Board of Education Meeting - July 14, 2025

001I now call the board of education regular meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Is there a motion to approve the agenda for Monday, July 14th, 2025? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those All those opposed, same sign. We have two public hearings for the Cedar Rapids Community School District tonight. The first public hearing is for the new elementary at the Hoover Elementary School site project bid issuance number one. The second public hearing is the for the new elementary at the Van Beerren Elementary School site project bid issuance number one. Board Secretary Hogan, have we received any written correspondence related to the public hearings on tonight's agenda? >> We have not. >> Thank you. Do we have anyone who is requested

002to address the board this evening this evening regarding the published hearings relating to the new elementary at the Hoover Elementary site project bid issuance one. >> We have four. >> Thank you. With four speakers, each speaker will have five minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker. Board Secretary Hogan will serve as your timer and indicate when your time has expired. When you approach the podium, please give your name and address. Our first speaker is Joe Broka. >> Hello, my name is Joe Brooff. I live at 33 Roxberry Drive, northwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Uh I I grew up in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Hills to be specific. Uh moved away for 26 years and my wife and I missed it. We decided to move back to Cedar Rapids. So we did.

003Uh looked at a lot of houses and decided to settle on Rockberry Drive. Found a beautiful house, a beautiful view in the backyard. It was gorgeous and we loved it. And then eight months later, we find out that there is going to be a school built literally 50 60 feet off our property line. And that's going to be according to the current according to the current uh drawings roughly 28 feet off the ground. So, if you can imagine being in your backyard and having a 28 foot building, uh, we're not we're not very pleased with that with that idea. Um, we've tried to discuss certain workarounds. We were ambushed with this. We had no idea that the school was going to be built and it seems like plans were being drawn. None of the neighbors

004were being talked to. Nobody had any idea. And one day we were invited to a meeting at Hoover and they're like, "Hey, look what we're going to do." Um, I don't think one single neighbor liked the idea of what was going on. We're very much in favor of a school. We're we're absolutely fine with that. Um, for most of us it's the location of the school and the location of it's a driveway that's going to go back uh to it's a bus lane I believe and a fire turnaround and trash pickup and delivery which is going to go by every house from from WY all the way to my house. Um, so we're going to have a lot of we're going to have a lot of noise, light. It It's not It's not ideal for

005us, especially just living here a short time. I feel worse for the people that have lived there longer. We've made suggestions, you know, to shut the school down perhaps for two years, and they said that's not that's not a great idea. But, you know, there's there is five schools under a mile and a half away from us. Uh, the old Jackson school, Cleveland school, Truman School, Madison, I guess, West Willow. They're all under a mile and a half away from from Hoover. I don't see how that would be bad. Um, it's only two years. Kids are more resilient than we think. It's two years for them not going to their school, but it's 30, 40, 50 years for some people that have to endure that. So, if we built other schools for growth, couldn't we

006move them for a year, year and a half, two years, and come up with a better design, a better way so that the neighbors are happy? We don't have to cut all the trees down. We don't have to use I mean, deer run through my backyard, ducks lay in my backyard. There's there's a family of fox that live back there. It's all gone. They're going to take it all away. And all we're asking for is for the school not to be directly in our backyard. Um, I know that they say they're building this school for growth, but after I look at the district map and where Hoover School is, I don't see where the growth is coming from because the the Hoover School District is pretty much full of houses. I don't know where it's

007coming from and I don't know why it needs to be that big. Again, we're one of the smaller It's It appeared that we were one of the smaller districts. Um, in all honesty, most of us are just against the driveway in the back and a 28 foot school. So, just asking to please consider something other than destroying a beautiful view and a beautiful neighborhood and it impacts it impacts several people. Um, so I think that's all I have. Thank you for your time. Next we have Gary Ducel. >> One second, please. >> Sorry. >> Nope. I'm not taking your time. Thank you, school board. My name is Gary Duceel. I live at 3934 Roxberry Drive Northwest. And uh to uh Carla, I I did submit this in writing, so I don't know if you didn't

008receive it. Uh I did receive what I'm going to read to you today. So, just to make sure you did receive it. Thank you. Uh my wife and I uh have lived at 3934 Roxberry for 35 years. We've enjoyed living there in a park view uh setting uh watching all the children's activities from our raised deck on Hoover School baseball diamonds and and the park grounds. I've coached my two daughters on that very same uh softball baseball field. Uh we enjoy the uh wildlife, the singing birds, squirrels, and all that goes along with that as well as the asphalt track that was donated to the school and which is being utilized daily by by neighbors. If you as a school board member haven't visited that proposed building site, I would ask that you please do

009so before a final decision is made. This school has a historical uh significance as you probably all know. It's dedicated to Hoover Herbert Hoover, excuse me, Herbert Hoover in 1954. He actually visited the school. He's the only uh Iowa president uh from Iowa. So, it has a historical significance as well. Building options. What other cost effective building options were even considered without disrupting the community neighborhood? For example, expanding on the existing building with additional classrooms, adding classrooms to the west where the two uh classroom trailers are located now, maybe busing the fifth grade students temporarily uh to Willow while others uh additions are being added, moving uh moving the uh newly proposed school building further to the northwest as an option of the school property or relocating the driveway for the bus drop off, delivery

010trucks, and trash pickup. environmental impact. If the current uh plan design and building site is approved for the new Hoover Elementary School, there will be a dramatic change in environmental damage to the to our uh environment as we enjoy today. The twotory twostory school 28t tall isn't conducive for our existing neighborhood. will have a proposed access drive constructed literally approximately 22 feet away from our property line for delivery trucks, trash trucks, uh buses, and we'll have them all during the hours of the day. Pollution, emissions, diesel spelling, exhaust fumes, and noise pollution will be continuous while setting on our decks in our backyard. We will have a loss, complete loss of privacy with this access drive uh that is going to be used. Gone will be the large trees, 75- ft tall oak trees. Gone

011will be the trees and several other trees and bushes. There will be a clear-cut operation taking down all trees and bushes because of the proposed driveway. Gone will be the habitat of the wildlife, birds that we all enjoy today. replacing the trees and uh bushes will take lifetime to get to the current growth. City lost 70% of the uh trees uh canopy top and doratio and now we're going to clear cut these top trees and get get rid of them. During a two-year construction period and after construction, impacted property owners will be faced with continuous dust, noise, exhaust fumes, and other toxic pollutants. economic loss, which is a big one for all of us in the neighborhood. Potential financial loss on the value of our property with the large, tall institutional building, literally in our

012view and so close to our backyard with the bus delivery system that's being taken place. We've lived here and retired here because of the Park View setting and neighborhood. Total loss of any privacy. Would you purchase a home in the neighborhood with two years of ongoing construction and looking at a 28ft tall building? I doubt you probably would be interested. Construction concerns approved. Further clarifications are needed on the bus and delivery systems. Was a different access driveway ever considered? Uh the print shows the driveway is is 22 ft away from our south property line or or relocating the student bus drop off and a supply truck and trash pickup driveway. What aesthetic view do you as property owners have other than looking at a stark institutional two-story uh bu building? Here's an important item. Communication

013and timing. The lack of communications and timing scheduled on the proposed new Hoover School plan is rushed without thought to the Hoover School neighborhood community. On June 6, Shaver well drilling company moved in their equipment and started geothermal well drilling for the new Hoover school. No communications were provided by the Cedar Rapids school system of this taking place. Absolutely none. On July 7th, we had a a meeting with uh Chad uh Chad Schumacher, director of school operations, and we were told uh and a group of neighbors, and we were told that this school will be built however we feel. The Cedar Rapids City Council hasn't even approved of the reszoning of the Hoover School to institutional uh P1N9 public institutional. There are several questions from neighbors that need further clarification yet on today's school board

014meeting agenda. If there are no objections to the prepared plans or site locations and sustained, this school board is ready to give final approval. As I understand it, this speaks volume of our neighborhood concerns. aren't being heard. >> Your time is up. >> Thank you, >> Matt Wyel. So, my name is Matt Wel. I live 3727 First Avenue. I have two kids that one that went to Hoover and is now in junior high and one that's in fifth grade. And basically two years ago they had to put the um build um extra buildings in for the fifth grade classes. And basically um they um we need the school to be built and where it lives and so that um basically our school is increasing in size and it's basically what we need as um the

015staff of Hoover There's um families that go there, they when buses get there and when cars get there to drop off and pick up students, it takes like 5, 10, 15 minutes for the um students to be able to be dropped off and picked up. And it takes um we have to wait for the buses because they have a higher pri priority to get the kids on board and head out. So with the proposal that I've seen in that of the um basically library the needs for special kids and all that. I I approve what's going on right now for the school that built and I'm a um I'm have a degree in egalulture and I think the neighbors could put up um trees. Yes, it will take a little time, but I know there's

016trees that go 30 40 feet high. upper bodies. They go at least 35 to 40 feet high and it takes like maybe 15 20 years for them to um grow that high. So I don't see that as being a problem for this um residents or the schools. >> Am I able to add on? I don't know if that's his wife. >> No. Okay. They had list. Um, basically our daughter Liz, she's um dyslexic and um if we had to have her bust to a different location, that'd be a real strain on her because she has a real bad dyslexia. And um she gets stressed out from the smallest stuff and probably for most of the kids as if they went um from like their main building to another building. And I don't understand um there

017being extra room for Hoover students to be shipped to another school when Hoover would be built. and if they were to close um the school right now as it is. >> Thank you, Mr. Wisel. Thank you, >> Sarah Hensman. >> Good afternoon. My name is Sarah Hinsman and I live at 3916 Roxberry Drive adjacent to the south side of Hoover Elementary. I am an alumni of Hoover, Taft, and Jefferson. And I received an incredible education. So incredible that I went on to become an educator on my favorite subject. After clearing all the necessary academic hurdles to become a univer university professor, I am proud to say that I just completed and spiritually survived my first year of teaching full-time. I want to be clear that I am not here to criticize education, teachers, or students

018in any way. I want them to have a beautiful school, all the resources necessary for every student to learn and be their best, and for every school employee to be paid commensurate to the bedrock support that they provide for our society. I recently had an opportunity to connect with members of my Hoover community, neighbors, classmates, parents, and even my first grade teacher. All of us have come together to raise concerns to you and to other project partners regarding the future of Hoover Elementary School. Being a neighbor of a school is a special role. When I attended Hoover, I spent as much time there as in my own home. And since the school and my home share a physical boundary, they practically felt one and the same to me. I cast my first vote there and

019attended my first caucus. After the do, I was one of the first people to see and photograph the school's damage up close. You see, I first checked the outside of my own house and then I went to check the outside of the school. As neighbors, we have eyes on the school grounds. We see what happens when you are there and when you are not there. We know how families, both human and wildlife, make use of the grounds. We know how the water flows and collects after a storm. We could tell you a lot about what being a neighbor means to each of us, but you didn't ask us, and we really wish you would have. Through Facebook, I see that the Hoover parents were invited to a preliminary design meeting in January of this year,

020but not one project partner came in to a single neighbor's door to ask us what mattered to us regarding the new school's plans and land use. We were kept out of the process, either by omission or intent, until the end of May after the designs were already created. And now it seems we have very little say in the decision that is going to be permanently changing our environment. By excluding us from the design process, you put us in a position where we feel like we have no other options but to raise our concerns in multiple public forums. We have genuine concerns about the building's intense proximity to residential property, the intrusive access road and the inefficient parking lot, the storm water management and the loss of mature trees as well as recreational space available to

021all of the neighborhood. And its spiritual importance to me, a living memorial for my best friend Ryan Aiff, who died while she was a Hoover student. Last week, we have channeled our immense grief and disappointment into a memorial walk around the Hoover Trail, which was established in her memory. We also collected donations of school supplies for Hoover, and we hope that this will become an annual opportunity to benefit the students at the school that she loved. This is a small gesture which demonstrates that we want to continue to be good neighbors and stewards to the school. But we have a genuine need as neighbors to be heard right now. Not plated, not gaslighted, not ignored or excluded. We have been attempting to have an open dialogue for nearly two months knowing that you want to

