Board of Education Meeting - April 8, 2024 - 5:30 PM

001e I now call the Board of Education regular meeting and work session to order it's 5:30 p.m. do we have any changes or additions to the agenda for April 8th 2024 I move to remove item 12 of the consent agenda and discussion of it until further notice this item concerns policy 64.1 student discipline I request the district examine specific questions raised at the March 25th 2024 March 25th 2024 board meeting before a second reading is conducted we have a motion to remove item 12 from the consent agenda do we have a second second all those in favor say I I I those oppose same sign thank you is there a motion to approve the amended agenda for Monday April 8th 2024 the Board of Education regular meeting and work session as set forth and each

002item is considered ready for discussion Andor action I move to approve the amended agenda for Thursday April 4th 2024 Board of Education special meeting as set forth and each item is considered ready for discussion and or action is there a second second this is a roll call vote director rry I director borine I director tinsky I director humbles hi director Newman I director Byers I president gar loock I we have one public hearing tonight for the fiscal year 2024 202 certified budget this is the second of two public hearings as required by law the district is proposing a published tax levy rate of 13.9 z88 per $11,000 of taxable valuation compared to the current rate of 14. 666 29 in fiscal year 2023 2024 board secretary reedstrom have we received any written correspondence regarding the

003fiscal year 25 certified budget we have not have there been requests to address the board this evening regarding the published hearing yes we have one thank you with one speaker at this evening you'll be given up to 5 minutes for your remarks please respect the time limit allotted to each speaker board secretary ROM will serve as your timer and indicate when your time has expired the time is yours to use and may not be yielded to another speaker 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 members and the public during this time except to clarify the nature

004of question 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 attendance the board has zero tolerance for profanity vulgarity demeaning language or threats of any kind lastly I'd like to remind our speaker that the board cannot address personnel and student matters 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 speaker to State her name and address when called to the podium Ryan please call our first Speaker mayor Arenas and she'll be uh discussing the topic of proposed tax Mary arus and my address just my address also 35 kenid Terrace Northeast C Rapid

005Iowa 5242 I live on ter um which is on the northeast side C Rapids and if I understand it correctly with a house that's worth um valued $25,000 my my taxes are going to go up $17 a month to me as a single mom that's a lot of money um I know properties around town are going to are going to go up due to for rent people who are more impoverished me I guess I wouldn't mind so much um the rate increase if I saw that the schools were truly doing what they need to do for all students I came before to ask for a conference about reactive attachment disorder this year there were some big mistakes due to couple things um conference being denied by the person that an perer said no to it

006but you we have more I would you want for the public com would you want to talk about that during your public comment okay yeah um they kind of go hand in hand I could do that there also um just I know the the private sector the private schools some of their buildings are more than 100 years old and they seem to do it they don't get the he the the C Rapids School District does and um with the monies and I just there's always other ways I think that it's it's really going to put a big damper on myself financially for the home that I own and definitely people that are impoverished in our area um because the rent is going to go up for the people who need the help the most I

007just want to see a big difference in the school district and their knowledge If This Were to go through because um not very happy with a lot of things that happened this year but there were some good things too but there was some damage done to my daughter who already has damage thank you thank you the fiscal year 25 certified budget public hearing is now officially closed ran have there been requests to address the board on other matters this evening yes we have one with one speaker this evening you'll be given up to five minutes for your remarks please respect the time limit allowed to teach speaker board secretary readster will serve as your timer and indicate when your timer time is expired if you've submitted a request to address the board and choose to

008refrain 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 except 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 attendance this board has zero tolerance for profanity vulgarity demeaning language or threats of any kind lastly I'd like to remind our speaker that the board cannot address personnel and student matters the board policy outlines the process for addressing and resolving ing those concerns we ask that speakers refrain from using personal names and information during public comment before we begin I'd like to

009remind our speaker to sayate her name and address when called to the podium Ryan please call our first Speaker mayor Rus and she is speaking on behalf or speaking on the topic of buildings and education for teachers and AR raise for Paris Mary arus 305 Ken terce Northeast IA 5242 um I have four children by birth three by adoption and was a fost par for 20 years so I had lots and lots and lots of kids going through all districts the St Maran um area and College Community um first of all I want to say Paris it used to be kind of a running joke in the see that the school district that Paris were the best bargain that they had but it's not so funny anymore because you're having a hard time finding and

010keeping Paris Paris have to know almost as much as teachers do for the job that they do um just foro alone she has a whole list of diagnosis that she needs to um be familiar with and know the symptoms the signs the lots of mental health stuff going on um I know when I was a parent at Kennedy I even do the um alternative assessments I those peers need to really really really get a big raise and Tre be treated with more respect um I I've called the governor's office and said that too but I'm told that they give you the monies and it's up to you to allocate how your monies go so I'm just begging for those Paris they work really hard it's hard as the teachers and so and give it a

011lot of the same responsibilities and I would like to see them brought in more to more IEP meetings and um learning along with the teachers pleasee thank you and then um for Education that I asked about for the district for reactive attachment disorder children of trauma um in the Cedar School District there's approximately 500 children that are in the foster care system those kids have been through lots and lots of trauma um trauma changes the way the kids' brains were developed for like um neglect the abuse um the parent in prison the mental health status the so many things yet um your staff is not really aware of it and it needs to be looked at for an inservice for the traa because there's there's been several instances where it was not addressed correctly that

012it should have been direct addressed differently just um trauma causes more trauma like fights in the classroom for um let's see children of trauma that have had lots of trauma they should be taken out of the classroom or asked if they can talk about it or they can need a break not to see it again to redo more trauma um education I just really ask for education for your teachers and your Paris on RAD reactive attachment disorder and the trauma because it's not it's not getting addressed and I don't feel that a parent needs to educate all year round even up until a few weeks ago um these people have their master's degrees I've even given a book to um the head person in the school and she didn't have time to read it I

013bought that b I read it it was so good with um Oprah Winfrey and Mr Green excuse me Bruce Perry but um until the parents get the respect that they feel that would help not just their particular child but all children and you're told that didn't have time to read it we got to start partnering with each other and doing right by our kids thank you thank you I'll now give the meeting over to Dr Grover so she can share her report thank you president Garlock so let's start with the eclipse today um if you were able to get outside around 2 o'clock p.m. hopefully you had a chance to witness it I know that several of our schools um they had the opportunity to participate on the screen you see Taff Middle School uh

