of you know flu and other >> fun things. So So that is uh that's also another big topic for HR this year. We're looking at uh what is our our fill rate. I would say right now we typically have about 250 to 300 active people um who have said yes I will sub in your classrooms. Uh we want to get that number bigger this year. Um we also think that some of our absences when we've looked at our absences some of them have to deal with just
091the challenges that we're dealing with whether it be we're missing a pair in this classroom you name it. And so we're tackling it from kind of both ends. We're trying to increase that pool, but we're also trying to decrease that demand by having things like having paras in place. Um, helping with student behavior so that folks feel more energized that Friday where they're not sure if they've got that extra, maybe they will because it'll feel like a different environment. So, we're kind of tackling it from those two lenses right now. Um, and then we're also developing uh an ability to get an even bigger bench for our for our subs this year. Is there I remember talking about this during the staffing um conversations last year. Um but was there is there like a designated
092sub per building? Can you remind me if there's that setup? >> Yeah, so we have we have some subs who are um purchased through their the school supplemental funds >> uh that are permanent building subs were at the building every single day and it's kind of a continuation of what we had had before in buildings. But as we did some of our right sizing this year, we took that core allocation away. So I think we have about a dozen of those individuals right now. It's right around that number. Um and then the other buildings are have not chosen to spend their money or those funds in that way. And and many of them have just kind of told that that perm building up, you're probably going to have a job here most days, so just
093call or we'll talk the day before and see if there's an opening for you. So you've got a lot of those things going on as well. I was just curious as we're talking about these um shortages in some of those specials areas if we had subs that were kind of on repeat if there was a strategy in there where you're you know getting them the correct lensure to be able to be more of a permanent fixture at the school. Um or just if there's any strategies within the sub pool for filling those spots or maybe that's not a strategy at all. >> I would say uh right now it is u we've kind of done a grassroots is how I'll say it. There's been some conversations between my office uh or human resources and then
094those principles where we've had awesome candidates that we have tried to work with so that they can get that permanent license if necessary so they can teach full-time for us. The other thing that we've been able to do is take advantage of some unconventional folks. We've got people who have music backgrounds but have never been teachers who have gotten their sub authorization to help for instance in a music classroom this year. Um, and so that gives our kids a really unique opportunity that while this person's not teaching full-time, they're subbing right now and we're talking people who were on American Idol. >> All right. Well, thank you >> very much. Appreciate it. So, at this time, I want to provide a reminder that the next regular board meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 22nd, 2025.
095Do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed, same sign. With no further business, we stand adjourned at 6:51 p.m.