022begin that construction in mere weeks from today. We have contacted our local rep elected representatives. We have contacted the media. And it really comes down to all of you. Believe me, organizing our advocacy has been an investment of time and energy which we would rather be spending on having a nice summer. But has it has been positive to come together as neighbors, uniting for a common cause and thereby strengthening our sense of community. I highly recommend it. You now have an opportunity if you have the wisdom to act. The opportunity is to reflect deeply about your role and responsibility to this community. You have an opportunity to demonstrate that you acknowledge a major oversight in your process. You have an opportunity to communicate with us transparently and in good faith with the goal of arriving

023at a compromise, an outcome that everyone in the school and its neighborhood can feel positive about. It may take more time, but it's necessary time to rebuild our trust. You need our support, especially as the bond referendum returns to the ballot this fall. You need 22% more yes votes than you received in 2023. For your own success, you need to make a real commitment to working with us with the Van Beerren neighborhood and every willing neighbor of a future development project. This does not have to be a case study in organizational and public relations fails. I sincerely hope that together we can demonstrate a model for how schools and communities, the second C by the way, in CRCSD, how we can activate our values in cooperation, teamwork, leadership, and stewardship to benefit and strengthen schools,

024neighborhoods, and communities. I ask today that you do not approve the design plans for Hoover Elementary until the neighbors concerns are remedied and we can arrive at a compromise for coexistence. I also want to say that I believe that my mother submitted written comments before today and I would like to make sure those are reflected in the record. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Is that everything for this hearing? >> Okay. Do we have anyone who's requested to address the board this evening regarding the second published hearing related to the new elementary at the Van Beern elementary school site bid issuance number one? >> We do. >> How many speakers do we have? >> Three. >> Okay. With three speakers, we will allot five minutes per speaker. Uh please respect that time

025limit. Board Secretary Hogan will serve as your timer and indicate when your time has expired. Please give your name and address when you come to the podium. Mary Dodie. [Music] >> Hello. My name is Mary Dodie. I live at 2718 28th Avenue Southwest. And um I could pretty much ditto everything that Sarah said in regards to our uh experience as well. Um we were first found out that um we would be having a sidewalk and a road going between the neighbors and our house to go up to the new school at Van Beern. We um bought our property on a handshake uh from Ralph Hughes 34 years ago. He saved that property for us for a year. And um we have it's a small lot, but it backs it the park is next to they

026use it for an access to get into Van Beern Park. And so we were told nothing would ever be built there. Um, now we're going to have a sidewalk 10 feet from our house and a road that has construction equipment going up through it and we have a little park that's for two to five year olds, a little playground up there. Um, we um the we had the plan the city planning commission meeting we went to June 5th and there were concerns with them as well. uh they debated about passing it but then had to because it was just strictly zoning for the school. It didn't involve all the other things that are going to go into this. And so um on the 24th we went to the city council meeting. Uh we got the

027wrong information. It was the wrong date and all that. So that got redone. Now we're going to be meeting with city council July 22nd for the zoning of the school. But um we also met uh they were to meet with us actually at that zoning meeting. They asked the um Chad and Shive Hatterie and them to go back and try and see if there wasn't a different place they could go. 27th off of 27th Street there's a 40ft easement and we still have yet to hear back about that. But it seems it's just full speed ahead with going through our our neighborhood and our park. And this backs up to at least eight eight houses that are now going to have a road behind them, a two-lane road. And the parks also decided they wanted

028to put some parking up there. So, we do have a road. First, it was just going to be for bus access and um but now it's going to be a road that people are going to go in and out of. We have neighbors on 27th that back up to this proposed road that have little children that run over to the park and we have so many people that utilize that park. Um seriously, people drive up and just do a picnic under the trees or whatever. And now it's going to be a real safety concern. Uh Larsson's going to from what they came out to speak to us on the ETH, the neighbors, they're going to put fencing up, chain link fence to try and protect people uh from, you know, from this construction that's going

029up through a residential area through by our house. So I am asking you to please um not approve this. Um, we'll lose on street parking. We've got I've got a neighbor to the uh west of me that's handicapped. She has to have they have to have the parking. Her husband has a business. He parks out front and she needs to have access to get her wheelchair out of her her vehicle. Um there's just so many things that need to be um considered and and taken care of before this is goes through. I understand you want a new school. We do, too. I work for the schools for 25 years. I I worked in all the elementary schools. Um but please don't do something that's going to cause irreparable damage to the neighborhood and to us.

030Um it's our property values are going to go down. Um it's to try and sell a house with a road next to you when we've had a beautiful park. It's not going to happen. So, I just ask you to please consider that when you make your vote. Thank you. >> Next up is Steve Dodie. My name is Steve Dodie and I live at 2718 28th Avenue Southwest. That was my wife. So, we're so we're kind of in this together. And I want to give give a thank you to Sarah for mentioning the Van Beern issue in her in her comment there that she had with with uh with the Hoover piece of it. But uh but yeah, I I don't know if any of you people up in the front row up here have been

031to um or seen the proposed site for Van Beern and the different entrances that are uh that are uh that are proposed. But the one big big concern that I have or we have is the easement though that the proposed easement right away that the school is proposing is to come through a a park, a city park. They want to devastate that park to have access to a new school. Not opposing the new school at all. It is well needed, but just the access and the way that they're going to butcher that park. We have people that uh use that park all the time to walk their dogs, deer come over, wildlife come over. But the city, not the city though, but the school wants to put a 26 foot road in through the park

032and then they and then the school negotiated with the parks so they could have access to put um parking in the park. So now you don't have a road. You have a street that you just created. So So there's people that have lived and moved into that area because of the uh because of how beautiful that that park is and it's quiet and u uh there's there's other options to get, you know, to have access for that new school. And that would be the 27th Street ex the 27th Street uh easement. There's a 40 foot easement there and it's and it's a lot shorter. The uh it's it it backs up to the you know to the uh uh it it backs up to the back side of the school. It's a lot more accessible

033in that 26 easement or in that 40 foot easement there though that there's there's seven trees. Okay. Shive Hatterie calls them mature trees. If you take a look, six of them are dead. Six of them they have have hangers from them due to the draial. They needed to be taken down anyway. Don't know why that they weren't removed anyway. They're unsafe. But in order, you know, they they are pushing to go through up use 28th Avenue and come up through the park for for the access of the new school. And it's just, you know, the the length is different, the length is a lot longer, the grading is a lot longer, the material is a lot longer, a lot more costly, where it's opposed of using that 27th Street uh easement, which is 40t wide.

03428th Avenue is 30 feet wide or Yeah. 30 feet wide. That's that's a 30 foot street right there. and and and neighbors use that, you know, the street for for for a street parking. The parks use it to use, you know, to use their facilities up there. The way that the bus route is is is routed, it is coming that there's a playground facility up there with some gyms and some slides and things like that. You're telling me you're going to put bus traffic 20 feet away from those kids playing? How unsafe is that when you have a 40-foot easement on 27th Street? You're kind of butchering the city parks. People uses that. So, um I I you know, I tabled this, you know, I tabled this discussion to, you know, to postpone the approvement

035until the easement right away is definitely defined and figured out. So, The way that you're treating Van Beern and Hoover School really reflects on your next school vote election in November. It really does. So, whatever you decide is going to affect that vote. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Julie Roford. [Music] Hi, my name is Julie Roford. I live in the Van Beerren neighborhood, 2710 27th Street Southwest. I have volunteered at the elementary school over the past few years and my very own Charger got to ring the bell this last June. While the new building designs are quite impressive, I'm here tonight to object to the school board giving final approval for the Van Beern elementary site, there are three key reasons why I believe final approval should not be granted tonight.

036The first reason for my objection is that the resoning has not been approved by the city of Cedar Rapids City Council. The first vote for this resoning is scheduled for July 22nd. It does not make sense that the project would move forward without this approval. The second reason for my objection is that the project requires approval of an easement. The specifics of the easement, including location, are still not finalized as of today. This easement request has yet to go to city council and has the potential to impact the costs of this project dramatically. The third and final reason is trust. This project requires collaboration and clear communication with the Vanurren neighborhood which has not occurred. The school district needs to work with our neighborhood prior to finalizing plans. This is our neighborhood. This is our

037school. These are our families. We want a new school. We want what is best for the children. But we need the school board that understands it is irresponsible to give a final approval for a multi-million dollar project when you don't have a final project plan and you don't have a final budget. Thank you. >> Is that it for this public hearing? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you, >> President Garlock. I'd like to make a motion. >> We'll wait. We'll wait until we get the consent agenda. Okay. Thank you. Uh we will continue now uh we'll continue the meeting with those who want to address the board on other matters. Board Secretary Hogan, do we have any requests on other matters tonight? >> We do. We have eight. >> Okay. With eight speakers, we will give

038you five minutes. Um please respect that time limit 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. We ask that the audience and speakers refrain from using inappropriate language and outbursts as a matter of respect for all in attendance. The board has zero tolerance for profanity, vulgarity, demeaning language, or threats of any kind. I'd like to remind our speakers that the board cannot address personnel and 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 again to state their name and address. Board Secretary Hogan,

039will you call our first speaker, >> Steven Moer? You're good. Good evening. My name is Steve Moer. I live at 183539th Street and that's in Marian. I am the current president of the NAACP unit or chapter here in Cedar Rapids. And the nature of why I'm here addressing you is to read a support for the referendum on November uh 4. As a member of our community, you have the opportunity to remove barriers to learning for our students this November 4th with the Cedar Rapids Community School District bond referendum plan. Like you, the NAACP believes every child deserves an opportunity to reach their full potential. They can only thrive when our education system provides equitable learning standards and has access the appropriate necessary funding. Our collective investment can ensure safety, functionality, innovative environments, efficiency, and long-term

040sustainability for the next generation of Cedar Rapids community members and leaders. The world is big and challenging. We want to equip our students for the realities they will surely face. Which means we understand the tools of yesterday will not work for their tomorrow. The bond referendum seeks to meet today's needs and endure our students success into the future. CRCSD students success equates to a strong and thriving Cedar Rapids. support the bond referendum alongside the NAACP CR on November 4th. Can I give you a copy of this? >> Yes, you sure can. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Ally Emerson Brown. Good afternoon everybody. I'm Ally Emerson Brown. I live at 862 Augusta Drive Southeast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Well, I guess that's implied because anyways, um so I'm actually speaking on behalf of

041my work. I'm a prevention specialist at the Area Substance Abuse Council. So, it's my job to um go into the schools and chat with students, see the trends. Um, I address tobacco, vaping, prescription medication. Ultimately, I have been working with different principles and different counselors. Uh, because one of the grants I work on, I'm looking to update the policy. Um, as it as it pertains to prescription medication. Right now, the statistics show that one in seven teens that are prescribed medication are misusing it. Uh we also have statistics as recent as uh 2021 Iowa's crime lab analyzed over 17,000 fake pills or the counterfeit pills and by mid 2022 that number had already quadrupled to more than 70,000. The DEA reports that about 40% of those counterfeit pills are um containing lethal doses of fentanyl.

042um which a lethal dose is essentially uh if you look at the tip of your pencil, if you divide that tip in four, that's how much is a lethal dose. And we're finding this common in students in high school um they're feeling pressured to perform for academics um or maybe even sport events. Right now there's a trend where uh we're seeing um students between the age of 12 and 17 purchasing counterfeit pills. Um and that's coming back with methamphetamines and fentanyl in it. So essentially I'm looking to just update the school policy with a a minor but impactful change. And I have a sample. It's only two sentences long. Um this one comes from Washington High School. Their current policy says use or possession of alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, or any illegal or medically unauthorized substance.

