001[Music] Good evening everyone. I 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, April 28th, 2025? So move. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same. We have two public hearings tonight for the Cedar Rapids Community School District. The first public hearing involves a real estate gift near Morgan Creek Park. The second public hearing is for the college and career pathways project bid issuance number two at Jefferson and Washington high schools. Court Secretary Stiken, have we received any written correspondence related to the public hearings on tonight's agenda? We have. We have one speaker. Okay. Have Have we gotten any written? Oh, no. Sorry, no written. Okay, very good. Thank you. Do we have
002anyone who's requested to address the board this evening regarding the published hearings relating to the real estate gift near Morgan Creek? No. Okay. With no speakers, the affformentioned affforementioned public hearing regarding the real estate gift is now closed. We will move on to the second public hearing. Do we have any speakers for the public hearing regarding the bid issuance from Jefferson and Washington? We do. We have one. Okay. Thank you. With one speaker this evening, you'll be given five minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limit allotted. Board Secretary Stigen will serve as your timer and indicate when your time is expired. Board Secretary, please call our first speaker, Mary Arenas. Okay. My name is Mary Arenas. I live at 3015 Kenidge Terrace Northeast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402. Um, for the public hearing part
003of the college and career pathways. I just remember going to Regis High School and I know like 50ome years ago, we had college classes that we could go to. Regis in the cell. I used my own transportation as all did all the others to their classes that we went to that was taught by a professor. And um there was partnerships in the community for the for the early child care class that I took for the whole year. And then there were different daycarees that I partnered with the people had us set up for six weeks for each daycare that we went to. Um, Regis and Lucel didn't need another building or they didn't need millions of dollars for this. We just partnered with the community, signed up for our interest, use our own transportation, and
004there are cheaper ways to do this. There really are. Thank you. Thank you. That closes our public hearing for uh that that project. Board Secretary second. Have there been any requests for public comment tonight? Yes, we have four. We have how many? Four. Four. Okay. Sorry. With four speakers this evening, you'll be given up to five minutes for your remarks. Please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker. Board Secretary Stiken will serve as your timer and indicate when your time is expired. If you have submitted a request to address the board and choose to refrain from speaking in the interest of equality and fairness, your time may not be yielded to another speaker. To abide by the open meetings law, there will be no dialogue between board directors and the public during this time
005except to clarify the nature of questions or comments from the individual speaking. We ask that the audience and speakers refrain from using inappropriate language and outbursts as a matter of respect for all in for all in attendance. The board has zero tolerance for profanity, vulgarity, demeaning language or threats of any kind. Lastly, I'd like to remind our speakers that the board cannot address personnel and student matters. The board policy outlines a process for addressing and resolving those concerns. We ask that speakers refrain from using personal names and information during public comment. Before we begin, I'd like to remind our speakers to state their name and addresses when called to the podium. Board Secretary Stiken, please call her for speaker. Mary Arenas, she speak on the topic of Paris. Um again, Mary Arenus at 30:15 Kenidge
006Terrace Northeast, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402. Um I came to a board meeting and spoke, but my when I looked to look at the board meetings, what I had said got deleted and then the man before me that talked about the um new property they bought, his got deleted, too. it was saying about they bought it on flood um land and he showed pictures to us and sent it to the board too. We were deleted and so when I asked about it I got a email saying oh it must have been a an error. Well if it was an error here I am again. So this time maybe it won't get deleted. Okay. Paris make to start $1,5004 to640 an hour. In Mount Vernon they make $19 an hour. Living wage is $25 an hour. These
007parents have to know so much about children to need a para mental health all you know the the understanding of the diagnosis the ins and outs of everything reporting back to the teachers. I think that when they have to go to DHS to apply for, oh, I'm a Cedar Rapids school district employee and I make poverty wages and then they have to get government help. And then um I think that's sad. I think $25 is uh the rate that should be made, living wage. And if you give what they're making for 9 months, 30% of that is what is allotted for um rent and housing, they're not going to find a place that for 30% of what they're making. They're not around anymore. And everybody knows how much food has gone up. And some of
008these people are single moms or they're widows or widowers. This is not fair. When y'all are making so much more, a huge amount more, it's just not fair. And to give them a quarter raise that you were thinking of for next school year, a quarter raise, they they do so much. And the teachers depend on them so much. It's unc it's unconsciousable. So, I think we really need to to do better for our your employees because it's not fair whatsoever. They work their bottoms off day in day out and it's not the easy job at all. It's very, very hard. And to make that amount of money, that is a slap in the face to them. I just I just don't understand. So, I hope that this will not get deleted like the man that
009got deleted before me about say showing the pictures of the flood land that they just got gifted or bought for 2 million whatever dollars I don't know to be at the middle school. So, that is my hope that I won't get deleted this time. Thank you. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Kevin Wymore on the topic of bond vote. Thank you very much. Um, I'm Kevin Wymore. Excuse me. I live at 451 Pine View Drive Northeast in Cedar Rapids. I would like uh to talk a bit about the new options for the bond vote. Uh first of all, I would like to uh thank the board and the district uh for considering a an option that would uh cut the new $1 million$und00 million plus uh middle school. I believe it's unnecessary in a declining
010enrollment trend. Um, however, I must address uh Superintendent Grover's um written comment in the weekend uh oped uh piece over the weekend that indeed um and I quote here, um she writes that the option to do nothing uh a path that would almost certainly lead to deferred maintenance. Well, hm. What about the two well-funded uh uh maintenance and upkeep uh budget items? Um in in fact there's one is called PPE and the other is called save and both can be used for maintenance and upkeep and infrastructure. So again, I I really do have to take issue with uh it's almost scare tactics to me that uh a path that would almost certainly lead to deferred maintenance. inflation. Granted, it's probably going to happen, but again, people have to um voters and households and citizens have
011to vote in their own self-interest and not necessarily uh a a something that they may not uh acrew any any benefit from. Um and moreover, um I happen to know uh from the district's own budget documents that in early 2024, the district had 51.5 million in these two maintenance and upkeep uh budget pots. Again, that's $51.5 million. Uh so the idea that oh my gosh there will be unmet needs uh if the bond vote fails a second time which it may. Uh and again uh I have the the documentation. I hope the the media will uh corroborate that it was $51.5 million as of early 2024. So, I don't believe there will be any collapse of buildings or or significant unmet needs uh uh to to the district's buildings if uh the bond vote fails.