014the science teachers um just hats off to them they worked with students last week to learn about the eclipse uh today uh they took the entire student body outside and even with their eclipse glasses on uh even the folks here at the ELC uh we had a chance to get outside as well so if you missed it the next solo event over North America will be in 20 years I'm told so let's get prepared for it in 2044 on to Serious Business at hand here in Cedar Rapids uh Community School District and across the state um the Iowa Statewide assessment of student progress um is a crucial accountability assessment for all of our IA students meeting the requirements of the federal every student succeeds act the isap uh testing schedule uh is taking place from

015April 3rd through the 21st uh and will be administered to all of our students grade uh 3 through 11 um it's worth noting that students um in K through 2 and seniors they're not required to take the isap the assessment will be conducted online and secondary students they must bring their school issued device and power cord for testing this is a little bit of a reminder um in grades 3 through 11 isap assesses reading language and writing and math while science uh is assess in grades 5 8 and 10 assessment results will be available to schools and families um this information uh usually comes uh pretty quickly uh after the assessment but sometimes it's uh all the way into the fall uh but whenever we receive them we will take the necessary steps to share

016with our families so we strongly urge our parents and Guardians to check with their schools uh to verify the schedule in which students will be testing attendance on these days um is extremely important um and we expect for every student uh to give their all so thank you to all of the campuses who've been working very hard uh on the assessments um this is a part of our Cedar Rapids Community School District uh profile uh where we have our individual school performance profiles as well as our districtwide okay just an opportunity um to remind our community uh as well as our staff member um that we want to hear your voice and so hopefully you've had a chance to take time to fill out our survey that is is related to our facilities um it

017should have arrived in your mailbox last week or through the email system as a district we are committed to building trust and credibility uh with our community and we're asking our families uh and community at large to share your input on our facilities as we help to shape uh the new plan uh for our District's future as it relates to facilities as of April the 5th uh we had surveys completed um that's great fantastic so thank you to everyone that have yeah that's really good yeah people have to take their time and effort and be interested and involved and so we really appreciate that but we need a few thousand more okay we want to um make sure that everyone has the opportunity I really appreciate um the board working alongside with uh School perceptions

018and our team here uh to really just get to the heart of the matter some very direct questions so um I filled mine out last week uh so and it it looks kind of thick at first when you look at it may feel a little bit intimidating but there's some good information but there are just a few questions there um and so you can answer some questions and you can also provide extra detail if you like one that like to give extra information you can um type it online or you can write on the paper and you can mail it back in however you do it we're looking forward to it um just uh again back to the trust and credibility part all of your information is confidential we don't receive the surveys the surveys

019they go back to school perceptions they will do all the analysis of uh the data and we will have an opportunity to hear from our Consultants um during our May board meeting so thank you to all the people that have completed the survey and thank you in advance to everyone that's going to get that done by the end of the week okay um another opportunity to get involved and um this is a ful opportunity because everyone has a chance to participate in nominating teachers of the year across the state of Iowa um so if you know of AA Rapids Community School District and we have several that you can choose from a lot of them um that have made a difference in your students life the Iowa Department of Education is now accepting nominations for

020the 2025 Iowa teacher of the year award and I thought that was really good that any Community member any student any parent they can they have the opportunity to participate um you can make a nomination through April the 16th if you go on our website we have the link there but you can just Google I teacher of the year it'll take you to the state's website as well um this year they have nine semi-finalists who will be selected from all of the nominations to receive the regional teacher of the year and then one teacher um will be named 2025 Iowa teacher of the year we'd love to see our Cedar Rapids uh teachers recognized in this endeavor speak speaking of an Endeavor thank you again to our office of academics and to our Board of

021Education and other Helping Hands that have join in our CK uh curriculum has arrived uh the first shipment arrived over at Maple Grove and this is certainly been a group effort um we want to thank um Stefan frisor for cataloging the curriculum for the whole District now that's what you call going above and beyond right so if you see him know him hey give him a shout out um and so they received three pallets you can kind of see that there and 10 boxes of materials you know our goal for this work was to make sure that we um put the curriculum in the hands of the teachers uh before the end of the school year that's something that they asked us for they did not want to wait until August to be able to

022receive their new materials and so by the end of the month we should have it in the hands of all of our teachers across the district uh so thank you to the again to the office of academics and to the purchasing department um for making this happen for our staff members lots of great things happening here one last thing I believe uh what two this uh Academic Year marks the final one for Garfield Elementary as we know Garfield and author uh they will be combined merging together uh for the new Trail side but we have an opportunity to help celebrate Garfield on May the 4th at 10 o'cl a.m. they will be having their final open house let's go out and support them May 4th 10 :00 a.m. okayy and the last day of school

023reminder um we've had to kind of adjust a little bit as Mother Nature continues to adjust is it all gone y'all is all the snow gone we hope so right now as it stands today the last day of school is Thursday June the 6 um and so uh we will have this this missile starting at 1:20 p.m. for our high school students and 220 for our elementary students um and the last day for our little preschool students will be Wednesday June the 5th and the last day for teachers June the 7th so that concludes my report for tonight thank you Dr Grover uh we have a couple board reports tonight one from our Recruitment and Retention core operational committee and director boring would like to update us on that thank you president Garlock I'm going

024to start by saying that I seem to be having a little tickle in my throat so I might just pass these papers down to Marcy sorry Marcy so so far we've had two meetings um both have been focused on human resources and diversity equity and inclusion the philosophy this year has been that the best retention tool is strong retention HR has been focused on trying to improve the quality of life of our current employees as we continue to energize our staff world word will spread and we plan to add nearly 2700 recruiters and testimonials so far I've had the opportunity to help evaluate the steps we have taken to both quantify and improve improve the level of Engagement for our staff there are now Tools in place to measure retention and engagement levels there is

025a team dedicated to looking at patterns of work-related injuries to increase prevention and help individuals after an injury is sustained feedback is key there's a group called The President's board that meets to represent all of our work groups so decisions can be made with the staff voice in mind topics have included professional learning efficacy and how to better handle absences in buildings and across the District there's also a task force for onboarding and orientation so it is expedience and informative in the best ways we want well-informed staff that identify with our core values and we want to empower them in their roles right away there is a desire to focus on the term employal employ it's loyalty but it's employal employal which speaks employal okay which speaks to engagement and happiness associated with working for