043The possession or use of tobacco, vaping, alcohol, other controlled sub substances, materials that are to be controlled substances or drug paraphernelia on our campus or at any other school sponsored event at any location will result in suspension, possible alternative placement or expulsion and potential legal consequences. I'm just looking to identify and include in there prescription medication is the key word and not just controlled or um not controlled substance. So my proposed change um would be the possession or use of tobacco, vaping products, alcohol, prescription medications without proper medical authorization, over-the-counter medication misused for non-medical purposes. And that falls right into the current policy. It's got two to five words changed. Um I do have a copy of that for the sample language. Um other than that, I appreciate everybody and thank you guys so much

044for your time. May I give you a copy of this paper? >> Yes. >> Thank you, Kathy Olrich. >> Thank you so much. [Music] Good evening. My name is Kathy Olrich. A common mistake. Um I'm here this evening to speak to the fact that I notice on item four when we get down back into board governance. Later on you're going to be talking about the extension of the contract, I assume, for the superintendent here in Cedar Rapids, which would go to 2028. With regard to that, several of my colleagues and citizens of Cedar Rapids and the community school district are very concerned because we have heard that the superintendent is asking for a raise. Not only is she asking for a raise, but she's Pardon me, please. >> Excuse me. We we are not allowed

045to address personnel issues in open meetings. >> This is a vote that you're going to take tonight. We we cannot discuss personnel matters in an open meeting. I'm sorry. >> Um can I ask a question? >> We cannot we cannot interact. I'm sorry. You'll have to take a seat, please. >> I'm sorry. I was advised by the previous board secretary Laurel Day that my comments tonight were within board governance rules. I would think she would be a vital source. >> Could we take a break and get a legal opinion? I think you need to please >> recess momentarily. >> Could we have a recess? Thank you. >> Five minutes. Thank you. My bladder says [Music] 6. >> Thank you everyone. >> Kathy, we we advise that you continue without >> an open session. >> Yeah,

046we are resuming our open session. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, I will repeat it. Thank you. We advise that you continue without using any names. >> Okay. >> Please be aware that statements regarding personnel could subject you to individual liability based on what is said. You may proceed with your statement mindful of those considerations. >> Thank you. Um the um the person the general personnel report includes names. I'm not going to get into whose names, but it speaks about, you know, we get we get who's hiring, who's not hiring, all of those things all the time, and what salaries they may or may not get. Um, I think we need to take into consideration that one of the things that the board is is always talking about as part of the strategic plan is fiscal

047responsibility. We it was very controversial this spring when um negotiations came about for staff um teachers pareducators what kind of um compensation they might be or may not be getting. Um and that was settled on at the time as all contracts that are negotiable in the Cedar Rapids School District should have been taken care of between April and June. is my understanding today is the 14th of July I think maybe it's 13th 12th doesn't matter it's still July and it's the time of year when everybody sort of tunes out what's going on in the school district and in our schools unfortunately if I were sitting on the board and I'm considering that I've got a very important bond issue that is facing us hopefully in November because I know we have at least 3,800 signatures

048to get that on. And I'm all for that. By the way, I think I would want to take into consideration who or whom might be getting raises, not getting raises, and the workloads that are given to the people um that are teaching, that are secretaries, that are paras, that are uh janitorial staff. And I know I'm leaving some group out. I don't mean to. It's just what I've got on my mind right now. I think that we need to consider very seriously before we put any money into salaries for anybody right now. Um, and that would include asking for raises. Um, analogous to what we do at uh, one of my favorite universities, the University of Iowa, when we're looking at what we do with coaches, you know, we build in incentives. Okay. Part of

049why we hire um a person to run the school district that you hire, I should say, to run the school district is is a plan for them to meet certain goals. I would think one of those certain goals would be to hopefully pass a bond issue. And I beg you to tread very carefully when you go to vote on these issues tonight in close session because I think it could hurt you in the long run with with regard to passing this very important bond which has already been modified once which is a good thing. So, I have 25 seconds left and in 25 seconds, I'd just like to say I appreciate all the work that you do with schoolboard members. It's a tremendous responsibility and it it it is sort of a thankless job much

050of the time because you're not compensated for all of the hours and hours that you give. Thank you very much for listening. >> Uh point of order. We >> Yes, director. Yes. Uh there will be no voting in we don't vote in close session. >> Okay. Um thank you for your comments and board secretary Hogan we will move on to the next >> Carl rolls. >> Uh I'm Dr. Carl Rolls, director of bands at Jefferson High School and I reside at 420 WY Boulevard Northwest here in Cedar Rapids. I and my friends in the room here are to bring your to your attention the state of our arts programs in the district and to offer and my job is to offer a bit of historical context to where they used to be. Cedar Rapids used

051to have a musical empire until about 2010 marked by performances at the most prestigious conferences in the country. Midwest Clinic by the Jefferson Wind Symphony, the Washington Orchestra. Westside delegation was heralded as one of the best show choirs in the country. When the band of blue marched the Rose Parade in 1998, the general high school programs fielded over 300 students. um 912. I came to Jefferson because of that storyried tradition, because of the rich history of musical success, just as dozens and dozens of other music teachers used to do until recently. But for the last 15 to 20 years, the district has slowly chipped away at our arts programs to the point now that our high school groups struggle to maintain even half of what those enrollments used to be. Our middle school programs are

052in critical condition and our elementary music classes are on life support in danger of no longer existing. Perhaps it's hard to see that issue given that the most public-f facing aspects are our high school performance groups and we high school directors make it work out of sheer force of will. But underneath our arts programs are a hollow shell of what they once had been and should be. Our numbers are low because the arts simply aren't a priority in this district. And we know that because of the continued reduction allocated to the arts in two of the most valuable resources available, time and money. We no longer see the kids for enough time at a young enough age to ignite any love of the arts. In Cedar Rapids, our elementary students get music instruction just four

053times a month if their schedule doesn't change and eliminate it for that week entirely. And some elementary schools this year didn't even have music teachers, creating issues of equity across the district. So, how can we expect students to want to continue in the arts if they don't ever get consistent and meaningful experiences? Our middle school programs already didn't have enough class time to give students proper quality instruction to build their confidence and pride in what they do. Not enough time to build a sense of community and belonging in the band rooms, orchestra rooms, choir rooms. So, kids quit at the soonest opportunity. And now in addition to that, some of the middle pro middle school programs um done individually in their buildings rather than equitably across the district. Some of those middle school music programs

054have seen reduction in FTE, further kneecapping their abilities to teach and funding support for the arts in general is menial and often under threat to be reduced or even eliminated each year. I know the district is focused on enrollment numbers and that they're a consistent conversation topic since they have significant budgetary impacts. Our activities and fine arts programs are the front porch of our schools, even in the elementaryaries. They are the curb appeal. So what do families who are choosing where to buy a house see in Cedar Rapids schools districts? What are we offering families to keep them here? Why would they choose to be a have not when all of our neighboring districts offer them the opportunity to be a have when it comes to the arts? We're focused on engaging students in their

055own learning, spending millions of dollars onmies and pathways and their accompanying construction projects. And while I support these endeavors, waiting nine years until a student is is in high school to engage them in their own learning is such a heavy lift. We're choosing to do lastm minutee patchwork instead of an earlyphase optimization because study upon study demonstrates that earlier and more arts education leads to better outcomes for students. Better writing skills, math skills, social skills, emotional skills, and more engagement in school. All without their test scores suffering. Because in the arts, we're focused on process over product. I feel the schools in general have been pushed to focus so much on the product they produce, their test scores and their public report card. But if you take care of the students, if you focus on

056truly providing them the best learning environment, the test scores will take care of themselves and the research bears that out. The arts can help with every measure in your current strategic plan as noted on the success measures. increased graduation rate, growth in proficiency on ISASP, reducing the learning gaps, enrollment, and yes, even behavior. Because when students feel like they belong, they're engaged, and they find their community within the school, they find success. My call to action to you is this. Engage with us in dialogue of what we need to service our students. And then demonstrate by your actions that you've listened and that you care, that the arts are an indispensable component of developing our well-rounded students. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Ann Ort. >> Hi, I'm Ann or and I live at 215 Creek View

057Court Hayawa. And I'm going to try and get through this without crying. So, we'll see what happens. Um, over the past 100 years, my has had four generations of students attend a Cedar Rapids Community School. Standing before you are three of those generations. See, I told myself I wasn't going to cry. And look at me. Of those family members that attended, over half of them were involved in the arts in some facet throughout their entire school year. Three of us became teachers, two specializing in music. I grew up in a time where there was a district-wide commitment to focus the most excellent arts education in the state. This district was the place to have your student attend to excel in the arts. Arts education was thoughtful, meaningful, and partnered with our community to provide a

058holistic arts education from K to 12. We had an arts administrator at the district level who cared, who listened, who understood what it took to build, maintain, and grow programs of excellence. Students could start a string instrument in the fourth grade or a band instrument in fifth. We had art centered field trips and assemblies. There was an indist contest, and we would compete around the Midwest against other schools. The competition between my peers and between schools was tough. We were challenged. The music we created was recognized on a state and national level and our music teachers stayed in their jobs and built legacy programs of excellence. Every arts experience I had and lesson I was taught from K through 12 fueled my desire and gave me the future ready skills to become a music educator

059of which I have been for the past 25 years. But unfortunately, fast forward to now and the strong e strong art centric environment that was cultivated through this district is dying. In many ways, the arts programs are so stripped of resources and focus, it's time to start over again. It is imperative to return to having a district-wide focus on delivering to our students a holistic comprehensive arts education from K through 12th grade taught by qualified arts educators. Let me repeat, holistic curriculum from K to 12 every week, more than once a week, taught by certified music teachers. You can't expect to have orchestras, jazz bands, choirs, marching bands, show choirs, speech teams, or musicals in high school without the core music education from day one of a student's education. They can't show up at high

060school with the bare minimum skills and expect to excel and be competitive. Why are there ninth grade boys in our varsity show choir? Because the lack of holistic and concentrated concentrated music education in this district is killing the growth and passion for involvement. Lin Martin Prairie have so many kids that want to participate that the competition is fierce and we have to recruit. Let me be blunt. We are being outperformed on so many levels by other districts in and around the city and state. I'm embarrassed. You should be too. We are so blessed to live in a community with one of the richest arts environments in the Midwest. The partnerships that once existed with these organizations and this district are dying or dead. The community outreach, in my opinion, has all but vanished at this

061point. Just like sports, the arts can positively affect communitywide economic growth and urban development. But for many of the families, the loss of focus on the importance of arts in the district as a core and important part of education leads parents to the choice to take their kids to other schools. I pray that the amazing educators that my student has right now don't leave before she graduates. The first step is to take to invite our arts professionals to the table and listen to what they have to say. They want to be part of the conversation, but they don't feel heard. What if the future could be sparked with merely some care, genuine concern, and honest conversation? You don't need money to spark change. Everybody got a writing utensil up there? I have a value statement

062that I'd like to leave you with today. It goes like this. As a you fill in your role, I can help to rebuild a holistic thriving arts environment in the Cedar Rapids School District by you fill in the blank. So the arts are a vital part of the curriculum and the lives of our students. Thank you, Wrigley Ort. Hi, my name is Wrigley Ort. Um, music and theater are my passions. Through my involvement with speech, theater, show choir, and marching band. I have found my tribe. I have been taught discipline, how to be an effective communicator, and how to make amazing art with a diverse set of individuals. My passions are more than just after school groups. They are a defining part of me and most likely will be a part of my future career

063choices. Today I ask, what are you willing to do to ensure generations behind me still have an arts education and their K through2 experience in this district? You must help start the conversations and listen to these arts educators because every music learner in the district is not future ready. Let me explain. I can read music, but many of my peers and choir cannot. So, we can't sing more challenging music. Our teachers in elementary and middle school wanted to teach us. Instead, they had to focus on classroom discipline for the students who didn't want to be there. I can play an instrument. But without private lessons that my parents can provide, I would not be able to keep up with my peers from other schools. Should I consider moving to another school outside of Cedar Rapids

064schools for the opportunities that other school districts can provide for their students. I don't want to go anywhere else. I want to stay at Kennedy. My current music and theater teachers are some of the finest educators in the state. They genuinely desire to see us excel and grow in our passions and lives. They spend hours in and out of school showing us how to push ourselves to be better actors, musicians, and people. They strive for excellence. They are all superheroes, but they are undervalued and underresourced. They are making magic on shoestring budgets. I really worry that my arts educators may leave to teach somewhere else or maybe we'll just quit teaching altogether. If you don't know this already, the students who participate in music and theater are some of the finest people in their schools