012Escalating costs, I'm afraid probably will, but uh I for one will vote uh for my own household's best interest. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker, our next speaker is Dorothy Dosa Getus on the bond. Kudos. Hi, my name is Dorothy Dza and I live at 1022 7th Street Southeast. Um, sorry, I just messed up my notes here. Um, as a community member, mom of a Kennedy grad, voter, and proud volunteer with the Future Ready Facilities Task Force, I'm here to say kudos to staff, consultants, and all the volunteers who developed a bond plan that the voters should support. There's at least one school in each quadrant that will be upgraded with this plan. Um, sorry, I was upgrading my notes. Um, voting to move forward with this plan ensures that several of
013our district's most wonderful historic buildings will continue to serve our student center community. Keeping Metro at its low current location. Hallelujah. I talk to the staff and students and teachers there. I volunteer there sometimes and um they had a lot of reasons for wanting to stay in Oakill Jackson and being able to collaborate with the nonprofits and the businesses that are within walking distance is just a wonderful opportunity for students. So it's it's a good idea. Um, sorry. Adding Roosevelt to the bond ensures that middle school will adequately serve students, including the additional students from Wilson. I'm glad you don't have to rely on PPE dollars for that. Um, using the bond to upgrade these schools means that Peple money and save money can be used to upgrade other schools. There's just not enough money
014in Pele and Safe to do everything that needs to be done to keep our schools or make our schools safer and, you know, more adequate buildings that we can be proud of. So, surprisingly, I'm here to say kudos to you and um vote for this, please, because I'll be your cheerleader out there hustling votes for you. Thanks. Next speaker, Brook OA on support teachers. Hi, my name is Broo Oja and I live at 3030 Circle Hill Court Northeast Cedar Rapids. Um, I have three kiddos in the district. Um, and I'm just here as I've heard more from teachers throughout the district, um, with their concerns and kind of what they're looking for and want to make sure that it does find its way all the way back up to the top of our board members.
015Um, I know that I've met with multiple of you and I appreciate your time um, and your willingness to at least hear what I've been talking to teachers about. Um, one of the things that the teachers are still looking for is we have this right sizing of staff. Um, we've already seen some of the staff that are um either retiring earlier than they wanted to. Um, staff that have been moved to, schools that they weren't jumping up and down to move to. Um, I do believe that some of the reasons behind that is we really want the best teachers in every building. We want all of our students to be supported. Um, and I stand behind that believe that to be true. My concern is the workloads are not decreasing. So, as we cut our
01610-month secretaries, who is stepping in to fill that role? It's the secretaries that will remain. How do we support them? What is the plan for making sure that although we are decreasing staff numbers in our buildings, teachers, paras, all of our support staff, everybody top down has been part of this cut. Um, how do we support the staff that are staying because they're going to continue to be stressed on top of dealing with our children every single day. Um, so I just to figure out a way to brainstorm what that looks like for next year and the years to come. Um the teachers are also sharing concerns with curriculum changes. Um this one hasn't really been announced to families so much. Um but they're seeing a lot of district administrators walking through their halls and
017giving them checklists on how they should and shouldn't be teaching and asking follow-up questions on why they're not um teaching at specific ratios that they were given. Um our teachers are really concerned that we hired them to do a job. They've shown that they're good at their job because they're still employed, but now we're taking away their flexibility in the classroom and we're taking some of their strengths away from them because we're telling them this is how we're teaching across the board. Um, as we've talked about with the career pathways program, every school has some differences in their career pathways that they can choose. And that is because our students across the district are not the same. But you're taking curriculum and you're lumping it together and you're asking our teachers to all teach this
018new curriculum without a ton of guidance. and they're concerned that the flexibility is going to be lost in their teaching ability. And I think the last thing that I really want to touch on is the safe and secure um liaison that we have in the district. I met with her and she has some really good ideas for how to increase safety in our schools. Um, unfortunately that's not being pushed out to parents. We we had one meeting offered to parents and nobody but me showed up. Um, she has some good things, some ways to address the vaping in the schools, the fighting in the schools, the disrespect towards teachers. We have students that are throwing things at teachers on a daily basis. We need to support the physical and mental abuse that our teachers are
019going through. Um because they're not being told how to address things. They're being told inconsistent things on how to address things. Um so I just really want to figure out how to support our teachers when they're dealing with behaviors on top of trying to teach new curriculum. um and just being down staff numbers, teaching numbers in their buildings next year. Um the middle schools especially are not safe right now. And so how can we come together as a board, as a community, as families, and really wrap our arms around making our schools safe and getting back to the Cedar Rapids Community School District that we all love, we all want to support. Um but we got to start somewhere. Thank you. Thank you to our speakers this evening. Uh next up we're going to um
020ask Dr. Grover to present her superintendence report. Thank you, President Garlock. So let's see where we are starting here tonight. Let's start with our student spotlights. So welcome to our CRCSD student spotlights. Each month we will honor students from across our school district. These students exemplify our portrait of a graduate. So let's learn a little bit about our spotlights for tonight. As I call your name, please stand if you are one of our students um who are present this evening. Um let's start with uh Kamaran Ryland. Hello. you can come up while I read your uh little bio here. I see he has family with him here tonight. Thank you. Kamaran is an amazing helper in his fourth grade class. He takes initiative when students with learning difficulties are struggling. That might be anything from
021assisting them with their work, taking a common break with them, or even just checking in with them and telling them a joke. It's great to have kids like him stepping up and helping students get back on track. He is a true leader. Congratulations. [Applause] Next up, we have Gabrielle Fusco. He's an eighth grader who is a shining example of a McKinley student who fully embraces our esteemed focused vision and embodies the qualities of a portrait of a graduate. His curiosity and his drive have led him to explore a wide range of opportunities from excelling in orchestra to challenging himself in weightlifting. These experiences have not only fueled his passions but also deepen his engagement with McKin with the McKinley community. Gabriel's leadership is evident both in the classroom and beyond where his commitment, creativities, and
022initiatives they inspire those around him. He truly represent what represents what it means to grow as a well-rounded and active member of the McKinley family. [Applause] Congratulations. Tonight we are also honoring Beatatric Banda. She is a senior at Jefferson High School. Beatatric is an exceptional student leader and scholar who serves as the vice president of the student services and leadership department. She plays a key role in coordinating events such as counselor appreciation week, homecoming and student outreach initiatives. Beatatric is also actively involved in spirit assemblies, yearbook, Jefferson service clubs um afro beats club and serves as a dedicated manager for both boys and girls wrestling. academically. Hey, how about that? She has earned multiple honors, including the five-year language arts award, the four-year award in math, science, and social studies. She's a member of the
02354 club for earning over 54 credits, and is a member of the National Honor Society. Known for her initiatives, her generosity, and strong work ethic, Beatatric is always among the first to volunteer and consistently demonstrate her commitment to the Jefferson Jay-Hawk community. Thank you to the board for allowing us to spotlight our students. We will be sure to get certificates to those students who are not with us tonight. Moving along in our report tonight, let's focus on priority area number one, safe and secure learning environments. And thank you uh for the comments that we heard earlier. As discussed at our last meeting, we will be adding a SEBBH health intervention specialist to buildings to support our efforts um meaning social emotional behavior health to provide behavior supports to our students with the highest needs. This