026the organization there is also an increased desire to explore perks for our staff members these perks combine with our salary and benefits to make a complete package of how we compensate our employees we desire to also have a Workforce that is reflective of the population we serve human resources houses our District's diversity Equity inclusion team the district team has been working tirelessly to create places for all staff to have a sense of belonging in that vein the Dei team has three Affinity groups with a focus on supporting staff members who identify as black and African-American lgbtqia plus and new to the profession teacher teachers with the hopes to add more in the coming years Dei has been building a calendar to celebrate and raise awareness about our differences throughout the year lastly they are working

027to develop a process to measure through an inclusive lens how to more positively impact our larger system from our offices in the ELC through these steps we will certainly engage our staff more deeply and in turn increase retention and increase staff efficacy as well thank you very good thank you director Bing we also tonight have a report from our academics and achievement committee and director Newman will be presenting that thank you president Garlock um I attended the academics and achievement core operational committee that was on March 28th and we discussed the CK rollout and its implementation in 22 elementary schools um Nicole Brown shared that that initial distribution of materials was at Maple Grove and you saw the photos that Dr Grover shared um and it had a dedicated team to organize and sort the

028materials efficiently that team will continue to work through challenges at Maple Grove as we as we figure out how this is going to roll out and develop a comprehensive plan that will will ensure a smooth roll out for the remaining 21 schools we really want to extend a special thank you to the staff at Maple grow Grove Michelle Cruz Carissa Jenkins for exceptional efforts toward this big project so big lift um as you saw the pallets literally a big lift um we also talked a little bit about Community Partners Chris Gibson shared some information about that um and data points from those Community Partners this is an ongoing discussion of the committee that's my report okay thank you director Newman do we have any other board reports okay let's move on uh to our revised

029consent agenda are there any items anyone would like to pull for a comment question or separate vote do we have a motion to approve the amended consent agenda so moved is there a second second this is a roll call vote due to the Personnel report director borine I director tinsky I director humbles I director Newman I director rry I director buers I and president Garlock hi is there a motion to enter the work session so moved uh second second all those in favor say I I those oppose same sign we are going to take an 8 minute recess while we set up for the work session so see you all in 8 minutes see you e tonight we are participating in a work session with Adam Zimmerman executive director of innovation and Chad Schumacher director

030of operations the office of academics and operations department is collaborating to present an informative session highlighting the intersections between academics and Facilities this session will provide an update on the progress of career and college connected learning in high schools it will also offer a preview of the revised portrait of a graduate and the initial careeres and Pathways established in high schools furthermore the session will propose a viable solution for the truncated timeline in remodeling high schools to provide the appropriate space and equipment for theseis and Pathways the Board of Education will also be present for Larson constructions presentation on the possibilities of the future facilities Adam and Chad the time is yours thank you it has been now four months since I was in front of you last um and much work has been done

031and so we're excited to be in front of you tonight to talk about um our College and Career connected learning work um but also how that intersects um as president Garlock said with the facilities conversation so um on March 1 we got the opportunity to launch our current draft um of our portra graduate um current State and seek feedback from our high schools and we launched with this video we're going to play it here tonight two questions that I'd like you to respond to um with those orange cards um if you could so one what were you excited about um and then what questions were provoked coming soon to a crcsd high school near you in the Ever Changing World high school students everywhere struggle to navigate their Futures but at crcsd we are looking

032to redefine education to Ure our students our future [Music] ready introducing the Cedar Rapids Community School District's new career and college connected learning model where classroom learning meets Real World experience and paves the way for Student Success whether it's in an academy where a team of teachers collaborate to provide a specialized career focused curriculum for all subjects or a pathway where students add career Focus courses to the regular High School curriculum students will Master new technologies and hone essential life skills that will open up endless possibilities for their future my classroom learning has connected me to real world experiences that have equipped me with college credit and Industry certifications I'm gaining life skills and Exploring Careers which has empowered me to take the lead in planning for my future Pathways center around my passions and

033interests keep me engaged and connected in school with the support of our community and Industry Partners our students can become the Future Leaders and innovators our city state and World need together we will prepare our students to graduate not just with a degree but with a vision for their future equipped for career and college engaged in the community and empowered for Life get ready to fulfill our promise of every learner Future Ready um I am excited about fness partners for e so if you want to wrap up your conversations we'll bring you back it's my timer all right let's just go around the horn whoever wants to start one thing you were excited about and then one or two things that questions that you had thank you that they are preparing I like within the

034video preparing for real world experiences I think that's really key that's what we're looking for to prepare our students thank you I got it yeah can you guys hear me okay okay great yeah I think we were kind of discussing Cindy and I the community link with the school you know we really love that we're connect students with their interest and the local community um kind of building out those new skill sets and uh some of the you know question I've had is um as we're thinking about rolling out these Pathways at each of the schools how are we um providing Transportation if students are interested in a certain track that is not at their current school you know kind of what is what does that look like how do we navigate that thank you

035the only thing I have to add to that is I think some of the questions uh surounding this have to do with the logistics of how do we get kids the right place at the right time do we have staff to cover these new Pathways to some of the logistical things thank you I would say the the public private partnership um you know seeing that like get accelerated sorry did I steal yours you right um yeah there's such a tremendous opportunity there so it's it's nice to see us focusing on the community engagement piece thank you well I am excited about the intentional Innovative what I right now the necessary Innovative intentional changes I am so excited because even watching this video just gives me so much hope because I know that the work um

036behind this video is great vision and things are going to happen for our students and engage our staff in such a way that it's going to be so amazing um it's Innovative it's exciting it's intentional and it's the change that we need in this District so I am excited y'all know y'all want to clap go ahead and do that that is so I'm super excited super super super excited very proud of the work that is happening here among the uh superintendent and the executive cabinet the question I have is what is the structure of expectation of our industry Partners right and what do we have in place to ensure that they will bring quality to our programs and make sure that they are partnering so you know the in my mind is what what is

037the structure so meaning I and I believe that this team will put something together really good but you know I I don't want it to be strenuous but really serious like we're not playing you have to be of a certain caliber to engage right so that was my question what structure do you have in place to ensure those things thank you yes okay um so I was excited about the inclusion of business and industry partners I think that's vital we are a Community School District they are incredibly important to our community um our students are members of our community and I think that you know providing them with a way to graduate into the workforce locally um is a tremendous benefit um also I was excited about the music so kudos to whoever made that