065both academically and as human beings. We are student body presidents, national merit scholars, club officers, mentors, the top academic students in our classes. and we spend hours all year round practicing our craft. We want to excel. We want to showcase Cedar Rapids School District. Please help ensure that the legacy of the arts and music survives and thrives in our schools so that every learner is future ready. Thank you, [Music] [Applause] Nicole Wilkinson. Hi, I'm Nicole Wilkinson. I live at 3604 Caribou Court Northeast. I'm here today to ask why the district has not been able to offer equitable arts programs to all of its students. Why it's looked away as programs have plummeted, why the district hasn't upheld Iowa Department of Education standards pertaining to music education. Studies show that music accelerates brain development, improves focus

066and concentration, strengthens skills and problem solving, helps regulate emotions, and reduces stress. And that schools with strong music programs see higher test scores and higher overall academic achievement. These are the things that I want for my children. Strong arts programs that enrich them, but also hence enhance their abilities to academic excellence. We're not native to Cedar Rapids, but we chose to move here after researching the schools and the community and verifying that it checked those boxes. Our oldest daughter started at Pierce in 2017. She was offered music programs in every grade and show choir in the morning starting in third. She loved show choir and we went as far as enrolling her into some community programs. Her little sister was also a fan but had many years ahead of her before she could participate. When

067my oldest started at Franklin, she was excited because she could finally be part of competitions. And I found my community, a community of dedicated parents, volunteers, and people passionate about the arts. And we were lucky enough to be led by the best middle school show choir director. But River's final year at Franklin was also his final year. He announced he was retiring. It was also the year that I put in my largest number of volunteer hours for the program. And as a result, he asked if I'd be interested in applying for the tech director position. His ask was more than just a need to fill the current position. It was his acknowledgement that if the position went unfilled, it was likely to disappear the following year. He fought for those positions to be created before

068and he didn't want them to be eliminated in his absence. There were no applicants, so I applied and I was hired in the temp position. During that time, I learned more about the needs of the students, the needs of the program, and the areas in which the district was failing. I also got the impression, though he never vocalized it at the time, that if the district would have taken more action to enhance the music programs and to listen to the needs of its educators, he would not have made the decision to retire. He verified that accuracy of my impression after his retirement, and he gave me permission to tell you. Other music educators in the district also left at at this time, some just going to nearby districts. Pierce Elementary lost their music teacher. This

069was my youngest third grade year when she could finally enjoy her first year show choir, but she had no music teacher, and she was devastated. I questioned the district, where were you in the hiring process for a music teacher? Had they received applicants? Was the enrichment teacher an adequate replacement? How does the district plan on grading students for a subject they weren't receiving? I was told there were only a handful of applicants, some of which received offers, all declined. Retired teachers were called and offered positions or were asked to substitute. All declined. Why? Why would what looked like from an outside perspective is a thriving program have so few applicants. I brought the subject to the next PTO meeting. Parents were upset, but I unwittingly brought their attention to another topic, the new pathways program.

070This became the topic of bigger interest and ended my push for unanswered questions for the arts programs. I joined the parent committee hoping for more answers and to maybe have an opportunity to discuss the arts, but it wasn't to be. Also, that during this time, the vocal teacher that was hired to replace the previous one I discussed at Franklin also left and no warning. The show choir season had barely begun and it looked as though it would come to a screeching halt. That community that I mentioned earlier is the only thing that saved that program. Parents came together to volunteer their time during rehearsals. Ultimately, one parent took over the role of director. She gave those students a program when the district failed them. So what was to come of the program at Franklin in

071the coming year? My oldest had a strong foundation and is in currently in a strong program, but my youngest is missing out and struggling. Why would I keep her somewhere that no longer has the programs that are important to us in a district that doesn't seem to be listening to its experts. Better options were just minutes away. We pulled her out of Cedar Rapids in February of this past year. She's now enrolled in a school that offers choir in the third grade, band in the fifth, and a comprehensive music class. And I don't think it's a coincidence that from the time she switched schools, she went from barely hitting benchmark scores to exceeding them. I understand the privilege I have in switching schools for my daughter that most families don't. But you're the ones failing

072them. You're not providing them with adequate instruction in the arts. And even worse, what little is being offered isn't even equitable across all buildings. The phenomenal arts programs we've had for years and years are fading, and the teachers and directors that are working tirelessly are going to continue to burn out with no one waiting in line to replace them. And more families will move just minutes away for the programs you've forgotten. Thank you, [Applause] [Music] >> Jay Burkin. Jay Berkin. >> Hi, my name is Jay Berkin. I live at 265 Climber Road number four in Hayawa. Um, first just a little bit of my background. My parents retired from the Cedar Rapids Community School District after working in the district for over 30 years. I chose to transfer to Wash due to bullying in another

073district and also due to the high excellence in the fine arts program. I have worked as a show choir assistant and choreographer at Wash since 2012 and I have been a PAR serving students at Wash in Bertram since CO. I went to school with one of you and I worked with three of your kids in show choir. So I know that you guys do want an excellence in the fine arts. We're just not seeing it. I am not anti Cedar Rapids Community School District and I am not anti- you guys. I'm not here to say we can't have change. We need better communication from you guys and we need way higher learning standards. Uh on the communication side, March 10th, we learned of the reduction in force. We were told that we were going to

074learn about our position by the end of that Friday so that we could have a wonderful spring break. On that Thursday, we were emailed that we were not going to learn until after spring break. Cool. I get it. March 31st, someone asked at a professional learning and we were told by our uh parah union representative that the district was going to start looking at paras after april 21st. Cut to the professional learning on May 12th where we were informed that Jenned Perez will find out by the end of the week and then cut to the next Monday is when I found out that I would not have my job. Now I knew my job was being cut. You could not touch special ed paras. So I knew that Jen Ed Perez would be the one

075to touch. The two months of delay was unprofessional and made me not want to accept another position in the district. And I didn't I did not go through the surplus pool. Why? You guys did not make us feel valued. That was too long. I I knew I was losing my job. The communication issue is being heard here with Hoover and Van Beurren and also around the community with the Pathways program. You guys decide things and then tell us and then you're surprised when there's push back and immediately change your plans. I heard someone bring up the word trust. There is no trust in the school district board and the school district superintendent. None. We need higher academic standards. I worked with high school seniors who could not complete a 10x10 multiplication table if they needed

076to. They could not even go up to 50. It's really sad. Our standards are a Dminus standard. That's good enough. That is not why I transferred to the Cedar Rapids Community School District. That is not why I chose to work with the Cedar Rapids Community School District. That is not why my parents chose to work with the community Cedar Rapids Community School District. We used to push students to take harder classes and have a more full schedule. And I know that at least one of the people on the board was a huge part of that. We have to pump up extracurricular involvement, which I know all of you agree with and I know all of you believe, but it just has to happen because students don't want to come to school. They're not involved in

077activities. They don't involve themselves in their classes. It's just a vicious circle. We need to make our schools safe for queer students and staff. I was never once bullied at Washington High School for being gay when I was a student. I have had so I've had felt so many reports about students calling me a gay, spitting on me, calling me lots of different things. Um I won't say sorry since I'm not allowed, but I have actually tried to use the proper processes to contact people and they've been immediately sent back to wash admin like the next day. sent back like the next morning I walk into wash, hey we need to have a discussion. No, no, no. The reason I contacted the district is because it's a district level problem that needs to be solved.

078So you tell us to contact you in the correct ways, but we then just get sent back. Dr. Grover isn't even here today. Why are we trying to be like De Mo Area schools? No one wants that. They are not thought of as successful schools. No one wants to be like the De Moine public schools. Anytime I hear that, it makes me shut off. There was no plan B after Dr. Plaggman was ousted, and we are struggling to fill the gaps caused by a vacuum of leadership. We're seeing that at Wash, Kennedy, and Jefferson. Thank you. [Applause] That's the end of our public comment. Thank you everyone for offering your comments tonight. We will now move on to the superintendent's report. So I will give it over to Dr. Grover who is joining us virtually

079for her report. Dr. Grover. Thank you so much, President Garlock, and thank you to the community for all of the engagement here today. Let's kind of start out with our report. Typically, I have students um as a highlight. Uh but since it is the summer time, we're going to start with staff spotlights here today. We're going to start with National Baseball Coach of the Year recognizing our Brett Hoya, the head baseball coach at Kennedy High School for receiving the prestigious honor of being named the National High School Athletic um coach of the year for baseball. He has led the Kennedy baseball program for over 32 years, building a legacy of excellence both on and off the field. Under his leadership, the team has won two state championships. They've earned three state runnerup titles and amassed

080an outstanding 882 varsity wins. This national recognition is a testament to coach's dedication, leadership, and impact on students, athletes over the past three decades. We congratulate him on this welldeserved honor. I'd like to also turn our attention to Metro High School where we will recognize Shannon Ellis who's a social studies teacher for us and a steam academy coordinator uh for his recent induction into the Iowa Association of Alternative Educations Hall of Fame. Um, I like to say that our Metro High School alternative program, they have the opportunity to welcome educators from across the state um, year after year uh, to showcase some of the happenings around alternative education. This prestigious award is given to outstanding alternative educators who have made significant lasting contributions to the field. And Shannon no doubt exemplifies this through his unwavering

081commitment to innovation in teaching, his ability to build meaningful relationships with students and his efforts to foster a positive and inclusive school culture. If any of y'all have ever had the chance to uh talk with Shannon, you know that his passion runs deep for alternative education as well as for our students over at Metro High School. Also, we have the honor tonight to recognize and congratulate uh one of our volunteer award recipients uh Jennifer Trimbath, a dedicated school volunteer at Grantwood Elementary as a recipient of the Governor's Volunteer Award. Jennifer's positive impact on the students and staff at Grantwood is truly immeasurable. One of her most notable contributions is the creation of afterchool arts explorers program in partnership with Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. She also spearheaded the school's first ever Grantwood Griffin talent show, giving

082all students a chance to shine and celebrate their unique gifts. Her commitment also extends the fundraising effort that support the PTA and school initiatives. When asked watching volunteers, Jennifer said, "Volunteering at Grantwood provides me with an opportunity to connect with both students and staff at deep at a deeper level while gaining insight into how I, the PTA, and the community can effectively contribute to the school success. Jennifer is just one of over 2,000 volunteers who generously give their time and talent to support our schools each year. We're very grateful for her service and proud to celebrate her welldeserved recognition. Turn it over to our strategic plan priority areas. We do have a few tonight. We're going to start with our safe and secure learning environments. We've talked about this um and definitely want to thank

083our team uh for going after uh the concept of therapeutic classrooms uh to support our behavior initiative plans. We awarded $900,000. I'm excited to share um this announcement for our therapeutic classroom grant from the Iowa Department of Education. Uh we are only we are one of only eight school food districts in the state to be selected for this opportunity. This significant investment supports the well-being of our students and reflects our continued commitment to creating safe and secure learning environments for all. Um this is a big part of the plan that we have in place as we get ready for the upcoming school year. This will allow us to have a dedicated space that provides short-term focused assistant for students whose emotional or behavior needs are interfering with their ability to learn. The goal is to

084provide targeted supports and help them build the skills they need to return to the classroom ready to thrive. We're grateful for this opportunity. definitely appreciate the leadership of Rouse Parker um and his team in helping us to achieve this award, contributing again over $900,000 to our safe and secure learning initiatives. Um, as we talk about our students being prepared for life, I did want to note um that in working in conjunction uh with our strong partnerships with the Kirkwood Community College, the Iowa Online AP Academy, and the College Board, 1,577 of our high school students participated in advanced placement and concurrent enrollment courses during the past school year. um many taking multiple courses. These rigorous classes not only challenge students academically, but also offer the opportunity to earn free college credit while still in high

085school, saving families thousands of dollars in future tuition costs, reducing the financial burden of higher education. This effort supports our district's commitment to for preparing students for life by helping students develop academic confidence, time management skills, and college readiness for postsecary success. Also, I want to note here tonight, I really do appreciate our families coming out as it relates to the arts. Um, and I really do appreciate, I believe it was someone from Jefferson High School who kind of noted the history here. I do as a point uh from the staffing conversations um at this point uh we have not cut any um of our middle school programs uh we still offer band orchestra and vocal music opportunities um even with some of the staffing adjustments that we had to make. But I do stand