024position will also allow our engagement specialists to focus on tier 2 interventions and school counselors to focus on tier one instruction. In addition to this position, we have committed to investing $2 million to further our efforts around supporting all students and staff. Our behavioral supports team presented a proposal to our executive leadership team just this past Friday, and we are moving forward with the following supports. To further support tier one, we will be increasing um our kindergarten PAR hours, adding a campus safety liaison to each of our middle schools. To further support tier 2, we will be looking to provide our elementary schools with a student safety and success advocate to carry a case load of fourth and fifth grade students at risk of becoming group affiliated to partner with families, schools, and community partners
025to intervene more quickly and reduce their risk behaviors before entering middle school. We will also be providing all secondary schools with building behavior text to work specifically on the goal of reducing out of school suspensions, keeping students at school while receiving the behavior interventions that they need to further increase our tier three supports. We will be expanding our SCAP program for students that need uh long-term support more than five weeks. During this time, a comprehensive plan will be developed and implemented. And when the student is ready to transition back to their home building, support will follow the student to make the transition successful. Additionally, we will be creating a team of highly trained SEBH district interventionists that will be available to support the schools when a student building behavior plan is not effective. Finally, we
026will be expanding our district review officer position to full-time. currently is part-time, but by expanding it, this will allow for more robust partnerships with students, families, schools, and community to ensure all students receive their supports they need to be successful. I want to say thank you to our um safe and secure learning teams um led by Chris Gibson, Riley Parker, as well as Janessa Carr, along with our principles um who work together to kind of fine-tune to get feedback. We also ran these ideas by our teacher cabinet as well. We will have information in our newsletter tomorrow also where we will continue to uh get some reactions to it and we'll bring back the full plan with a presentation with from the safe and secure learning department to the board of education. Moving on to
027priority area number two, prepare for life. This school year we are working closely with Junior Achievement of Eastern Iowa. This partnership showcases different career options for our students to get them prepared for life uh K through nine. The LSC host um hosted is third and fourth grade classrooms over the course of this year. Uh they experienced community speakers including our board members who also uh participated with our students uh by learning from local businesses and partnering and by exploring equipment that they can use on a daily basis. It takes a lot of coordination uh from our folks here as well as our partners at Junior Achievement. Thank you uh for giving our students these experiences so that they can indeed be prepared for life. Priority area number three, our partners. We want to say thank
028you to the city of Cedar Rapids uh forestry department. Um Arbor Day uh was last Friday and I was there along with some other board members and it was wonderful. The students shared a lot about different trees. um just fantastic uh to see and of course um the city they were there they planted four trees um and during this event the students got to learn the students had a chance to learn about tree anatomy um explore the forestry crews equipment um I was a little nervous when they went to the truck but they seem to have fun um and the students will get to watch these trees grow as they continue to learn here in Cedar Rapids Community School District um and moving on to prior priority area number four being physically responsible we know
029a part of us being physically responsible has been addressing um our deficit. A lot of that which occurred as we came off of the ESER cliff. Um one of the areas that we did have to do was to create a staffing formula model that created equitable opportunities for all students and that we had a clear and transparent model of how we staffed our stu uh our schools during this particular time. We know that we asked a lot of our staff as well as our parents in our community and a lot of that it is started with trust by going through this process. We started out saying that we would make sure that through attrition and other opportunities that we would do everything we could to ensure that all of our teachers they had a placement
030within our school district by working alongside our human resources department as well as with um our education um association um our teachers union um we are proud to say that we have placed all of our teachers in position. Now, this does mean that you're right. Some of them did have to change locations, and for that, we say thank you. We say thank you for staying committed to our students as well as our families here in the Cedar Rapids Community School District. And we know that we will continue to have opportunities and we will continue to work. Um, I've never witnessed a more human centered process than going through the surplus process here in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, working hand inand with those teachers to ensure that they were placed. So, I just want
031to say thank you. uh teachers for trusting us and sticking with us along with our board of education through a very tough process, but indeed we will continue to serve our students. Next up, we are working um alongside our secretaries um so that they will also have opportunities to remain in the district in a secretary capacity. We are also continuing a very similar process with our paras. Um and so we aim um we will exhaust all possibilities to ensure uh that we have people placed appropriately across our school district. So again, thank you to everyone involved in this process as we continue to move forward. Now let's end with a few celebrations. First, um we just concluded a wonderful event highlighting our volunteers that come and support our students in our school buildings and beyond.
032Um thank you uh to all of our campuses for making spaces to welcome in our community member and we heard some wonderful testimonies of how they support our students. everything from shelving uh books, I mean hundreds of them. Um that that felt like so special and like a lot of hard work um for also just u reading to our students being available and I think the most tender one was just being present so that they could have someone who recognizes them uh and supports them. Also, last week, Iowa's Lieutenant Governor um made a visit to Metro High School um to visit their steam program academy to see the many wonderful learning opportunities. I happened to uh drop by as well. Um I think they were just blown away with all of the opportunities. Um I
033personally had a chance to witness uh Hannah, one of the students who was working on some like high techch uh equipment to water like the green houses or whatever. I can't wait uh to see. And they actually had a volunteer there too. A very skilled engineer who was volunteering hours of his time as well. So that was a treat to have our lieutenant governor witness the wonderful things happening here in our school district. And finally today, Iowa Secretary of State uh Paul Pate. He dropped by Kennedy's High School uh where we were able to witness him honoring our students with the Capitol Award. This was the first time that this award has been um uh issued here to in Cedar Rapids uh to Kennedy High School uh recognizing their efforts for registering more than 100
034eligible seniors who are now registered to vote. And I think that deserves a round of applause. And that concludes my report for tonight. Thank you, Dr. Grover. Uh Director Taminsky, I believe you have a board report for us. I do. I'll keep it brief. Um the finance and facilities committee met uh this month and we had a presentation from Derek on the certified budget for fiscal year 2026. Um and he was able to answer questions from the committee. We then received an update about the bond from Carla and had a chance to discuss some of the options talked about at the bond task force uh meetings and she also mentioned the bond meetings that have been happening throughout the district in each of our schools. And that concludes that report. Thank you. Any other board
035reports? The next um item on our agenda is one of my favorite parts. It's the staff highlight. And tonight um I feel pretty honored to be able to do this. Uh we are highlighting West Willow Elementary music teacher Amy Hannish. She's been selected for the Iowa Coral Directors Association Elementary Middle School Coral Educator Award. I first came to know Amy when she was in eighth grade in my science class at Taft. It was then a junior high. Um, and it's just really wonderful to watch a student go through the Cedar Rapids Community School District and then come back to teach here. Um, Amy's taught elementary music in the district for 37 years. In addition to teaching classroom music, she has directed several honor choirs for Iowa Coral Directors Association, including the Opus All State Fifth
036and Sixth Grade Choir and has presented workshops at their summer institutes. Amy directs the Children's Chorus that sings with Orchestra Iowa and she is very passionate about coral music. Amy states, "There are many fine coral directors throughout the state, so it's truly an honor to be selected. Thank you to ICDA for this recogn recognition. Congratulations to Amy on this tremendous honor. And thank you for your many years of sharing your teaching and musical passion for Cedar Rapids. So even though she's not here, let's give Amy in here. Next up, we have administration. We have six items under administration tonight. The first one is a resolution to reserve and commit management funds to a windhale deductible. Is there a motion to approve the resolution to reserve and commit management funds to a windhale deductible? So moved.