038it was very um it reminded me of uh soaring in Epcot like that kind of soaring music so I really want you to tell me like only if it's true but I really want you to tell me that like somebody in Cedar Rapids made the music because that was really good music Jus schaer J schaer nice job and he was a voice wow all right that was good um and then I I the questions I had were uh it mentioned industry certifications so I'm wondering what industry certifications those are um I think it would be helpful to have a deeper understanding in the video of the difference between an academy and a pathway and then what items determine inclusion of a focus is it wage is it employability what does that look like long term

039thank you so we're going to get to some of these questions and we're going to take those questions and make sure we get to all of them um in future presentations um but this is transformative work and it's all in line with our district Vision um of every learner future ready and so this is the vehicle that we'll get there with um the work really is set up out to operationalize the mission statement that we've had um a plan p p pathway and passion for every student um and we think this plan will get us there so tonight we're talking about something we haven't connected previously or explicitly I haven't been part of that conversation at the board table um but we're talking about pillar one which is plans passions and Pathways but then connected

040to our facilities explicitly um and so I'm going to talk about the programming side of it um and then Chad is going to talk about uh the facilities part but these two strategies go hand inand and must um to support one another all of the work is really focused around goal number four raising our graduation rates by 10 points um and making sure that all of our graduates leave with something more um college credit industry recognized credential so as I said this is a four-year Journey um that we're outlining here this year has really been about program design um and making sure that we are casting that big vision around what every graduate should leave with and so tonight you're going to see the portrait um that articulates that in very concrete measurable um language

041and then you're going to get into a Continuum of experiences we're going to guarantee um and then we'll we at a later date get into the U professional skills that we're going to focus on and next year it's all going to be about learning um staff learning and making sure they're ready in 25 26 to launch freshman acms um and that'll be experienced as across all three of our comprehensives and Metro um and City View and then finally in 2627 we will be launching our upper where kids will start to engage on the pathways uh with a career Focus you'll see parallel there's a whole facilities track that has to play along with this as well so three big Parts the promise we'll look briefly um at the the um portrait the new portrait I

042should say and the continue of experiences we'll get into the question around Pathways and Academy what's the difference um and and leave with a clear understanding there and then finally I'll talk about the process of how we're selecting the content and theme of each pathway any questions there okay then I'll hand it over and we'll talk about how all that transformation is going to lead to a facilities conversation to support that programming okay so if you go to page five in your booklet that I see some of you moving to now in front of you you're going to see um probably the 12th draft of this document um that we hope to finalize this spring um but the big purpose of this document is to two things it's a promise to the community every student

043will leave Cedar Rapids as measured by these skills um and then it's also a measuring stick um to say how are we doing and are we um accountable for making sure that every student gets there so we moved away from the five C's of the old to a much more measurable portrait that we think will allow us um to actually track and measure kids progress towards that on the next page you're going to see the Contin of of experiences the Continuum um we've been getting feedback on as well hundreds of voices have weighed in on this this is Page Six of your booklet in front of you um it's a three-stage process that will consider element students middle school students and high school students um but really it's in elementary what do all kids need

044to be exposed to in Middle School what opportunities can we make sure that they explore and then finally in high school what are they going to engage in that we can guarantee both of these documents have been examined relooked at um across a number of venues like I said hundreds of voices have weighed in um we're now in the process of all High School staff weigh into this um and so we'll finalize with all that feedback this spring same two guiding questions as you consider those two documents what are you excited about um either conceptually or specifically and then what questions were provoked when looking at those two documents on page five and six Adam yes ma'am um the print is too small for us to be able to read it so I don't really

045know if we're going to be able to provide some feedback both but I'm sorry in the hand the information guide yeah that's thank you like I hope that's not too small oh I can see this one very well thank you yep of course so I'll put two minutes and we'll do the same as we did before we'll have you talk to a partner and then sh absolutely both um we're talking about both two guiding questions what are you excited about in these docents either conceptually or specifically ands AR when looking um I have lots of questions at the moment I'm excited about delivering on colle e for all that stuff is sort of at the found looks like visually it's be at the foundation what you defended about yeah all right I will bring you

046back it builds right so I feel like that's this is easy same thing let's just go around the things are you're excited about um and questions that this might have provoked I'm excited about there is a plan in place for I mean the progression I like that my question though is how do we get the buy in for the programming but I do like the way that it's laid out thank you um thinking about it from a parents perspective if I've got a Elementary student maybe starting kindergarten this is impressive when you look at it all laid out like that that looks like there's a plan it doesn't look like we're just starting school and we're not really sure what's going to happen here um so I really like that I think that not only

047is it even just here pretty easy to understand but I'm sure that more information will be behind all of these things so um and it does represent a change in how we're currently doing things so um I'm excited about that on the portrait of The Graduate thing fits on a t-shirt like that so Y and I have the same questions like how do we communicate this in a way that um helps parents get excited about it and helps our staff really rally behind this um and you know how do we build the build and afford the facilities to do this in because this will this takes space it does thank you he yeah um I know I'll let you speak on kind of Cindy but we we were chatting about um just that you know

048that they are equipped and ready for um lots of different scenarios I would say also um I get really excited about again that community that that piece of how we're getting kids connected in that way and that extracurricular um and then you know a question I had still is we've been talking a lot about this these skills that we want all of our students to have adaptability empathy Global mindset this curiosity critical thinking piece I um I'd love to see how we can tie that in a little bit more and you know how we harnessing these skill sets in each of the um sections of this plan and you know even when we're talking about industry by industry um just how how are you tying these executive function types skills to ensure we have students

049that you know are action oriented and and all the things that we that we talk about um on repeat so um I'm sure that's a piece of it but i' would love to see it somewhere reflected thank you um I'm excited about the fact that we are making a promise to our families to our students that they will come out of high school with something more than just a diploma we're being very public and very intentional about that and um I'm confident that we can live up to that expectation but I'm I'm really pleased to see how clear that we are about that goal um I I think my questions sort of revolve around the communication piece this is a big change and how do we bring our families on board how do we bring

050our staff on board our students so that they und understand this shift and why it's important thank you I think piggyback on director Newman I I appreciate the fact that you know one of these documents definitely articulates that it starts in elementary school I think out in the community people want to know how this is going to impact their families um their kids um and and how that's going to apply also appreciate there is community engagement all the way through it right so even in elementary school you're seeing where you've got career speakers coming in um I think that's that's important it's a good place for U for the community to know where they can plug in it's interesting because um it it it almost has to be both right I think it has to