086with our community as it relates to the art for the the parent that came forward in regards to um having conversations, partnering together. We too want a stronger fine arts uh program. I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to bring our educators, our parents and our community together to see how um we can again make sure that students um they have an interest in the arts and that we have programs that support their interest and for some students just even giving them exposure uh because we do see um a decline in enrollment in some of the programs as well as being able to offer uh consistency across our schools. So, I I do want to note that as an area of concern as well. Also, in terms of priority area number three, uh

087staff and community partners, thank you to the Zach Johnson Foundation, um and for all of the support that goes out to our schools in the afterchool programs as well as their expansion over trailside for the upcoming school year. And talking about partnering with our community, I believe that we heard some comments also tonight as it relates to some of our construction projects. We are actively working with our neighbors who live around the Hoover and Vanir areas to address uh some of the concerns, many of that you heard tonight. So, thank you again. That is the point of a hearing to be able to hear from our community um as well as um making sure that we are taking the time to go out and engage in this process before we have final plans. Um, so

088far we've held two neighborhood meetings to date uh to kind of learn about some of the concerns. Um, and we have gone back to our engineers and architects to investigate possible site plan modifications uh for both of these locations of Van Beern and Hoover um as well as the cost. Um, so we will have to continue to work through some of that um and making sure we have a schedule of where we'd like to get out to the community uh to bring forward some of those modifications. Again, thank you for those who attended tonight um and for those that have been engaged uh in the process. So, I do agree um in regards to uh further looking at some of these modifications um and working alongside our community before the plans are complete. So, as

089we move forward for our fiscal responsibility prior priority area number four, I want to discuss just a little bit around some of our completed PEPO uh project. So, thank you to the community uh for the support of PEPO. Um and let's look at some of the projects underway here. We've completed over 47 major facility projects this past school year using funds from the the Peppa dollars. These projects include new auditorium seating at Harding, uh tennis court upgrades at Taft and Roosevelt. We've had some creek cleanup at Harding. Also, we've taken a look at some of the ADA accessibility um issues of locker rooms remodeled at the King Kingston stadium, a new plot at Jefferson, ADA softball fields access at Kennedy. Um it represents about $3.4 million of investments using um our PPE dollars. And I

090want to uh kind of draw our attention as we kind of talk about physically responsible of our organizational chart. Um we did move forward more of an area organizational chart and service delivery model. um over the last two years um as we kind of looked at staffing out at the campus, we also had to take a look at the reductions um at the ELSC uh where we reduced uh 27 FTEES at the um instructional support center here. Uh with that being said, uh reducing four um top level senior uh level positions u making cuts of about $580,000. um as we made those cuts, we do need to take a look um how we reorganized uh some of the responsibilities and still being able uh to provide services. Um as we all know u within our

091school district, we serve about 15,000 students. We have 32 campuses uh that we support um almost 3,000 employees. Um I want to draw our attention uh to uh the area structure for area 1, two, and three. uh very uh grateful for our team members who have joined their efforts in helping us to think about how we organize um their responsibilities and making sure that we're servicing our campus. I will say um as was noted a little here tonight uh one of our u challenges that we wanted to overcome was making sure that we have continuity um in regards to engagement and involvement as well as communication um at the school level uh and the district level um in our office of academic that was where one of our strongest opportunities uh presented itself and so

092by doing so we combined the roles of the chief of schools uh with some responsibilities is from the office of academics. Um, and so I want to walk through those really quickly here. So area one, you can see our high school. These are our feeder schools into Washington High School where we have Dr. Mara Hopson. She will continue uh oversight there. But in addition to uh support at the school levels uh she will also be taking on curriculum and instruction um so that again um the schools they have a greater connection uh to what's happening in the curriculum department. Part of our model uh is also making sure that we have designated um support staff that are responsible uh for a suite of schools. For example, in each area, we have a student support services

093specialist. You can see that noted there. We also have a director of special education um in each area as well as a teacher leader coach and a school improvement coach. Um, you know, one of the biggest concerns here that we were looking to, uh, address, uh, was making sure that people knew where they could receive support from in these particular areas. Um, and so that's what we will see there. In area two, uh, will be supervised by Ralph Parker. Ralph has done a significant amount of work uh, helping us over in the behavior supports um, and with our DOJ uh, compliance. um a lot of great improvements in those particular areas, the same areas of support, but he will also be taking on um area 2 schools that feed into Jefferson High School as well

094as special services and behavior supports. Um moving on to area three again um by eliminating we eliminated the chief academic officer uh position where uh these duties had to be split out and so um Mark Timberan um area three that feeds into Kennedy High School. He will take those suite of schools and again um taking on student support services um in those particular areas. I want to also draw our attention um over to um again um as safe and secure learning is one of our target areas. We continue to have that position um that will connect over with area 2 um but does support uh our entire school district along with um executive director of special education um and our director of behavior supports as required um by our DOJ um agreement. Also noting that

095we had um a change uh with our uh chief of innovation and research. Adam will be moving over to that role. We were able to uh dissolve his position um in isolation just in terms of executive director of innovation moving it over to chief of innovation and research uh communications and our data office. Um I do want to note that we are welcoming back to our organization Angela Beielman um director of data uh to provide support in that particular area. Um and also kind of moving over uh noting um as we continue to have um oversight here for our chief financial officer um as well as making sure uh that we have continuity uh for the district and support across the board uh increasing uh her responsibilities. We eliminated our deputy superintendent position two years

096ago. uh now she's taken on some of those responsibilities in addition to uh her chief financial officer uh role there. Uh so here is our proposed organizational structure uh for the upcoming school year um as we all look to support our students um staff u working through issues together. Um I do want to note a point of clarity uh as it relates to um being fiscally responsible. I did not request uh a raise of school board this year. Um as a matter of fact, I requested to not receive a salary increase uh from the board. So I think that's important to note um as we've had um communication um in that regard. So as we move forward here uh tonight, I do believe uh that takes care of our physically responsible uh section. I do

097want to note uh that we are gearing up again. Yes. Uh a lot of great support and understanding uh for and how important it is uh for our fund referendum. Very grateful for the economic alliance um and their support. Uh we meet on a weekly basis uh so that we are working hand inand to understand how those efforts are working. They have now um they have launched their believe incrschools.com uh website where we received a number of endorsements um from community um at large again as we are working on behalf of our students. Right now we've uh gathered uh close to 4,000 signatures as was noted today. U we do need to get about 6,000 uh here uh over the summer as we move uh to have it on the ballot. um great fundraising efforts

098underway and I just want to we heard an endorsement here in the audience tonight. So, thank you to the NAACP along with other uh businesses and organizations online. So, just a huge thank you uh to our community uh for supporting uh education in Cedar Rapids Community School District public education um as we move forward. And just before I go, just as um I do want to say a special thank you uh to Doug Newman um as he is transitioning from the economic alliance. She's been a great partner for us. Um, as we also welcome in um Juliet Abidel uh to the role, we want to make sure that we continue that strong partnership with our community uh specifically the economic um alliance. Um and uh for our parents, as a reminder, this is annual verification

099time. So, please go out on the annual verification process is very important. All CRCSD families, we must complete it. This helps us to know um how many students we have in our schools and so make sure we can balance out um our classrooms and making sure we have um a teacher and all of the support staff available for our students um as we prepare to start the upcoming school year. So, thank you in advance for taking time out to complete your annual verification. Uh that concludes my report for tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Grover. It may be summertime, but the work never stops, does it? Um so, thank you for that report. >> Not at all. Thank you. Uh, directors, do we have any other board reports? Okay, thank you very much. We will move

100on to our consent agenda. Are there any items on which a director has a comment or question or requires that an item be pulled from the consent agenda for a separate vote? >> President Garlock, I have I have two things. >> Okay. Um I uh motion that we table items 51 and 52 preliminary approval for Hoover and Van Beurren school site projects. Second. >> Um can we have a final motion on that? Director Newman. >> I move that we table items 51 and 52 preliminary approval for Hoover and Van Beurren school site projects for future vote. >> Okay. So the motion is uh to table the preliminary approval for the Hoover and Van Beerren sites. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Is there any discussion about that

101from board? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose. Same sign. President Garlock, I'd also like to pull item number eight for board discussion, not for separate vote. >> Okay. And President Garlock, I would like to pull number six, personnel report, for a separate vote. >> Okay. >> And I would like to pull number 36 for separate discussion. Okay. So right now I have item number six which is the personnel report that we are going to address separately. Item number eight is the policy manual review um which we will address separately and 36. So, point of order, just just number six is a vote, right? Point of order and the and the other two are just discussion, correct? >> So, do you need an amended agenda? >> We're going to um we're

102going to deal with each of these separately. So, we will need a motion uh for each of these and a second and a vote to move them off of the consent agenda. Okay. So, do I have a motion to move Do I have a motion for number eight, the policy manual to be removed for discussion? >> Point of order. It's not being removed for a vote. It's just it's not being removed. It's just discussion. >> The agenda stays intact. >> Yeah, the agenda stays intact there. >> Okay. So, we're just Okay. So, we're going to pull it to discuss it. >> Yes. and then we'll vote after when we vote on the whole consent agenda after discussion, it'll still be intact. >> Okay. I would make a motion to remove number six, the personnel report

103to be uh for a separate vote. >> Okay. So, Director Bjie has a motion on the table to remove the personnel report for a separate vote. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> This is a roll. Sorry. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> No. >> Do we Carla? Do you have who you >> Who said no? >> I did. >> Newman. >> Got it. Sorry. >> Okay. So, the personnel report we will come back to momentarily. The other one that you asked to have um removed for a separate vote was number 36. Correct. Just discussion. Just discussion. >> Just discussion. Okay. So, let's do our discussions. Let's address uh number eight first. And director Newman, can you uh tell us a little bit about that? >> Yes. I just

104wanted to bring it to the board's attention. Um and if there's any discussion, this is a policy to establish establish our overall uh personal device policy for the district uh with different requirements that will be put in place and are being studied right now at elementary, middle, and high school. Um but really developed to um a meet the meet the state law that was put in place, but also to um remove these distractions from our classroom. And I think I think our board has expressed a pretty unanimous interest in in doing that. Um I just wanted to bring it um to your attention that it was on the agenda. Um I we talked about it in policy and compliance. Um we have some people here who can answer questions probably better than I can, but

105I just thought it was really important to bring that up. Um so are there any questions or discussion around that? I think it's important to know that this is the first reading of that policy and so at this point it is just open for discussion and input from the board uh before we do a second reading at a future meeting >> and a lot um they have we have been seeking input from both parents and our educators as well. Uh, >> is there anything recently that was discussed in that policy? I know you're on the committee. I'm not sure if there's another um that would be >> worth mentioning or >> I would say that really it comes down to um defining it by I I'd say not grade level but elementary, middle school, and

106high school and what that means. Is it bell-to bell? Is it during instruction time? Are they allowed in um hallways between passing time? Um etc. And that is what is still like really under consideration right now but see heavily heavy support for essentially bell to bell. Okay. >> Have you seen that support consistent with parents and teachers? >> I believe so if I'm understanding the data correctly. Um I think there are people who have concerns about being able to reach their children during the day and um that communication and procedures need to be put in place around that. Um, you'll also note in the policy like kind of specific carveouts for 504 plans um and special special accommodations that have to be made. >> So, it'll be interesting to see how it >> works out

107and moves forward then. >> Yeah, I guess. Were there anything in these um draft policy that we that are worth mentioning or that have changed or that you know are pertinent to anything we should be very aware of as a board that's other uh has a recent development of any sort? I guess I know this has been a topic we have we've discussed and we've um been following and tracking and um individually maybe learning from other districts as well. So, just wanted to see in these attachments if there was anything. >> Well, there's only the one attached for the personal personal device. Um, and really, um, that's pretty straightforward in what it is. I mean, it's it's banning cell phone use during instruction time. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Madam President. May I offer a

108clue? >> Sure. >> Because there is some confusion. >> Oh, you need the mic. >> Could you go to the mic, please? There's a little bit of confusion around um the time frame involved. So bell-to-bell refers to the start time through the end time. Instructional time generally speaking refers to any learning time. So meaning classes but not necessarily passing. And the one thing um that we have been considering as a result of the policy and compliance oversight meeting is the possibility of having a different role for grades 9 through 12 as opposed to grades K through eight. Um but that'll be I believe there'll be a presentation um more fully at the next board meeting August 11. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Thank you. >> Is August 11th the second and final reading? >>

109Sorry, I didn't stay up here. Yes. So, the purpose of the first reading is to um roll it out as originally proposed, but um that purpose also includes the opportunity to change. >> Yep. And then if I can ask, don't leave. um the data that director Newman had referenced um a lot of discussion with the community with teachers that's not obviously in policy but is that something that is available uh for the rest of the board that we looked at in in the committee >> absolutely um and if the members of the committee like I will take it upon myself to send out the data to the other board members it is certainly a public record >> yeah I think that would be great because I think that one of the thing that's been clear

110in our committee meeting is that this has been an ongoing discussion. So, it's a lot of work has gotten us to this point. Um, but again, just to reiterate, this is the first reading. So, take the time to read the policy. If there's things that are concern, I'd like to get those addressed before second reading. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Are there any other questions? >> Thank you. >> That's all for me. >> Thank you. Anything else on that topic? Okay. Director Bortching, you wanted to have a discussion about >> number 36, the approval of lithograph's cartoon in painting donation. First of all, what a gift that is just amazing. Um, so humbled to be that the district gets to receive this this incredible artwork. Um, but it it did cause me to

111reflect. I would really love to see an inventory of all of the artwork that we carry. Um, I don't know if that exists. I'm sure it does since we have some in some insurance policies around it, but I would just like to see that inventory. >> Okay. I appreciate your comment. Good point. Other comments about item number 36. Okay. So, uh we have pulled the personnel report to deal with separately. We're going to deal with the amended consent agenda. So we will go back to approval of the amended consent agenda. We have removed item number six, the personnel report to deal with next. But first, uh, do I have a motion to approve the amended consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor say I. I.