037Is there a second? Second. All those in favor of approving the resolution to reserve and commit management funds to a wind tail deductible, please respond by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. The next item is the approval of fiscal year 2026 certified budget. All those in favor of approving fiscal year 2026 certified budget, please respond by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. The third item is to approve the publication and scheduling of a public hearing on fiscal year 2025 budget amendment. All those in favor of approving publication and scheduling of a public hearing on FY2025 budget amendment, please respond by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Next is an amendment on our district development service delivery plan for special ed. All those in favor of approving the amendment of the district development
038service plan delivery plan for special education, please respond by saying I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Okay. We will now hear from the CRCSD benefits team on changes and updates for our employees in the 2025 2026 school year. And Carla, it is all yours. Okay. I would like to introduce uh the members of our benefits team and they're going to go through our 2526 update of our benefits. So, it's Shelley Gray and she is our payroll benefits manager and Heather Moore who's our benefit specialist. All right. Well, evening board, we are glad to be here to share a little bit of information about our exciting new plan year for 2526. So, um, as with you, we want to support our employees in any way that we can. And this year, we felt really good
039about succeeding in providing a very simple annual enrollment with everything else going on. The last year has been crazy as you know, as we have transitioned from the myth consortium and into our own plan. And we were able to provide for our employees the same enrollment platform, same login information. we can have a passive enrollment um because we were able to keep uh the same plans and so medical um we were able to come up with a 5% decrease in cost across the board. So uh we were very excited to keep the same four plans um and the fact that we even offer four plans is as you know most employers don't do that. So um part of the reason we wanted to keep that was because that's what we had last year. we know
040what the claims um were or were you know going to know what the last year has been um as we had these plans and then next year we'll have the same plans we'll be able to compare all that data and most importantly we'll have our own information from our own claims of our population not all the other entities and so we're going to keep the same wellmark um and Caremark prescription uh plans which was really important to our employees the 5% reduction in rates was was notable appreciated. We're right in the middle of annual enrollment right now and so uh we're getting a lot of great feedback on that. Um the district contribution, we're still covering the employee share for all uh full-time benefit eligible employees. And so um that was great news for them.
041And the best part is we added this prudent RX. So, a lot of employees that have specialty drugs that they have to pay a co-pay for, a high co-pay, um we added this program in hopes that we can narrow down, you know, figure out who those people are, offer them this program that they can possibly get a zero co-ay. And so, that's going to be a big addition for a lot of people, a massive lift. All right. And then dental. So we have kept the rates the same for the last three years and we're going to do the same for the next three years. So uh working with Delta Dental, it's one of the best programs in um Iowa. And so we're not going to increase the rates at all for the next three years
042for employees. And with that, we're also adding uh coverage for a third oral exam. So this is important when you know you get two free exams each year with your cleanings, right? So um if you go to your first one, you have a cavity, you have to and they're going to use that exam as your second free one. And so then you go back for your cleaning and you're like, why do I have to pay for an exam, but it's because they already used it. So we're adding that third exam. So that's going to be helpful um to all the people that are that you know go for their people don't like to go to the dentist. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't use the plan as much as we would hope they would. Um
043but when you do go for your two free cleanings, you don't want to have one of those wasted. And so we're adding that extra um exam. And then the participate in our vision are super excited because we were able to um add increased frame and contact lens coverage. So, it's been $130 towards that for um several years and we've raised that to 200. So, that's going to put a little extra money in employees pockets when they're buying their glasses or contact lenses. And um we had these rates locked in for three years as well. And we have they went up a little bit. You can see this is the only rates that went up and it's still very practical, very affordable and we were able to add that allowance and so we've locked in this
044rate now for four years. So the rates won't show up again for four years and then health joy we are adding a whole new uh kind of program to help support physically mentally everything we have. It's kind of a health concier if you will. So it's uh people can call and get They can do assistance. They're going to be able to provide referrals and um help with, you know, you don't know where you need to go to get a shoulder surgery. They're going to tell you what's near you. You know, who's the closest to you, what's the lowest cost, when can you get in, they're going to help you make appointments. Um they're going to compare prescriptions for you. If your doctor wants to try a prescription and you think it's more than you want
045to pay for, maybe they can find something that's less. Um, we've always had an employee assistance program that has been um, utilized quite well by our employees and we're going to switch to a new one that's provided by Health Joy. And so I think that'll that'll provide a lot of um, good information for employees and maybe a new a new way of looking at things and so we're excited about that. And as you know, we've been working with True North um, for several months since the end of last year. So that's been going very well. um we are looking at all of the data. They're looking through all the data and um we'll keep doing that. They're going to let us know, you know, what the trends are and you know what we should do
046to be fiscally responsible. They're helping us fill all fill all of our gaps and um helping us we our one of our main things we want to educate employees more. It seems like, you know, we know about benefits because we live in that world, right? But when you talk to employees, they they have no clue and they don't they don't really want to know. They don't want to know unless until they have to know, right? And so we want to educate them as much as we can and so um we are really working on some strong education plans and that'll be part of that health joy app too. We're going to be able to communicate with the benefit eligible employees there too. So as always we appreciate your support. It's been um it's been a
047intense year for us as we've gone through all these changes and True North has been there to help us and you know having your support is amazing. So, um, we're getting really good response from all the employees that they recognize that we're really making an effort. We're trying to get rates down in in an insurance world where that doesn't happen, right? So, um, they understand that we're trying to get them the best that we can. So, it's been very very wellreceived so far. Thank you. I I appreciate that information and and more importantly, I appreciate all the work that Carla, you and your team did to make this transition to a new new provider and all of that work clearly is paying off in a cost savings for us. So, my appreciation and on behalf
048of the board as well. Anyone up here have questions or comments? I just Thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to echo what President Carla just said. I know it's been a lot of work for the entire team for this past year, but this is something that we heard loud and clear that, you know, raises from the state are so small with SSA and some in some cases staff, it's just going straight to uh benefits. So, to see those rates decreasing um in most cases and benefits actually improving, I mean, that's fantastic. So, and it looks like we're on a path to hopefully continue that, but it was nice to see too that those rates are locked in for a few years. That provides some stability and some knowing uh to staff. So, appreciate all the