051be simple to process simple to be able to communicate but it also has to be comprehensive um I think we get questions on both sides of that right that's too much information I you know I'm not ready for that there's a way for you to get I think that that bite size um just to to make sure that you feel like see Rapids as a school district is on the right path and then if you really want detailed answers to questions I think this is certainly a start there's probably even more um that needs to go into to being fully comprehensive but to not overwhelm somebody I think is is definitely important thank you you're taking notes are you ready oh recording that's right true I am excited that that um there has been Community

052involvement since the very beginning I've been to a couple of these meetings the career um and college preparation meetings that have been attended by um 100 people approximately maybe a little bit more uh that are Community leaders but that are also teachers administrators um I think I saw a couple students in there some parents so I like that there's that plurality of voice that's that's even going into the framework that's gotten us this far um and I'm excited to see that continuing throughout this Focus um I'm excited we're delivering on the career part I think that this district has been very successfully focused on College um and we've done some towards career but I I like that we are being um really focused on that moving forward I like the biliteracy seal um as I

053said before we we are a Community School District but I think we're also members of a world community and I like that we are uh making an intentional effort to graduate Global Citizens um and then I think you know like everybody on this board you know we kind of all volunteers tribute volunteers tribute so the community service part was really exciting for me um just because that is something that I personally hold um to be of value my questions are I just wonder if the certifications are stackable or transferable um I know that like for for teaching for example the the requirements are different state by state so just want to make sure that we're building a base that that carries people if they are going to leave our state that will also benefit them

054someplace else and then I'm just not sure what the Capstone project is thank you all right so what I am excited about is reading all of this um on this so beautifully Illustrated paper what I'm excited about is because I know it's going to happen because I know that there's a team that is driving this Initiative for our community and our district that is working very hard and intently and it's going to happen often times things go on paper but then nothing ever Becomes of it right and all of this really um really matches well with our uh our plan our strategic plan and it's consistent so that is what I'm excited about um I love what I see and I agree with everything that's been said from all the other directors which is wonderful

055um I see also that we really do have a great focus on college going to college and I see that of course that's what the CTE think is all about as well but I would like to see more of a magnifier on um the trades as well I feel like the college is really magnified and the career is involved as well but I think about um when I first look at it I think like excited about going to college you know and so I think just the public how they would that might be something that may come up even though it's right in front here somebody's going to say what about the trades so just a little more magnifier on that yep thank you and these are all drafts I should say um as we're

056getting closer and honing in on um some of our Pathways um this is still in draft form the two documents we're still drafting it um so the input's really good striking that balance between Career and college has been something that we've gone back and forth with different levels of feedback and so we'll try to strike the right tone going forward okay and so one of the questions that you surfaced um someone surface I think a couple people did was what is the difference between a pathway and an academy and how are we communicating that difference so as we think about the two models that we're settling in on there are two School models that we are moving towards the academy model and the pathway model um both are driven by a single set of research

057which is the Career and Technical education research it says very simply if you connect kids to their passions and the career field that they can experiment in get involved with um they'll do better on certain indicators namely graduation graduation rates future career earnings um their engagement in school so what we did is we said okay if that's the broad model um that's what all of our high schools will be engaged in and then there's a second body of research which two um of our high schools will be really focused on which is the academy model and the academy model is highlighted here and this is on page two of your booklet if you want to follow along um with the ual text has three core elements and this is where we'll start um small learning

058communities College Prep curriculum and Partnerships with employers and so the research says if you get groups of kids together with groups of teachers that are directly accountable for those kids and an administrator who is directly accountable for those teachers and align all of that kids do better because they belong they feel like they have a purpose and they have a community that they can engage in um so that is what the the fundamentals of the academy are so in two of our schools Jefferson and Washington they'll be in the academy model um currently and so there's a framework here um that I hope is illustrative and I'll I'll take feedback on that too um but if you look here all of our students will engage in a Freshman Academy um and that is really their

059home as they get into that High School transition and then in these two schools they'll transition after their freshman year and they'll pick um an academy they want to be engaged with and so if you think about an academy um in a university that's your college and within that Academy that they'll then pick a pathway that they want to go focus on and get the career experiences um and start to develop those skill sets um and credentials in they'll still get art music those will be Global classes that are available to everyone those offerings won't be limited the second model which will be at Kennedy currently um is the pathways model Pathways model everyone will still be engaged in that small learning community their freshman year in that transition and then they'll select a career

060Focus that they'll take three consecutive years so that model is Illustrated here everyone will be in that freshman which will be all the same everyone have access to the extracurriculars currently um the difference in the two models is in those upper 10th through 12th grades where are we putting those small learning communities washingon Jeff will have one Kennedy will have another so that was a little quicker than the last one it's Med take a couple of minutes with your shoulder partner what questions do you have what are you excited um about and all this information is on pages two through four in your uh information guide as well what you um just EX think okay e yeah those there are different yeah so I just kind of need more attendance in graduation but need to

061I mean well I think that there's a couple of different dos right because that would be measurable so it would be how you know because we'll have then how would it affect the kids that are graduating next not not next month but all right I'll bring you back all right there I will let whoever wants to start start things you're excited about questions you have I'm still excited please stay there my excitement hasn't DND because we changed uh Pages I'm silly Qui I I'm excited that there will perhaps be more accountability both by students and teachers when they're in smaller groups um it just seems like when you have a small group of people that you are responsible for it's you're just more accountable for them so I think that that's a something to be

062excited about and I agree with that I look at theem how I think the groups are smaller they stay together and I I like that piece thank you I didn't time to ask the question yeah please oh okay um so the roll out right I did hear you say freshman it was start among freshman first right um and then so just kind of a outline of the roll out so who's next what you know what I mean because it's all sound really good I'm just not real clear about how it's going to be implemented and then after um it does roll out what is is there a structure of data in place where we can kind of measure the success of what we've already done thank you yes my my question is what happens if

063they would to changed their what is the process and how do you keep them moving forward but like enrollment yeah if yeah if they change if they say oh I'm in this I don't like it I want something something well the right the idea that once you're on a path that you learn something you're like I actually don't love that as much as I thought I did how do I turn back and just making sure that people don't feel like they have to you know go pretty far back and start an over um that there's a way to kind of navigate through that um and I would comment I I think I do appreciate the fact that there are two different models here so families that are looking for maybe a more more traditional um

064schooling maybe they can find that in one of the models versus the other um that also paired with the roll out which is the consistency of why is there one model here and another model in these other places um and also just having older students of knowing that of course they care what they're learning um they do care who they're learning it with so to know if they choose an academy and it's not maybe with what they consider their peer group and their friends like how do they how do we make sure that they still benefit from that larger group um I'm always looking for The Best of Both Worlds um as a person that likes change I get excited about that but as a person that knows that not everybody likes change um that