112>> I. All opposed. Thank you. Moving on to the personnel report that that we pulled uh for a separate vote. Do I have a motion to approve that personnel report? >> So, is this a roll call since it's personnel? >> Yes. >> But you still need a motion to approve it. >> Do we have an emot? >> My question was, do we have an emotion? Do we have a motion to approve the personnel report? >> So moved. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> Roll call. >> Sorry. Roll call. Sorry. Sorry. >> It's okay. Taminsky. >> Hi. >> Borching. >> No. >> Vice President Roundree. >> No. >> Uh, Director Newman. Sorry. I >> director buyers. >> No, >> director Humbles. >> No. >> President Garac. >>

113All right. [Music] We're screwed. [Music] So we will move on to administration. We have three items under administration tonight. The first is a resolution to schedule public hearing on the proposed issuance of approximately $120 million school infrastructure sales, service, and use tax revenue bonds. Do we have any questions that Carla can address before we vote on this? [Music] Is there a motion to approve the resolution to schedule public hearing on the proposed issuance of approximately $120 million school infrastructure sales, services, and use tax bonds? >> So moved. Is there a >> second? Second. >> This is a roll call vote. Director Borching. >> Hi, >> Vice President Roundree. >> Hi, >> Director Newman. >> I, >> Director Buyers. >> Hi, >> Director Humbles. >> Hi. I'm sorry, I was on mute. >> You're fine. >>

114Director Taminsky. >> Hi, >> President Garland. >> Hi. Next is a resolution to consider continued participation in the instructional support levy program and to schedule a public hearing. Any questions for Carla about this resolution? Is there a motion to approve the proposed resolution to consider continued participation in the instructional support levy program? >> So moved >> to schedule a public hearing. Is there a second? >> Second. This is a roll call vote. >> Vice President Roundtree >> I. >> Director Newman >> I. >> Director Buyers >> I. >> Director Humbles. >> I. >> Director Taminsky. >> I. >> Director Borchetting. >> I. >> President Garlac. >> I. The last administration item is a presentation followed by an agreement with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. I'll turn the meeting over to Adam Zimmerman. [Music] Thanks, Jess.

115It's good to be with you tonight. Um, I'll invite two guests that are coming up. Just saying that's me. Um, tonight we're we get to highlight the partnership between CRCSD and Junior Achievement. Um, we've been a longtime partners and in recent years have uh really focused on the common purpose of preparing all kids to be college and career ready. Um, you're going to hear from me just a little bit, I promise. You'll hear from Nick Klein, vice president of education for Junior Achievement. Um, and most impressively, you will hear from Adam Petrobec, a rising seventh grader at TAT, who has participated in the program. I'd also like to acknowledge Kim Abram, who has been leading the work um, in the counseling department to put this partnership together, listen to educators, listen to our kids to

116try to define what our parenting experiences are records. Two two years ago, we started this college and career journey um under the current administration by defining our purposes. Where are we going to get kids? And so we said what are the criteria that we say we were successful and we said this is the portion of graduate and so you see measures here. We've talked at length about where we want to get all kids, but we also know um just the next slide that college career readiness and we heard from parents tonight is not um a high school game. It's a K12 um experience that we need to guarantee for our students and that's what our Excel plan does. And so you'll see it here, this is this year's Excel plan. Um, these are the guaranteed

117experiences that we're looking at K12s starting with exposure in the elementary schools. Um, and then moving down to explore and then engage our high schools, deepening those experiences so kids can say, "What do we really love? What don't we love?" Um, and finding their passion areas. Junior Achievement has played a huge role and been alongside of us uh with pilot programs um and providing our kids quality experiences along the way. So, as you can see for our next year's plan that we're guaranteeing one one back. Yep. Junior Achievement will be providing 50% ele of the elementary experiences, 80% of the middle school experiences, and 50% of the high school experiences. This represents thousands and thousands of volunteer hours um that adults in our buildings and kids are getting on college. So, we're really excited. I'm

118going to be quiet now. Um Nate is going to talk a little bit about programming, the feedback they've gotten as they piloted some of these programs. Um, and the main event will be Adam with his experience. Thank you, >> directors. Thank you so much for allowing us to join you today. Uh, we are excited about this partnership and I've talked with Adam, uh, Dr. Grover and others. You were one of our original schools. We are celebrating 60 years of junior achievement in Eastern Iowa and only two school districts can comment that they were one of the original. So, thank you for being one of our original partners. Um, Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Jefferson was actually the original with our J company program. And what's been really amazing is over the last several years, uh, we started

119these conversations as well. And as Adam talked about, we wanted to make sure that this was purposeful and then also equitable across the board. And so I think probably many of you have had some experience with JA in some way, shape, or form. We only had two grade levels that had a guaranteed experience for the last 10 to 15 years. And so when we sat down and had a conversation, we probably were more considered a vendor and you have a lot of vendors and uh as evidenced by your lengthy agenda today, there's a lot of things that you were approving and we wanted to make sure that we were a partner uh in this work that y'all are doing with our students as well. I've got a vested interest. I've got I'm married into an

120educator family. My sister is an educator in the school district as well. And we wanted to make sure that these experiences weren't just great for students, but also the educators in our community. And so this year, uh, actually our lovely Grace King wrote some articles, a positive light as it relates to the JA experience with Cedar Rapids School District. Uh, and she predicted that we need 1500 volunteers. And we landed at 152. >> 400 of which, by the way, nice, nice job guessing that, Grace. 400. And that's across 25 school districts that we support. 400 just for Cedar Rapids Community School District. You are the largest partner that we have uh in this work. And so on the next slide, it shows a little bit about some of that data. And I know what's important

121to the directors is the investment that you're making is making a difference not just for one student or a group of students that have great leaders in their buildings, but is across the board. We often talk with educators that it's important uh to think about professionalism and then also college and career readiness, not just when they get to middle and high school. just as you wouldn't stick a student like Adam in geometry without teaching him the basics of math. But we do that sometimes with your life preparedness after college or financial literacy. We wait until we think that they're ready for it. And so now what we're doing is we're starting at kindergarten. We don't talk about at kindergarten. We do talk about needs and wants and choices. Uh we get to that later on

122in middle school. But as you'll see here, we're growing the impact alongside you as a partner. um from just under 4,600 student experiences to next year we'll have over 15,000 student experiences. Now that's not unique exper it's not unique students uh yet we will say K through nine every single student in the Cedar Rapids Community School District will have that opportunity to have a JA experience learning about career and work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Um so here we we assess every single grade level kindergarten through 9th grade. Uh these are just a few of the samples that we pulled here as well. And you can see po pre and post tests. We look at knowledge gain. You all are assessed on many things and we want to be able to provide that support for

123you for decat and other things that you were assessing. Um the big stat that we thought was really interesting of the fifth graders that did a program and I taught this program over at Nixon this year. 97% of the fifth graders in the Cedar Rapids Community School District that JA helped them realize the importance of staying in school. So in addition to the knowledge gain that's happening just over a short five session period, they're also understanding the attitudinal shifts with work readiness and financial literacy as well. On the next slide, we'll look at middle school assessments. Uh J Finance Park for those of you that haven't had the opportunity to see that in action. It's a pop-up experience where students get to reality check their futures. And while we love our educators, they start to

124realize that maybe jet skis for their first year teaching is probably not for them. and they understand that having a child and child care expenses are a real thing. And so having some of those reality checks in middle school help them understand what they're going to plan for when they get to high school and as you look into themies and pathways as well. 87% of the students agree they think about how financial issues may impact their future which I think is really powerful. On the next slide, uh we ask the educators. Uh one of the things we know that is very important is educators take so much pride in what they do and it's important that we ask their feedback and making sure that I think previously JA was just kind of on top of

125what they were doing. Uh and another thing and the feedback that we got this year, we piloted K through nine and we asked our educators through a survey and then also just being in the schools in the classrooms their thoughts and three main themes came out. Two of them I've listed here. um providing educators the flexibility for the program launch. We kind of specified this last year, hey, you're going to do this in the fall or in the spring. And so this year we're working to align that curricularly so that they understand that it's integrated, not just on top of. And then aligning with the standards. And so you'll see maybe on the next slide some of the things that we're shifting uh due to some of that feedback from the educators as well. So

126this is a lengthy slide, happy to talk more about it if you have questions, but we are maintaining the majority of what we've done. We did learn that having third graders sit for a couple of hours to hear from career speakers was a little much. Um, so we do know that a couple of you directors were also there during our equipment exploration fairs for fourth grade to have them have the opportunity to see different careers as well. And we're pivoting a couple things at the fifth and sixth grade level to based on not only uh educator feedback but also student feedback and reading levels. And so they'll have experiential learning opportunities for J Btown and Finance Park in the middle school as well. Uh the biggest change you're going to see is with the seminar

127program. Uh we've been working with Kim for the last six months and the educators that are part of that committee, including guidance counselors across the high school experience, uh to really think about what that year-long opportunity that will be optional for 9th graders this year. And I believe and hopeful that it will be required in the following years to have this opportunity. And JA has some really great programs uh that align very well. So they'll they'll actually get an industry recognized credential. They'll have work-based learning experience. And not only does that help out y'all's scorecard, it also gives some really rich experiences for students early on as they start to make some of those changes about is college for them, career, or anything in between. We'll have an exciting stock exchange, a stock market challenge

128at each of the high schools. So, if you're looking for a rowdy time of 60 minutes of stock floor trading, we would love any volunteers that would like to give back as well. Uh, mock interviews and then 3D will start at Cedar Rapids, Washington this fall as well. So on the next slide are just a few quotes. Uh I won't spend a ton of time uh on this. You'll see Darius in there. He was teaching in the classroom. We really found great pride in many of the educators and also the staff getting into the classroom to see what it's like to give back. Uh as I mentioned 400 volunteers representing over 150 businesses. And when you think about the opportunity to engage your community uh with the bond issue and other things coming up, having

129people engaged in the classroom, wanting to give back, uh we feel like a great partner to be able to do that for you so you don't have that lift and we can help lift that for you. But without further ado, I'm going to introduce someone uh that I think everyone will be excited to hear from. Adam Votbeck is a rising seventh grader. Uh he is at Taft and he has had some amazing experiences during his sixth grade experience with Jay. So, could you give a round of applause here for Adam? Adam, you want to just say hi to the crowd? >> All right, I'm gonna ask Adam a couple questions that he has no idea what I'm going to ask. Um, so Adam, could you tell us a couple of things that you liked about

130your junior achievement experience? Um, I like that we learned things by doing fun activities instead of listening to people talk for like half an hour. And when we were working in groups, they let us choose who we worked with. So, I was able to work with my friends and we looked and um, we talked about stuff like lemonade stands and how to make one. That's awesome. And I love lemonade, too. So, that's great. So, Adam, could you tell us what you learned that you think will be helpful as you grow up and plan for your future? >> We learned how to make a business and how to be successful in finding one and how to not lose your job. So, like how to be on time and how to be organized. >> That's really great.