049hard work. Thank you. Thank you, Carla. Our last administration item is the 2025 bond proposal update. And I'm going to turn this over to Chad. I have a few others that are going to join me as well. Um, thank you for having us out to speak to you on the bond proposal. Um, tonight Heather Butterfield will join me, Jessica Johnson, principal at Harding, as well as Melissa Davis, who's a packed teacher at uh, she splits her time between Wilson and Roosevelt. So, first I'd like to say thank you to the board for entrusting us with this work and uh giving us the charge to go out and do the investigations on this um important topic. I want to thank the task force uh for their work that they've put to uh put forth in this
050um process. Uh 80 plus people across our um district have come together to really analyze and dig in to the information. Um and then thank you to the community um for engaging with us um providing feedback at every turn and also challenging us to make sure that we are um doing what we need to do for this plan. When we take a look at the bond plan, we make sure we take a look at all four of the priority areas in in our district. safe and secure schools. Not only safe and secure schools from the physical standpoint, uh the buildings being safe and secure, but also the programming that goes into those those buildings as well. The work that Janessa Carr and Riyles Parker are doing at the district level of preparing our students for
051whatever pathway they choose to decide to take in the future. Making sure our students are graduating with more than a diploma from our Cedar Rapids Community School District. partnering with our community parents, teachers, staff, and students to build a plan that is reflective of the needs of our community. And then also u being fiscally responsible and being empathetic to our taxpayers, sharing the obstacles and proposed solutions with them and giving them a chance for feedback along the way. Some key factors to take into consideration when we were um doing the work that we are doing. Um we have approximately uh 2,700 um employees here at the district which makes us the fifth largest employer in the city of Cedar Rapids. Um and that's per the 2024 Lynn County annual reports of almost 15,000 students in
052the district which puts puts us at one of the largest districts in in the state of Iowa. And the average age of our buildings are 62 and a half years old with several of them being overundred years old. So that's important for us to take into consideration as well. Uh this graph shows you kind of a timeline of our buildings in our district starting on the left in 1914 when Arthur was built and moving uh to 1930 when Harrison was built. And those are kind of what we call the Magnificent 7. We wanted to make sure we honor those buildings because we heard from our community that they're important to the fabric of Cedar Rapids as well as the historical importance of our school district. Then you see this explosion of buildings here in the
053in the center. Um that was a result of the baby boomers. My parents are the first generation of the baby boomers. My grandparents invested in those buildings for my parents' generation. And so those served our district for many years. Um as we continued down the path, 29 years go by without investing in any new buildings in our district. Then in 2000, the last time a bond was passed in Cedar Rapids, we invested in Vo Gibson and other projects across the district. Another 20 years goes by until we see um West Willow, Maple Grove, and Trailside come online with this use of the save money. We do have some obstacles that we have to consider when we talk about our facilities. Um, aging mechanical equipment, lack of air conditioning in some buildings, outdated classrooms, and enrollment
054concerns are just a few items that we have to address. Um, we've talked about the fact that we have some schools that are underenrolled and we have some schools that have enrollment that are increasing and that's kind of puts us in a interesting dichotomy within our district. um we cover a lot of area in the city of Cedar Rapids and we have to take into consideration all those enrollment changes across the district as we look at our facilities. We also understand that we have some enrollment concerns at our middle schools with 1600 plus empty seats across the district which equals about two middle schools that sit empty at a cost of $13.4 million a year. This is cost that we want to make sure we can try to regain back as we take a look
055at our facilities plan. This map shows you the enrollment density within our district. Um you can notice that in the uh southwest corner of our district um West willow, Van Beern, Hoover, that area is has a lot of dense population there. You can see the bright red over there around McKinley Middle School as well as Johnson Elementary. And you can start to see on the north part of our district um some also some population density there as well. Um these are areas that are growing for us and we also have areas that um have other issues with enrollments. The other thing we take we wanted to take a look at is future growth um as far as residential and uh multifamily housing projects that are happening within the city. You can see the purple are
05610-year projections of growth that are in our city as well as the yellow being fiveyear projections for growth in our city. You can notice that again on the north side of our district uh there's potential for lots of residential growth and also on the southwest part of our district as well. And we are making sure we address those enrollment or those growth areas. As we take a look at our facilities, we want to create equitable educational experience experiences for all of our students. You can see a new classroom on the right and a smaller antiquated classroom on the left here. Um, the new classrooms provide space, storage, and the HVAC systems that make it a great learning environment. You can see common spaces that are bright and cheery and welcoming on the right versus other
057common spaces that may not be as conducive to learning. You can cafeteria spaces that are open and can accommodate many students on the right. We've discussed providing equitable educational experiences across our district. Um, so how would that look in a renovated space in a 100-year-old building? How is that going to be possible? I personally was uh lucky enough to be a part of a project in Iowa City when I worked um in a previous job. I was a project manager at Longfellow Elementary when we renovated that 100-year-old building. Um, we took that building and we transformed it into more modern learning environment. Um, that and this is a great example of what a historical building can be like. The building took on a new life as it was transformed from a building with no ADA
058accessibility, walking in the main door and immediately going up a flight of stairs to the office, no air conditioning and 100-year-old boiler system to a modern a more uh modern educational space that honored the history of that space. A new cafeteria was added, a new wing that housed the library, art, music, a new ADA compliant entrance that offered new elevator and secure vestibule into the main office, incorporating common spaces that allow for students to find a place to read or sit quietly. This building was taken down to the bare bones, as you can see through some of these images, and built back intentionally and thoughtfully, honoring the history of that building. Um, as we were there, we actually found this was actually a site for Civil War. Um, soldiers and we found some relics in
059the in the soil as we were excavating for some of this project and it was just a really cool building that we were able to renovate and make into a new facility. These are images of the the new Longfellow Elementary in Iowa City. And the reason we show these is to to share with you what is possible with some of these renovations. The main building there um as you can see has a historical building on the left and a new addition on the right. The top image there where the two young kiddos are sitting and reading, that's where the old meets the new and you can see that it's transformed into a much more modern space. The lower image is actually of the new media center within that building, but it's honoring the historical woodwork