065could be terrifying for some some people so the communication of what that change is going to be and how it's going to impact them um I think will be really important for us to figure out absolutely um I am excited that we are taking steps to be proactive instead of being reactive um that we're really taking some time to evaluate what the academic system looks like and what academics look like across the nation and being proactive in developing a plan to kind of harness the energy that's there instead of being reactive um to not having supplied it in the first place my questions are um around some Equity issues I just want to know if all Focus areas will be available at all high schools and if not what are the plans for transportation thank

066you kind we talked about kind of all the things you already shared um another piece is just you know again I I really do like that that you're kind of grouped with people with similar interests so you kind of have this um you know this group of people that are likeminded you can fall back on and you can kind of learn from each other in that way in a small smaller group um so uh that's kind of where our conversation was centered um but definitely can see the other sides of that uh just a wonder I have um you know I think it would be great to see there students can be advocates for the CTE classes um obviously we're not creating something brand new this does exist so if we can tap into some

067other success stories from maybe students across the Midwest maybe in down similar demographics whatever that might look like um Ste Rapids but as we're you know just getting this out to the community the parents um let's let's try to Showcase that and uh let the students tell the story instead of us trying to be convincing in somewhere or the board or the district or principl you know love the idea of just empowering those students to be The Advocates um because you know also knowing we've modeled it after other programs across the country um and this is the way the future future ready you know it brings it all full circle so kind of just a Wonder there um for the future absolutely thank you I should say these are great questions we are developing a

068design team um that'll come together it's made up of our central office leaders but also campus leaders as well um it'll start with principles and then filter into teacher leaders to start to design the procedures to answer these questions um some of them will have to be answered by us Transportation how we going to do that um but when we think about the procedures on activities um there are people that are experts in the building so we'll rely on them to develop a really detailed procedures manual so we have clear answers um as we engage in these changes Adam I just want to say something really quickly on that I do think that we should also at whatever Point engage our families our parents like getting a group to react to our responses so we

069know that we're putting the right polic and processes in place for our families thank you I think my my only question on this is how are you going to make these differences crystal clear we're all pretty close to it and I'm completely confused even after getting clarification so I think that if we feel confused the public will certainly feel confused and we need to make sure that we distill that down to the simplest of messaging so that they understand the difference between Pathways andies because even on paper it really looks pretty similar yeah yeah and I think kind of based on what director Newman I just have a wonder about why are they all academies like why did why is there a pathway at at one yep and so the very simple answer that is

070we looked at the data and said okay we know career career focused education is good for all right and so the data is across all um but our there are differences in the data we're seeing across our three high schools um so I'll pass this out so it's a pretty simple methodology thank you of how we got here first question is what are the impacts of College and Career connected learning and there's really solid research to suggest that graduation rates go up Dropout rates go down attendance goes up behavior and belongings improve in future career earnings what are the school support structures or what are the school structures that can amplify that the comprehensive setting we we know that works and research suggests that Career College and Career connected Learning Works in comprehensive settings you

071can double down in the academy settings so allies are are small dividing a big school up into small parts where they can feel like they belong and have a small community that amplifies the effects and said okay if those are the two possible models then what the what's the data tell us about our current state what that should look like so if you go down to the data you can see there are clear differences um in terms of graduation rates attendance conditions for Learning and so that's how we got to the two different places in terms of model the comprehensive setting isn't the pathway model right this is just showing this against this is traditional right comprehensive setting is tradition addtional and then we're shies but we're not really showing Pathways and why that's a

072better option for some schools so that would be the comprehensive with Pathways in it comprehensive with with Pathways yep right we're not showing pathways on here as a that still just doesn't answer the question of why do we have these two different models sorry no this does so I me I should say it's intended to the comprehensive set with Pathways so when you have classes that connect and it really is what are you taking as electives so when you have sequence classes over time in a comprehensive setting that doesn't break the school into smaller acmis they have a positive effect when you come over to theems that's breaking the school into smaller settings and have an amplified effect and I think it's kind of back to our uh portrait of a graduate we want to

073be able to offer all students um in the district the opportunity um for college credit and industry certifications and so when we think about the pathway models that's what's allowing them to have these experiences um where they may not be down into the smaller learning communities but they still have access right so that's what we want to be alike across our system and so there's you know there are two ways uh that we try to think about this we want to be um data informed and values driven the other part of the reason why we're okay um certainly we can continue to take feedback from the board with one of our high schools being different is that we want choice for our families within Cedar Rapids Community School District so it's not about all of

074our high schools being the same it's about what do we offer in Cedar Rapids Community School District there are some families that they're going to want to continue to have a liberal arts education we've already heard that they're going to want that traditional path we don't want them to opt out and see the Rapids because we don't have that they can go up the street and get you know that but we want them to know that they still have that opportunity here um and as we talked about earlier we continue to um work on the processes for our kids to be able to choose within Cedar Rapid I I think that's our overall goal and and we're pretty proud that we will have those differences will allow families to choose where their child Goes to

075School based on the program they want yeah absolutely so we're working through all the logistics of that um and it can be it can definitely be complicated but we're we're here for it um and so we're going to that's why that team is important what is the process say um we're talking about everything like do I want to take one class do I want to do my school day there but I want to do my sport somewhere else and so we're talking about school for the future and people want adaptability they want Choice uh they want to be Innovative uh they want personalized attention and that's what we're trying to design a system that will allow for that so last piece as we talk about process um the process that we are going through and

076have been going through um to really nail down what the content of those pathways are um so we started with three criteria High wage high scale and in demand and we started um looking at local Workforce data focus groups career our Career Information System where kids are matched with career sets where are kids interested now um then we talk to Business Leaders um in the community to say what are your highest need areas is now um so we looked at that data and we looked at our current facilities to say where are our teachers in terms of credentials what do our actual physical facilities look like what's programs look like um we started to try to work through this puzzle um and we put a draft down on paper which is what you saw today

077then on March 1st we launched that with our high schools to get the first round of feedback um and saying this is the beginning um and I think that it really truly is the was the beginning um so now we're collecting feedback and they're hosting um and having staff meetings to go say okay this we want these to be authentic to the community that they're serving with Community Partners that are in those areas um and what are their differentiators that they can lean into um so they're going through those conversations now um and we're going to get a final recommendation back from them um them being the school settings of what do they want their Pathways andies to be um and then we'll put that together we'll then go back to the business and industry