131Did you learn anything else that you thought was really exciting during this time? >> No. Let's give Adam a big round of applause. Adam has also stayed up his past his bedtime for this. So, thank you, Mrs. So, the program Adam was talking about was the J company program where they got to start their own business. And because of the Excel plan you all have put together, we had a little bit of a twist that focused on civic and social responsibility. And so we had students across all of the middle schools not just starting businesses for a profit, but thinking about how that can impact the community and social causes. We actually have a couple student groups as well that went out and put those ideas into action and raised a couple hundred dollars for

132a local humane society as well. So the work y'all are doing, it's not just um JA doing it. It's the educators laying the foundation, the community members wanting to give back as well. So we just want to say thank you for the opportunity for students like Adam and educators inviting us in the classroom to allow those students to be inspired to lead choiceful lives. So I believe that is the last slide if there questions you have. >> Very good. Thank you so much. It's great to hear of these wonderful community partnerships. And Adam, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate you. Questions from the board comments? >> I have a question. So Adam, thank you so much. That was great. I can't wait to see what business you open. There's probably some

133people on the board that could talk to you about entrepreneurialship. Um, so I'm sorry I can't see you without saying, "Hey, thumbs up." Um, so I I just was looking at a couple of rates there and I just am wondering um if we can go back to some of the slides. It looks like there was some relatively flat growth um in the second grade of uh that's no the one before that I think, right? Yeah. >> No, I'm sorry. That was it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. There it is. Yeah. So, is there any idea why that was kind of flat there? >> Yeah. So, any of the J programs typically from a K through five perspective are approximately 2 and a half hours of instructional time. So, when you think about a half

134days worth of time, some of the growth you will see will be pretty minimum. And so, what we're partnering also with the district is let's not just look at some of the competencies. And so, we're tying those to the standards. So, whether it's social studies standards or math standards, we're also looking at attitudinal shifts over time. And so one of the things we want to be able to bring to you in the future is a longer term study that looks at hey we had growth. We also kind of checked a box from a standard perspective but also how our attitudes shifting as it relates to financial literacy and work readiness. So you'll you'll see growth in all of them. You'll see smaller growth in some of them. Um part of that also is making sure

135that we get pre and post tasks back from a larger sample size as well. And that's part of part of what we're doing with our your new chief of data and information as well. >> Sure. I I love that you guys are collaboratively looking at that and finding a solution to move forward. Um, and then my other question is what is 3D? >> I feel like that might be a second big question, Jennifer. So 3D is a an instructional model that really tries to figure out how do we integrate case-based and project- based learning in the classroom uh by making sure that the students can stay on campus. And so long story short, 3D is a national model that JAUSA kind of incubated and over the last 10 years has worked in major metropolitan areas

136and Jay of Eastern Iowa over the last few years has worked with a couple different school districts in the area. Uh and Cedar Rapids Community School District will be the third school that we work with and we partner with Adam and others to try to figure out what different things on your Excel plan and then also as your portrait of a graduate. And when we really started to look at those things, the competencies that 3D is really driving towards are your profile of a graduate. And so we will be partnering with six local businesses or sorry six businesses to do cases throughout the year. Three of them are national partners. So a credit union, Arby's uh and then Delta and then local cases which include the city of Cedar Rapids, Van Meter and Mount Mercy

137University. >> And what students do over over a fivew week period is they learn about the case. And we have employees that you all um through your agreement we hire and put them into the school so that >> teachers don't have to come up with the cases and businesses don't have to come up with cases. Um so for instance van meter is trying to figure out they're growing business so large uh should they build a brand new facility or should they remodel one? >> Students in the ninth grade will then analyze that information. Uh we actually had students from another school district pick up the phone and call realtors uh and actually ask about prices of land and I didn't know students could pick up the phone and call uh and so then in the

138third week mentors will be coming into the class from van meter or those other businesses and sitting alongside and when you talk about work-based learning and the state governor's kind of proxy to say every student we want to have that workbased learning 3D solves that at every single level. So uh and then in the fourth week they'll do some internal presentations. So, every single ninth grader at Cedar Rapids Wash will do some presentations. We'll select a final four and they'll have a Shark Tankesque culminating event where Van Metered executives will come back into the classroom, back into the auditorium uh and judge and pick and select the winner. It creates competition in education. Students are treating it in our other school districts like they're treating their extracurricular activities. They're coming in early and staying late

139to practice and work as a team. and really those competencies that we're hearing from the business community and others, how do we put those into play? And so we'll layer that each year, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, uh, giving work-based learning experiences for all students with hope to grow and expand that as well. >> That's great. I would like an invitation to that, please. >> Deal. >> Follow-up question to the 3D. I see it's wash only. Can you talk us through how we selected that as the first as a starting point? >> Yes, Adam. >> Yeah. So, this was part of the the magnet grant. It was written into that. um cost is the number one factor and so the the grant provided that opportunity but it was a natural fit at Wash with

140their business focus as we start that um there's opportunity and I think Nate and J are working with the state on the funding side um but we can start with one um and see how we can maximize that before scaling >> and are you doing that you mentioned maybe two other districts are doing 3D are those in the surrounding areas what does that look like >> college community school district is the first one and Albert community school district which is actually the smallest 3D school in the nation of about 60. >> Okay. >> So, we're excited to grow and expand. Washington will be our largest partner because it'll be a full school model with all 300 students. >> Amazing. I also just wanted to say thank you, Adam. Thank you, Adam's mom. Thank you, Nate.

141Um, and to the volunteer coordinator. I can't imagine coordinating 152 >> 152 Danny Carter. >> She's reached out. >> Thank you, Danny. >> Yeah, that's amazing. And um just as a personal on a personal note, my son was very frustrated that I did not get to meet his JA teacher because he was just raving every time after the lesson. Um so well done. Thank you. Other Okay. >> Thank you, Adam and >> Yeah. Thank you guys for the presentation. Thank you very much. With no other questions, we'll now consider the proposed agreement with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. All those in favor of the agreement, please signify by saying I. I. >> I. >> Those opposed, same sign. >> Thank you. We have two presentations tonight under learning and leadership. First is the annual report

142on the school improvement advisory committee. And Nicole, it looks like you're up. Good evening. Nicole Brown, executive director of curriculum and instruction. It's good to see all of you tonight. Um that's really hard to follow. Um so I don't have a really awesome student uh to stand beside me. Good. Um really the purpose of this this evening is to give the board members um really just an overview of our recap of this previous year around our school improvement um advisory committee. Um so I'm going to cue Justin. Uh so as a reminder um there is legislation around that all school districts in the state of Iowa have a school improvement advisory committee or otherwise known as SIAK. Um the legislation is linked there for you to take a look at, but basically it says that

143it's an advisory committee that um is comprised of multiple stakeholders. So educators, both administrators, teachers, parents, community members, uh and students and as well as board members. And I know there were a couple of you that attended um a few of our SAK meetings this previous year. And really the purpose just as any advisory committee is for um the educators to be able to provide information to the stakeholders and to receive feedback um around those key pieces. Yep. You can go ahead Justin. Thanks. Um so I just wanted to give you a brief overview of the work that we accomplished this previous year like I mentioned. So the details around uh the 2425 school year. Um, we had three meetings throughout the year spread kind of like fall, winter, and then spring. We had 50

144plus members in attendance at each of the meetings, which obviously Cedar Rapids is a large school district, but um I just know based on previous conversations that it was a large turnout even for Cedar Rapids. So, we are really excited about that. We really tapped into our building principles to make recommendations for parents um and students. And so we were able to send out an kind of an open invite. It is an open meeting so anybody can attend but we had great attendance which gave us a really nice perspective and being able to give feedback on the different pieces um that we wanted to share. It was data driven. So for each of the components I'll talk through here briefly. um we are able to provide current sometimes past data um and be able to

145share what our goals are around those pieces in the strategic plan and then like I said get feedback around those. Um we collected feedback every meeting from um community members from teachers from um all members that were there and we were able to answer questions that were asked uh sometimes right on the spot as well as collecting those and being able to provide some followup afterwards. And then really as most of you know um the the work really comes from the office of curriculum instruction and assessment um which last year we were partnered with um the office of student services as well as special education and college and career. And so it really gave us an opportunity to start to build and form collaborative relationships with community members as many of us were either brand

146new to the district or um potentially brand new to our roles. All right. Right. So, the topics addressed this past year were all anchored in Cedar Rapids strategic plan. Um, and so around those long range strategic goals were um information around curriculum which really fell into my department. So, we were able to share uh curriculum updates and changes and like I said get feedback. We were also able in the spring to share our about our early childhood programming and the expansion of that. Um we were also able to talk talk about equitable student outcomes um really coming from our department of special education around access and instructional practices. We were able to share information around safe and secure learning environments. So, um, part of the legislation calls for us to share our bullying and harassment

147policy. And so, we were able to share that, get feedback and input around that to see if changes were need to be made. And then also provided data around student services and behavior supports and give updates as we kind of went through this school year and were able to increase some of those supports moving into next year. And then last, but definitely not least, um, information around our college and career pathways. And just really to be honest, uh we started with this back in October at our very first SIAK meeting. And it was through our SIAK meeting that our team really realized like we need to be doing a better job of engaging our community members around our college and career pathways. And it really led us to slow down and reflect. And from there

148came those parent evenings that we had in December um and then our u parent committees after that. So, that's one really concrete example of how we were able to use feedback and input from our community to make adjustments to our plan around the district. Um, and then also in April at our spring meeting, Chad was able to share an update on revisions to our bond um and again seek some feedback from community members as well. So, those are really the highlevel pieces that we were able to tackle uh through this past year. And uh I have the slide decks from all three of the meetings we have that obviously have a lot more detail in them. And then we have our dates set for next year. And we will again really anchor this around our

149strategic plan getting feedback from our community members as well as our staff um and other building principles, board members, uh and students as well. That is all I have. I don't know if there are any questions. Um >> thanks. Thanks Nicole. Do we have questions from the board comments? It's an important component of getting community feedback for for the district and for the board. So, I appreciate the time and effort on your part. >> One quick question. Just one quick question, President Garland. Um, so it's three meetings. The committee is the same for each of those meetings, right? So, >> the same the same invite. Yes. Not everybody came to all three, but yes. Yep. Same people invited. >> Great. Thank you. Will that change up at this year? >> I was just going to

150um say that I think in my mind what I'd like to do is start with the same people because it's really great to kind of get that consistency and um possibly open it up to others because it's also really great to get some kind of new perspective and um yeah, so we're going to try to do a little bit of both. >> Okay. Director Timky, >> on the attendance of those meetings, one of the slides says 50 plus members in attendance. Is that at every meeting or is that a total? No, that was at every >> So you're consistently getting over 50 people at SAK. So that's great. >> Yep. I think in October we had like 70 some. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I know that group is kind of ebed and flowed maybe in

151the past. So to have some consistent um and then maybe a question for the community if people were interested in being on SIAK, what would be the way of expressing that interest? >> Um I think really probably just to email myself and my administrative assistant will help with keeping that running list of people that are interested or potentially interested. Okay, great. >> And people can just call into the to to the office here and they'll route route them to you also. >> Yep. >> Cell phones here. Yeah. >> Other questions, comments? Okay. Thank you, Nicole. >> Our final presentation tonight is uh the Department of Justice annual public report. And I'm going to turn it over to Ri. >> Uh good evening. uh as a requirement in the uh our agreement with the Department of

152Justice, I'm required as the executive director of Avery Sports to provide an update yearly. Uh so that's what I'm doing. Justin, you want Okay. Uh that next slide you go to the next one. So as you all know here in Cedar Rapids, we have a little bit of a different definition based on our agreement on what seclusion is um and what restraint is in our district. Here is the definition that we in Cedar Rapids use as seclusion. Seclusion is banned in Cedar Rapids, which makes us a little different than other school districts across the state. Essentially, if a student is isolated alone in a room, they do not believe they can leave that room freely. That is exclusion. Um, it does not mean a student can't choose to go to a space to calm down