060and the um ceiling accents there. In order for us to be able to do all these things, we have to make sure that we understand um school finance. We're not going to be able to understand it all in tonight's uh talk obviously, but we'll try our best. We have three buckets of money that we're able to use for uh building and maintaining our facilities. The PPE funds, the physical plan equipment levy uh that we use for lots of maintenance, but it also can be used to help build or purchase property, the secure and advanced vision for education save fund, which is another bucket that we use um for facilities. This is not a property tax. This is a sales tax. So invite all your families from out of state to come and shop here in
061the state of Iowa. And then obviously the last bucket if we were able to fill that would be the bond bucket which would go towards these projects that we're going to talk about tonight but it also goes towards all the projects across our district. Um so this shows you kind of the timeline of of the work that we've been doing. So, since um the last bond, what we've had is um we've had community surveys and we started this last fall looking at a task force that's made up of employees, district employees, community members, parents, excuse me, and we looked at all kinds of data. So, we looked at some of the growth, um we looked at efficiencies of the buildings, how old each of the buildings are. We did walks and visited many of the
062different buildings. And we did that every month um to kind of come together and put together our first bond. Um from there we did our and you'll see that in a second. And from there we had uh surveys um and then from the surveys we met again as after looking at that survey data and kind of revised the bond. And so what we're looking at now is that um hopefully uh we can put together a product that uh the board will approve in May. um and then looking at um in the summer really hitting that campaign hard for a bond vote that would take place in November. So the initial bond proposal that we had um was for $210.6 million um and it really addressed our middle schools and right sizing our middle schools. So,
063our save bucket has really been focused on uh updating our elementarymentaries. Um, and then we've used some other funding for our high schools, but our middle schools really haven't been touched. And as you saw from Chad's uh numbers, uh we have a lot of room there. So, looking at this first proposal, it was taking our six middle schools and bringing them down to four to kind of help um consolidate our resources. Um Part of that was the new middle school and it ended up being about half of the bond. Um, and then the last part of the proposal was the Kennedy renovation so that they could have some of the same uh updates for their projects that that were already uh budgeted for Wash and for Jefferson. what we heard um after that initial um
064presentation of that bond, we had a a lot of different feedback that we spent a lot of time with. Um some of the more common themes were, I'm open to an increase in taxes to support our schools. Um but this impact is still about twice as much as I feel confident supporting. Um along with things like um I believe more more residents would or could support this if the amount was lower. Um we got a lot of good feedback about preserving the old buildings. I know I started my career 22 years ago at McKinley Middle School. It's a beautiful building, but we know that some of those older buildings have um some barriers to go across. So really being able to preserve those old buildings and repurpose them and keep them in our inventory was
065very important to our community. Um and we were able to come up with a new plan that we thought um reflected a lot of the feedback that we got from this survey along with um economic alliance also did a survey and we were able to look at those uh results also. So the new um revised B bond proposal um would also it will uh include a McKinley renovation not quite as much. it won't have the addition that would um bring Franklin students over. So, we would keep Franklin Middle School um in its current state along with Metro um and McKinley would get a renovation. Wilson would receive a renovation um to convert it from a middle school to an an elementary and it would absorb um CRA and grant to what would be Wilson Elementary.
066The Wilson students would then move on to Roosevelt and we would need to renovate Roosevelt to be able to accept those students. And then uh the Kennedy renovation that would still include updating their cafeteria and their freshman academy. So with these changes and taking the new middle school off of the bond, we were able to lower it to 117 million. um where I think as a task force looking at of all of our 31 buildings um we know that there's a lot of work to be done but really trying to prioritize that these uh buildings are going to take the priority and that maybe now is not the time for a big large bond and by lowering the amount that we could get some more support with it um to make some of these necessary
067changes. So, we thought it was would be important for us to dive into these projects in a little bit more depth just so we can understand exactly what we're talking about. With the McKinley renovation, we would invest into the historic building uh totally transforming the inside into a more modern and safe uh school. We would include safe ve safe vestibules for students and uh community members to enter, adding ADA accessibility to the building as well. Um at this time we would not add the additional classrooms on which would allow Franklin to remain a middle school at this time. Uh the presence of the uh school of McKinley in the med quarter is important as well as we look at the vertical articulation of the uh health care pathways from McKinley the middle school up to
068the high school at CR Washington. Um and so this as you may have also noticed at the uh density map that we talked about this is one of the most densely populated areas for our district as well. So having this presence of this middle school in that area is important. Wilson renovation we understand that we have to uh address some of our enrollments um concerns and we also have to try to take some of our inventory out of our uh um some of our buildings out of our inventory so that we can start to save some money on our um budgets. Investing in our historic Wilson is important as well to the fabric of our city as well as making sure that school stays within that community and that neighborhood. We would totally renovate that
069building into a new elementary in the inside making sure the experience of those students would be comparable to West Willow, Maple Grove, and Trailside. Um, this also addresses the uh enrollments at the elementary levels and making sure that we're being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars. Um, the Roosevelt renovation was important for us to put onto this bomb plan because we knew that if Wilson students were going to come over to Roosevelt, we would want to make sure that we were addressing the building for them to be able to to uh have a great experience there as well. And so, we wanted to add this in place of the new middle school. Tonight, Melissa Davis, a pack teacher from Wilson and Roosevelt, sharing time, has some things to speak about this project. I was invited to
070speak to you tonight because I offer a unique perspective. I would like to provide you with a little additional context. I'm not originally from the Cedar Rapids area, but my husband is a third generation CRCSD graduate. We are also parents of two students in elementary and in a year and four months um our oldest will head off to Harding. CRCSD is a big part of our family's story, past, present, and future. Last Monday, I spoke up at the bond update meeting for RCCBA staff about the fact that while the transition would be challenging, merging Wilson and Roosevelt would improve my ability to serve students. For nine years, I have been the only middle school packed teacher split between two buildings. So, I have to do things differently than my job alike colleagues across the district.
071As we plan the schedule each year, we try to come up with a plan that is most beneficial for both buildings. But the building never align perfectly. Some years I alternate buildings every other day, but most years I begin my day at one building and end it at the other. In our future cities unit, my students learn about trade-offs, the costs and benefits that come with any change or decision. One of the biggest costs of the current system is that I can only support students during a limited time window. For example, this year I'm unable to offer any after school at Wilson because I'm at Roosevelt at the end of the day. That's not equitable. A merger would allow me to provide more consistent and equitable support. I wouldn't lose time traveling or moving materials.