078leaders Community leaders and say are there needs what are we missing here a final run um and are they in report um and then we'll determine what those those pathways are that'll all happen this spring still um with June 3rd being our date that we're trying to get those Pathways solidified questions here I just have a question there about um I I first of all I very much appreciate that that this is based on high wage high skill and in demand um I I my question is do you have um are you working with somebody who's a Visionary or futurist that if I mean if we're talking about building long-term career steadiness I mean there's stuff happening in industries that we haven't even thought of yet so I I'm wondering if you're Consulting some research

079or with a Visionary or a futurist that kind of has an indication of the way that different lines of business are going to be evolving yeah and you've been in the med we're working with the business Community here um if you have suggestions on who to add to that group or someone to tap on the shoulder and say hey take a look we'd love that feedback as well and input has there been any um and I I think Kirkwood's been at the table I'm wondering if any of the higher education people that are kind of focused in that area if they've also been contributing yeah they've been amazing all of our Regents have been involved they're very excited we're excited to have them on board Kirkwood has been with us from the beginning local colleges

080as well um so they're they're right at the table and we're excited to see what we can do with a more integrated program um across all of those opportunities thank you okay with that um my last slide and I'll hand it over to Chad and you've highlighted most of these but I wanted to be really transparent in terms of where we are with anticipated challenges um program development and partnership development we're going to work on this we have a plan to go integrate these programs to get them set up um June 3rd will be a big date for us to have the the topics that we can think go build programing around but that'll be a lift um and so someone talked about part Mar I think you talked about Partnerships and making them real

081right and and really have some Integrity to them we're going to ask Partners to come to the table in a different kind of way um and put up resources time people and they're really excited to do that but that's going to take time and so all of these pieces will have to fit together that's the first anticipated challenge second facilities and we're going to get into that today and as you can see just from the structures our buildings if split into four different eies have to look and feel different and that's an investment and we're going to talk about how that inter um tonight and then the Third Kind of goes across the the two others but it's this status quo in the mindsets this is transformation we're changing the structure some of the content

082of our schools um and it it's going to take a minute to get everyone on board um and so we're going to need lots of support um and coming to the table to say this is where we are um and bringing people along with us um as we enter this journey final questions thoughts for me okay I just want to thank you for this work and everyone on the team that's working on it the leadership of Dr Grover I mean I think that this is something that we've as a board we've been talking about enhancing CTE programming for the six years that I've been on the board so um it's nice to see some action so thank you I will end for this part where I started um with that timeline so as we think

083about this year on the program programing side we're designing in terms of what it could look like for facilities next year will be a learning year for us so what does that look like on the facility side and the same can be said for 25 26 and 27 or 26 27 this is going to take a lift especially when we get into the Freshman Academy launch in 2526 and 2627 the facilities are going to have to match the programing if we're saying the benefits of a small community in a school are significant then how are we creating the physical space to enable that small community um if we want Co kids to have career focused classes those classes need to have spaces that can actually provide those opportunity so Chad's goingon to talk to you

084a little bit about the plan to move forward here but appreciate the time tonight thank you I'm not sure exactly when Adam and I crossed paths when I got hired in October but when we did I was like oh 25 26 are you ser serious um so we've been pushing and pulling on each other for the last uh two months or so um and really really looking at how can we transform education um not just from a programming standpoint from from a facility standpoint as well this is transformational work um this is changing how we look at education and it's building our kids for the future and giving them opportunities that will launch them into their into their adult life um Adams team I kind of look at them as like a coaching staff um

085they're putting together a game plan of how this is all going to go um and they're going to ask that we go out as their team and and Implement that that game plan and as I think about great coaching I thought about the game yesterday um and Iowa versus nor or South Carolina and I'm actually going to focus on South Carolina because um they lost one game in two years so she's probably got a pretty good uh game plan what she was doing on the court however she knew that she needed people to shoot from the perimeter and Guard from the perimeter that was their one weak spot that they needed to solidify so she went out and she recruited two freshmen young ladies and she also got in the um transfer portal a senior

086that came and all three of them were able to shoot and Guard from the perimeter and so when I think about what Adam's team is putting together I feel like we're like one piece of the puzzle short to make sure we can hit 25 in 26 as my heart palpitates um but it's important to understand that that's a dedication and and a goal that we have because we also know that we can't launch something this transformational without having the facilities that are going to support it it's so vital to the success of this program so when we look at um making sure that we can kind of build that plane as it flies and and bring along the facilities while they're developing this programming we wanted to engage with somebody who was going to bring

087um an expertise to the table and so uh we engaged with Larson construction on that Larson construction was founded by Ed and Janet Larson after um Ed decided to leave his industrial Tech education career at Independence and start a construction firm um and so from the very beginning 30 40 years ago Ed left his um uh education career and start a construction firm they not only have been building a K12 uh buildings for the last 40 years they've also have three other manufacturing companies and Independence one that uh builds uh takes raw steel and and manufactures steel with welders and other manufacturers one that uh builds or uh creates a manufactures large radiators for large construction um vehicles um and one that works all over the world selling um deuring machines with basically uh a

088company that creates a a piece of metal and then they take it into this deep Bur machine and and get rid of all the sharp edges so they know the need and the wants for good manufacturing um individuals they know that this can be transformative work for our kids and also giving kids the opportunity to have a career that is high wage high demand and um it allows them to have a successful life so I'm excited about the opportunity to uh bring on Larson construction as a partner in this work um because it is a heavy lift of what they doing but it's also going to be a heavy lift for us to be ready in 25 for the Freshman Academy um and so I'm going to hand it over to Travis to have him

089talk about how Larson construction is is the right choice for us in C R Community School District okay uh thanks Chad um so what I'd ask everyone to do is we have a presentation and you have uh a brochure so the brochure is something you can take home with you but if you could focus on the screen and the presentation they are different okay so um my office says we're going paperless so tonight we are paperless um so uh Chad gave you a brief rundown um on a project like this I kind of look at this as our 12 course meal what we're in is the appetizer stage it's usually kind of fancy and and um fun and there's the dessert stage which is also fancy and fun and when you look at me I'm