153or anything like that. Um, so that's what that definition is. Physical restraint, again, um, not too much different, but a little different when it comes to, uh, physical restraint for our students in our district compared to the rest of the state. Here are all the board policies that you all passed a couple years ago um related to to this topic. So the second part of the annual report is to give you the data disagregated by building. I've also provided you the data by grade level. You all have seen this data from me um the other couple times I've had the opportunity to um give kind of a report to you. Here is how we ended our year. You know, we've talked a lot about kindergarten throughout the year. Um, I will say as the year

154went on, we dipped significantly with our kindergarten restraints as we started to put things in place. Um, and we feel confident that some of the adjustments we're making going into next year, notably increasing paradigm and our kindergarten classrooms can make a big difference in this data. So, you all heard from me a lot at the beginning of the year that our goal entering into this year was to really wrap our arms around all of the data. There was a lot of fear around this agreement in our district and myself along with Tammy Wave Tanny, the director of behavior supports uh was we wanted to drive out fear associated with this uh this agreement and make sure everything was being reported so that we could really get into buildings and help support um our staff and

155students. So uh we believe strongly that that is um a big reason for our increase this fall. Uh and then you can see the dramatic uh drop off that we experienced as the year went on as we were able to get involved in student cases and really help uh put measures in place to support uh students who are maybe um disregulated more often than others or needed additional support. We feel very strongly that we have a clear picture of what students need support now in our district. What buildings need different things and the measures that we've begun to put in place are really starting to impact um student outcomes. So, another highlight uh that's not required, but we did get a district site visit from the Department of Justice this spring. They came last spring

156as well. Um a group of lawyers from Washington along with the Northern District of Iowa. Um an investigator for the Department of Justice that has been on this agreement since uh its infancy, as well as an expert that they use in these matters came to our district, spent three days with us, with myself and Tammy, and toured six of our buildings. You can see the buildings there. Four of those buildings um they also visited last spring. So they got to see a lot of comparison with the same school, a lot of the same staff members that they visited with. Tammy and I met with the team from the Department of Justice a couple weeks ago to get their feedback from their site visit. Um and I cannot thank our buildings um and teams enough because

157the feedback we got um from the team from the Department of Justice was uh was amazing. So, our teams um have put a lot of things in place and here are some of the highlights that they noticed. Um they were uh frankly very impressed with the changes we've made to paperwork and how much better our documentation is around what's happening in buildings and what we're doing. They also noted the increased fidelity around training, which I know you've heard from me a couple times, and also just the types of language around deescalation and student crisis that teams were using. um just talking about exploring data, using the systems, relying on district supports, making communication. They heard consistent messaging across the district. Um which is great. Teams are really have really dug in this year um and

158really bought into this work. So um I cannot thank them enough. Um they also made a pretty heavy note that they believe it is clear to them now that our district has made a full commitment to this agreement and to best practices and to system level change and improvement. They believe that that is happening based on the site visit that they conducted this spring. So the work is never done. So here are our next steps as we enter next school year. One thing we really want to strengthen is our counseling debriefs as part of the agreement. If a student were to be restrained or have a crisis, they are provided a counseling debrief. We've made we made a few tweaks to that this year, but we need to dig into that a little bit more,

159especially for our students who are maybe non-verbal or have maybe other communication barriers. Um getting our guidance counselor some training to make sure that they're able to um you know a conversation you might have with a fifth grader versus a preschooler is very different. So just making sure that they have all those tools in their tool belt. That's something we're working with Kim Kim Abram on um and gentle van fleet excuse me as we move into next year. Um, again, you've heard a lot from me about the need to expand our interventions for our tier three students. Um, because of the um, resources we've been able to allocate to our SCP intervention specialists for next year, we feel very strongly that we're going to be able to really beef up our tier three interventions and

160also our behavior intervention plan fidelity for our students who are identified. And our goals next year are going to be reducing suspensions, uh, reducing the percentage of students requiring more restrictive programming, and also reducing our identification of students for special education behavior plans. We feel strongly that our work around tier three next year is going to begin to do that. Um, so thank you to the board. You've been very um very welcoming of the ideas that we've had this year, very supportive of those ideas. I want to thank you all for that because I know some of those decisions have been difficult. again um not just the teams that our um DOJ partners visited but um throughout the course of this year I would say Tammy and I have noticed a huge difference in the

161level of commitment within our building teams from every single corner and building across this district. Every single department has been involved in this work from buildings and grounds to human resources. Everybody has really been allin and so it has taken every single person uh in this district to move the needle and the needle is moving. So, thank you all. Any questions? >> Thank you, Ri. Questions, comments? >> In a general sense, thank you for the presentation and the updates. Um, I did have a couple just quick easy questions on um that four of the schools were visited last year. We added two of them. Are we planning on continuing to add? Do we stay consistent now with the six or how does that work year to year? >> That's a great question. So, um I'm

162assuming they will do a site visit next spring. Um next year is our last year of the initial agreement. So, I'm assuming they will do one. The way this spring worked is they gave us four schools that they knew they wanted to go to and then they asked us to pick two other ones based on some criteria. So, I would assume next year it will be a mix of some schools they've been to before. It will also be around our data next year, right? So, they will want to see so some of those buildings were buildings that saw huge um improvements in data. So, they want to go to those buildings and say what's different. Um so, I think based on our data at the midyear point next year, they'll select buildings with us. how

163that has worked in the past. >> Okay. Amazing. Yeah. No, that that makes sense. Um and then just with these um repeat cases, right, just safety when we're thinking about safety and security in our buildings. Um how many I'm just I'm not sure if it was addressed in here. I'm thinking about repeat cases, right? How many incidents are recurring? >> And then we're trying to decrease our suspensions. So I guess what are the what is the option then if we have a similar incident that is causing harm to other students and what is the plan that in that scenario? >> Uh I just want to make sure I understand. Are you saying like students who maybe have are needing multip additional support because they're maybe getting multiple restraints throughout? >> Yes. Yes. >> Um that's

164a good question. The answer to how we would address that would vary based on um grade level, right? um the therapeutic uh work that we're doing next year in conjunction with the grant that we're getting is going to be a big part of that. Um right so at the elementary level next year we're going to increase the amount of pushin support our district can provide. So that will be focused on a lot of those students especially maybe those that aren't identified for special education. Um at the secondary level we're expanding s by one extra classroom basically uh it has two classrooms right now. will have three next year. Basically guaranteeing to schools that if a student were to be placed there for um we're saying around four to five weeks an extended period of time

165um we will do more intensive supports with them and as they transition back to the home building they will be coached the home building will be coached a plan that we have worked up with that team. Um so that's really that's not just around restraint but really all where we're noticing a pattern of behavior where we need to provide more supports that's how we're going to provide more supports. Okay, then last last one and then I'll let someone else drive in. Um the Kinder numbers here. You said there was a decrease sign. So it's still much higher than the others, right? Which could be a number of factors. Um but I'm wondering I don't know where I there was a mention of there was some there was a decrease. There was a dip. Do we

166know what that might be attributed spec attributed to specifically this year? >> Yeah. So, um, what I would say in most cases, um, as schools got to know students, right, kindergarters oftentimes if they weren't in our preschool, which again, if students attend Cedar Rapids preschool, they're much less likely to have, uh, behaviors of concern. That's what the data also tells us. Um, but when a student is new to the building, there is no plan, right? So, um, the school might not know about maybe behaviors of concern or how they can better support that student. So the first few weeks to months of the year sometimes can be getting to learn a student and put plans in place that are strong. We will now be able to deploy some more resources to do that a little

167bit quicker. Um there are also some other things that we're still working with with the department that based on their feedback to us. They're willing to have some conversations about some of the restrictions around blocking egress in a building um based on our site visit. So that is ongoing. We have a follow-up call with them in a couple weeks. um we've proposed like language and like kind of how we think we want to make that look. We're we're waiting for some feedback from them because that's a big part of it too is um students who are youngest learners um uh right now sometimes if you're worried about them being unsafe, the best thing to do would be to restrain um when maybe you feel like maybe you don't have some other tools. We're trying to

168put a couple of those tools back um into people's toolbox but in a strategic appropriate way and we're still kind of working through that based on the feedback. But it's good. It will provide us more flexibilities for kids. >> Okay. Wonderful. You know, can that sets the scene for their future years. So, it's nice to thanks for the mention on the preschool and just, you know, how that all ties together. >> Dr. Borcharding, >> thank you so much for this information. It's awesome. Hey, um kind of coming out of um being a subteer for special education, I have some sped questions. Um, do you know how any of these numbers are interacting with elopement rates? If we have less elop rates or if they're kind of consistent or they're not related at all or >>

169any mean restraints like restraints going down as alopments are going down. >> Are elopments going down >> across the district? >> Yeah, I know that was really high last year. >> Yeah, that's a really good question. So, um I don't know. >> That's okay. Um again that was one of those pieces where we really um across all the data we collected around behavior we did not have a belief that we had accurate data. Okay, >> we now believe we have accurate data. So, we now have a benchmark um to kind of assess off of, but yes, alopment and making sure students are where they're supposed to be is something we're we're continuing to work on. Sure. >> Um and we're hoping next year we'll see a dip, but I can't speak to if it's >>

170Sure. >> comparison. And then if we're looking at um by instant by school um I'm just wondering if there are the same um kind of criteria that are resulting in um a student receiving any kind of action that are the same from school to school or is like maybe what Johnson says this is a little bit different criteria than what Jackson uses or >> as far as what's >> and seclusion. Yes. >> Yes, that's a that's a great question. So, that is one of those pieces that we worked to tighten up this year. Um, because we noticed um as I stepped into this role last summer, we uh we found that there was some variance across the district of making sure we're all consistent about what uh con not really about seclusion, but what constitutes

171a restraint that needs to be reported. There was variance across our district um and making sure those things were um documented accurately. um we feel much more confident and that was some of the feedback we got um from the Department of Justice is that things um are reported um so much more consistently and they are noticing along with us trends and like this thing is happening. They also review our behavior logs. So they might read a suspension, right? They're not reading a behavior log and going, "Oh, this looks right and nothing was reported." They're finding that all those things were reported. >> Okay. >> So there's common Yep. there's common language and you guys have like shared best practice ac across the buildings. Okay. And then just out of curiosity, I I would like to

172see this data presented um broken out by >> IEP. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Y >> anything else? >> Thank you, Ry. We appreciate all your work on this. [Music] >> Under board governance, we have the appointment of the board treasurer, Vice President Roundtree. Could you read the proposed resolution, please? >> Okay. Uh resolution for the amendment of treasurer 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 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 for a term of one year beginning July 1, 2025 and shall qualify for said appointment by taking the oath of office in

173the manner required by section 277.28 28 and thereafter shall hold office until a successor is appointed and qualified. And be it further resolved that the action shall be entered into record in the minutes of the school corporation. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the resolution appointing Carl Carlo Hogan as board treasurer? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? Second. >> This is a roll call vote. >> Director Newman. >> I. >> Director Buyers. >> I. >> Director Humbles. >> I said I. >> Okay. Sorry. >> Okay. Okay. >> Director Taminsky. >> I. >> Director Warrioring. >> Hi. Vice President Roundtree. >> Hi, >> President Garlock. >> Hi, >> Carla. Let's do it. >> Let's do it. >> Get out of the way so I'm not in the pictures. [Music] Do you solemnly

174swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that you will faithfully and impartially, to the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office and treasurer in the Cedar Rapids Community School District as now or hereafter required by law? I do. >> I do. >> I will. Thank you. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Our [Music] next item is a close session to discuss the purchase, sale, and use of real estate pursuant to Iowa code section 210051J. Do we have a motion to move into close session? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> This is a roll call vote. Director Buyers. >> Hi. >> Director Humbles. >> Hi. >> Director Tammenky. >> Hi. >> Director Bourchetting. >> I. >> Vice

175President Roundree. >> I. >> Director Newman. >> I. >> President Garlock. >> I. We will now move into close session in the conference room. Thank you. I need a point of [Music]