072I wouldn't be double booked for meetings and training sessions. I wouldn't need a sub every time there's a late start because the schedules overlap. I'd have more time and energy to give to all my students. I might even be able to participate in a building PLC and bring back programs like mock trial competition to my buildings that were cut at both buildings before I was hired. Wilson and Roosevelt regularly share other resources as well. It varies from year to year, but we regularly combine for extracurricular activities. This year we had a combined shower and a combined girls soccer team. That often means that students have to leave class about 30 minutes early to travel to practice. Unifying the schools would eliminate that lost learning time and make our programs more accessible. As we look at
073the idea of merging Roosevelt and Wilson, we need to make sure to look at more than just finances. We also need to consider those intangible resources like time, access, and opportunity. Those affect what our experience, our students experience every day. All CRCSD students deserve equitable opportunities to build the futures they imagine. Thank you. Couldn't have said it better myself. Um and so just to put a a pin in the Kennedy renovations as we also look at equitable educational experiences at the high school level, we are also looking at the freshman and making sure that we're making that transition from middle school to high school as successful as possible. We understand that those kids that um pass their classes as a freshman have a higher propensity to uh graduate from high school. And so that's what
074we want to do is make sure we're focusing on those freshmen as they come into the building. So the bond plan that we're presenting to you tonight is four projects that impacts six schools, but it also impacts all three areas of our district. as as well as all three levels of education, elementary, middle school, and high school, and impacting over 3,600 of our students in our district. What does that mean for you as a taxpayer if you are sitting there thinking um about the cost? Right now, our tax rate is $13.90. I believe that's going to go down a little bit after tonight to $13.64. As you can see from this graph, the purple bar represents Cedar Rapids Community School District. These are all the other schools in Lynn County. Right now, we are the
075lowest um tax rate in uh in Lynn County. That's great for taxpayers. Um but it also tells a different story. It tells us that we haven't been able to or um tried to pass bonds every 5, 10, or 15 years, which would allow us to address a lot of our needs at our buildings. If the bond were to pass, that would raise our taxes by $1.7, which would raise our taxes, of course, but it would also keep us as the second lowest tax rate in Link County. As an individual taxpayer, if you have a home that's of about a $200,000 value, we're asking um for your support at $89.60 on the annual basis. That's $747 per month, $1.72 per week or 25 cents a day um for this increase. The other part of this is
076the savings that we would be able to experience as well. With this plan, we would see a savings of $6.48 million a year or $140.8 million over the 20 years of the bond, which is actually a $23 million return on our investments. So after the task force developed the revised plan, we set out to get feedback on the plan from key stakeholders. We held 15 meetings this past month. We met with and asked for feedback from buildings that were listed on the initial and the revised plan with the exception of McKinley. Their meeting is next week. We also met with parent leaders from schools across the district, the district school improvement advisory committee or SIAK, the superintendent student cabinet, teacher cabinet, and community cabinet. In all, we met with more than 450 stakeholders this month
077alone. Of those we met with, 67.8% said they support the revised bond plan, 11.3% said no, and 20.9% said they are still undecided. Now, this is a slight change from the information uploaded in your board packets last week, and that's because the superintendent's community cabinet was just held this morning, and we wanted to make sure we were able to provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information. So, in all, this represents feedback from our internal stakeholders. The economic alliance has told us they do plan to do another poll to get feedback from the larger community on the revised plan between now and your next May 12th board meeting. So, here is some of the feedback that we received so far from our internal stakeholders. I think it's great that the price came down and
078that Franklin will continue to be a middle school. As someone who worked at Garfield, I'm excited to see what renovations would look like in such an old building like Wilson. I'm very relieved that Metro is not moving for the time being. I think the changes are better than the original plan. I think having a list of what will and won't happen if the bond passes. I also think you need to be clear as to what will happen to buildings even without bond money so that things look equal. We heard a lot of questions related to buildings not listed on the bond and what happens to them because staff and parents that are in some of our buildings every single day. They see the need to firsthand and they want to know if or when their
079schools will get money for renovations or new buildings. And I'm gonna let Chad speak to that part. Um so I'm speaking to this graph I believe. Yes, thank you. So obviously we have the three buckets of money. Um we have ple, we have save, and we have um if if we were able to fill the bucket of the bond money, we would have that as well. So we understand that we have uh facilities needs across our district and we want to make sure that potentially by the year 2040 we would be able to touch all of our buildings across our district. It will take a lot of work and it will take some uh commitment from our community to be able to do that. But we also know that we want to continue to uh
080strive for the um equitable educational experience for our students across the district. So what is the differences between the two plans that we're presenting? The one that we sent out uh originally the $210.6 million versus the $17 million plan now. Um you can kind of see this here is that McKinley renovation um would But we would keep Franklin and Metro where they are at. The Wilson renovation would continue on as planned. The new Harding Middle School would be uh taken off and Roosevelt renovation would replace that and then obviously the Kennedy renovation would stay as well. Uh the tax rate there differences you can see as well and the approval rating uh is increasing. One thing I would like to point out about that 67.8% um approval rating for the people that we pulled. The
081more important piece for me is that 10% um of the nose because that shows you that um we we really need to get um you know 60% or higher to for the bond to pass but previously we we had a high number of nos that were there like 39 40% nos. We've been able to show uh the work that we've done and we feel like we're seeing a lot of progress for support. those undecided voters um are still making those decisions, but we feel like we're we're really reducing the amount of nos that we have. So, what's to come? Obviously, tonight we're presenting this plan to you, the board of directors, for your consideration. Uh we will ask that in May 12th, we'll come back and you guys can make your final decision on what
082you would like to do with the bond plan and what our next steps are. If you decide to move forward, then we would start to gather signatures and start an campaign leading up to the November 4th votes. And November 4th would be the votes. As we conclude tonight's presentation, I would just like to say again, uh, thank you to everyone that has put in so much work for this. We understand that strong schools do mean strong community. We understand that a strong community in Cedar Rapids means a better uh city for all of us. Uh, schools are the foundation of our city. Um, and we want people to choose to come to Cedar Rapids, to move here, to uh work and to live and to send their kids to schools in our community. No matter
083where you send your kid to school, we want to make sure that we have strong schools for our strong community. Thank you very much. All the work that you've been doing. I've been following you around a little bit as you go to these these buildings. And I know that every day you are out there talking to our staff and some of our community members and and that process actually is going to keep going um for the next three weeks or so. Um so I I appreciate all your work. One thing that that I just want to make sure that everyone is clear on um because we do hear questions from the public about why are you laying off teachers over here and building facilities over here and it goes back to Chad's initial comment about
084the complexity of school finance. We have separate buckets of money. Our operational fund is what we pay teachers out of. It's what we buy curriculum out of. And then we have Pebble, we have save. Those funds cannot be used to pay teachers or buy curriculum and those sorts of things. So, I know sometimes it seems a little strange that we're doing those two things simultaneously, but in the end, this is all about making the district more efficient and giving kids better learning experiences every day that they come to our buildings. So, I'm going to open it up to questions and discussion. Um, just want to commend you on the amount of work. I think we knew the last time we heard this there was going to be lots of meetings and lots of stakeholder feedback.
085So um I think what I heard is that there's been 15 meetings so far, 450 stakeholders that have been um in the in those meetings since in April and you know it's it's great to see I think most of the board members probably all of us have been able to participate in at least one of those meetings. So appreciate you including us in that. I think we knew that the plan was going to change and I think that this totally feels like a community plan, right? It's not just one that's being forced to people, but actually taking the time to hear what's important to them. Um, and so I I just appreciate this plan. Um, I do want to ask a question about capacity and enrollment. So, in some of those buildings, like when we
086combine Wilson with Roosevelt, like what what would be the capacity of that building and then what would be the anticipated enrollment? And similar question for the other facilities. if you know that. Sure. So, um, capacity wise, when we did our first initial review of of Roosevelt, um, when we looked at what it could hold, you're looking at, uh, 850 to 900 plus students that it could hold. Uh, right now, when we combine those two schools, we're still going to be around the 800 student range. We would want to take a look at that whole area um, as well to make sure that, uh, Taft would um, may need to take in a few students, but those students go to Jefferson would stay going to Jefferson. We're not going to change any of those uh uh
087those types of attendance. Um the other capacities would be about similar. Uh McKinley is very similar to Roosevelt in the sense of what it could hold. Um so we would be able to continue to look at how we could maximize that space. I I do have one. Uh I've attended a lot of the meetings and it's been very helpful and for folks to in the community to appreciate we listened uh we've take we took the time to listen to your concerns because at one time the bond was too large. So I commend you guys because I've gone to five or six of the meetings but I've learned a lot and what the concerns and the issues are. So, I thank the community uh for getting actively engaged and I also thank our board for listening
088because this is important for us. It's not about us. It's about our students in this district. So, I like I I do like the p the plan and and this has been a lot of work, but in the long run, we all win. So, I appreciate that. And if I could piggy back off that a little bit, we are exactly where we thought we were going to be in this process. We knew that we were going to develop a plan, send out a survey, get feedback, listen to our constituents again, and then come back and make sure that that was the right plan. We heard that we needed to modify. So that's what we we chose to do. So we're right in step of where we need to be on this longer time frame and
089going into if we choose to move forward going into a campaign, we'll be right at the right time. So, I want to say thank you so much to the task force and all of you who have worked so hard to put this together. Um, I'm really impressed with um all who have been included in making these decisions and looking at everything is so wonderful. Um, we definitely, you heard the community's voice and you went back and you put together a plan that you believe that the community can get around. And the thing of it is is that it is truly my hope that the community will uh embrace the work that you all have done. Our community deserves new schools. our teachers, our students, our staff, they deserve for this bond to pass. This district
090needs it so bad. This is a win for all of us. It's something to get excited about throughout our community, whether you have kids in this district or not. This is our project, our community. And so if we can pass this bond and make this better for the people that we serve in our community, this is going to be an amazing accomplishment that we all will be able to celebrate. I liked it at the 220. Let's go ahead and get it done. Okay. But then I'm also open to how it affects others and that's very important and you all have made that so important and this board has too. So I want to encourage everybody to look at it as a us thing and not just a Cedar Rapids Community School District thing. This is
091great for all of us and getting this bond passed. We need this. Our teachers deserve it. Our kids deserve it. All the staff. I'm not leaving anybody out because it's going to affect all of us. So, as you're um thinking about making this decision, you are included, too. Whether you have kids in these buildings or not, your neighbors are affected. The kids down the street are affected. It's all of us. And so, we're all in together. So, please consider that uh as we continue to uh get it figured out. And thank you again because I think what people don't really see is the long hours that goes into putting something so huge like this together, listening to the community's voice about what they have to say. considering that even in considering that even when you
092know the conditions of these buildings, there are many people who are making decisions and don't even know how horrible these buildings really are and our kids deserve it. So, thank you so much and I uh encourage everybody to look at it as a us thing and not just a district thing. Thank you for Thank you so much. God bless America. Thank Thank you. Um, Dire Director Newman is joining us via Zoom and I want to Director Newman, if you can hear us, if if you have any comments or questions you'd like to make right now. I do. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. First of all, ditto everything that director just said, and I also would like to thank the task force for the work they put into this. as we are facing economic headwinds
093right now, it is so important that we come to our community with something that people feel they can afford. Um, when I read through what the costs are for, say a $200,000 home, I think it might be a stretch for some families and and I understand that and I empathize with that. I hope that our community can can get behind this and I really really appreciate the fact that our community spoke to us. Um, we gave them the opportunity. They chimed in and um they didn't just say no, they just said this is too much. So, um like director Rry said, I was I was all in on the 210. Um but I really feel like this is something that our community can get behind and and I truly hope this bond and do what's
094right for our students. And then the last thing I'll say is, you know, in Dr. Grover's letter, we talked about deferred maintenance. respectfully, it's it's more than just deferred maintenance if we don't pass this. It's the spectre of potentially closing schools with no better option. And I hate to be so blunt about it, but that's that's what's really going to happen if we don't do something. Uh so I I just appreciate the collaboration with the community and am all on getting this passed. Thank you. Thank you, Director Newman. Any other comments here? So I, as you pointed out, um, we will get some additional feedback from the economic alliance in their poll. I know that Chad, you and your team will be out continuing to talk to, uh, staff in our buildings. And then our
095plan is on May 12th when we have our next board meeting to actually take a vote on um, this bond proposal. So, I'm sure we will see many of you back here on May 12th. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chad. Thank you. Moving on to our consent agenda agenda. Are there any items on which a director has a comment, question, or requires the item to be pulled from the consent agenda for a separate vote? Uh, I would like to have the personnel report pulled for a separate vote, please. Is there a motion to move the remove the per to move the personnel report from the consent agenda for a separate vote? So moved. Is there a second? Second. No. You can't move and second. Okay. So move. So director round three, you're doing the
096the motion. Yes. So moved. Yes. Okay. Do we have a second? With a lack of a second, the motion dies and it will stay on the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as written? So moved. Is there a second? Second. This is a roll call vote due to the personnel report. Director Humbles. Nay. Director Newman. Hi. Director Taminsky. Hi. Vice President Roundry. Hi. President Garlock. I. Thank you. We have two items under board governance tonight. The first item is a motion for a close session for confidential records pursuant to Iowa code section 21.51A. Do we have a motion to move into close session to in pursuant to Iowa code section 21.51A? So move. Is there a second? Second. This is a roll call vote. Director Taminsky. I. Uh, Vice
097President Roundry. I. President Garlock. Hi. Director Humbles. Hi, Director Newman. The board will move into close session. It is 654. Thank you everyone.