090the meat and potatoes okay and like to get things done our company likes to get things done and at some point that has to happen so when we start saying we like to see some action some things happening um that's what we do the facilities of this is really important the we pride ourselves in doing things right the first time and when you talk about looking into the future as we go through this presentation you'll see some things that we have done but also engaging with Community College and looking into things like AI robotics all them start types of uh industries that are really grow growing so I'm going to go through the presentation tonight's getting a little bit long so I'd like to get the question and answer quick so here we go who

091is Larsson construction we're a third generation family-owned company out of Iowa all of us grew up in Iowa I grew up in a small town in hufton 90 people uh all of us were kind of um educated in Iowa or Iowa Iowa State you and I grads and uh we have offices in Independence and in Urbandale uh we specialize in uh Career Centers and K12 schools we also have worked at all three universities uh in the state of Iowa all community colleges uh in the state of Iowa so uh and outside of the state of Iowa so we're construction manager design builder in GC 150 plus employees uh in the field and then we'll uh just briefly go over we also yes we uh own lead um a golf course a a manufacturing Global Manufacturing

092Company a steel fabrication company and then a radiator company as well well as Southside Lumber why is that brought up them are all different careers okay we employ numerous uh different people in different careers everything from Engineers to machinists to welders to greenskeepers all that kind of stuff and so knowing what uh your students can be is important these are um just go back one this is our experience Within in career Readiness centers and these are all across the state of Iowa uh you may have heard of the watero career center this was two projects five phases over seven years and we're we've done a couple of tours of that with your um leaders and we originally thought maybe the principles because they're all honestly on board got to meet with uh Jessica and Ian

093and Kennedy principal thank you um and we thought well maybe they don't really need to see this because they're already on board but the visions that they have are stunted if that's a good word by not seeing what it can be okay so you'll see some of these pictures they haven't seen them they need to go they need to go see the place so uh I won't go through all the pictures but well I might quickly that's the entrance to the water career center upper right lower right is a design studio and they are they are creating their own t-shirts marketing all this type of stuff and they're selling them and creating profit and that is a big piece of partnering with your local community and businesses to make sure it is a partnership and

094they don't think that um we're there to hurt them we're there to help them on the left is a first career center that was a moment um that is a career fair at a high school level and um approximately 80 to 90 businesses there um this is also where we have HVAC Plumbing uh that's a machining Center uh on the lower right is a healthc care uh kind of an you know that that is a state-of-the-art thing it actually bring takes on fluids and anyway we have a couple stories that with this group but we won't get into that electrical um yeah who was it that couldn't go there that was Chris Chris G Chris Gates would not touch that so anyway and then Electrical uh so a lot of different things the water career

095center uh this is Kirkwood Community College um right there on the left is Tyler cookley a superintendent here he's actually in the crowd tonight thanks Tyler for showing up lives in Rapids raising his kids in Cedar Rapids and uh uh he built that that was a if you haven't been to Iowa Hall at Kirkwood Community College please go that is state-ofthe-art uh upper right's another program agriculture that they have and Engineering uh at crookwood uh their Aeronautics program so this was amazed me when we had the opportunity to build this but that is upper left is a h rocket engine so our young people in the state of Iowa are uh doing everything to these I there's there's a helicopter but they're Lear how to fix them how to design them uh on the right

096hand side is a Cessna so they're taking that apart and experimenting and you can just see like that is a mechanic shop that's a Aero aeronautic mechanic shop that's what we're talking about uh hawkey Community College the upper left is the actually this is a really good kind of proof of the partnership with the community colleges so that is at the Waterloo career center um uh career fair and they're there recruiting kids to come to the nursing program H so them types of Partnerships are awesome upper right is um uh serving uh there at hawy that's Brad Schnider he's in the audience as well and he's raised his kids his kids are at grantwood uh right now or Keaton is anyway lower left is a business program uh lower and lower right is welding um

097so them types of programs make sure I'm making these are the types of places we've built so and have experience in uh Independence Junior Senior High so this is close to home because that's where my kids are going to school but that's the carpenter shop which that is actually about 12 years old but when you look at that compared to your Carpenter shops if you've been them it's a little bit different um and then upper right is uh welding so this is a great story and a little bit different story than I uh shared with the group uh about a week ago but um this here is a young lady that uh went to school and and when we talk about kids wanting to change their program so she went to school uh in um

098I don't know the right terminology right now Beautician and she was a hairdresser and did all that and she didn't like it and so she was in her career doing her thing and her dad was doing welding and she just wasn't happy and he's like why don't you come in with me and do some welding and she's been welding with us that's actually at um our shop in Independence and she's been welding with us for 10 years now and she's phenomenal and I say this all time we had another example with Jade Burns she started uh welding with us in this shop and then she like wanted to go out on the field because she was bored inside so since she went and was a iron worker she loved to be up you know 60

099feet in the air Welden and now she's building an auditorium for Jessup high school she's a superintendent for us so growing them types of people is what we do similar to what you're doing and I get I'm pretty passionate about young people so uh Automotive is another thing right in Independence uh that we do uh this is Northeast Iowa Community College so upper left I love this picture that is the entrance to their diesel mechanic program okay that's the new culture of Career Centers and what changes is when they come into the building they start dressing differently it is a professional setting because it should be a professional setting they're professional uh they have a professional career when they come out of that building um that uh is an EMT program lower left is their

100manufacturing program lower right is nursing uh so that's our experience and I did go through that pretty quick but trying to be respectful of your time and in here there's many more but this is just uh you know kind of our brochure of the things that we have done above and beyond so we are and I am personally honored to be here tonight and super excited about your future and and sincerely passionate about the future of your kids and you are leaders in the education and Iowa's always been a leader uh historically in education so you guys are really leaders because this is important and it's starting to happen water career center was a was a springboard for some of this if that H that started in 2014 um and if you some of you

101may remember but that was a pretty big deal in 2014 was kind of a first of its kind but even when we talked to them in waloo and Dr Grover heard this it could be better so kind of what you're coming up with they would rather have it in the high school it's it's separate and their future looks like they may put it in their high school so uh this this can be better than that and that was the best okay so that's Career Centers I need to go into construction now any questions on Career Centers though I just have a a quick question I'm just wondering if there's like a small mobile display of some of these items that we could um experience and invite the community to [Music] experience uh I could look

102into that um they won't experience the the waterl career center but that's a great question I think one of the things that we're working on is try to get some field trips want to get some people to some places um I know Chris wouldn't mind me saying this you know uh we're so excited about our work but as we walk through the waterl uh cariss I was so glad I had a chance to go in waterl haven't been in Texas and Nebraska and other places so I've seen a lot but it's great great to know that we have this just right down the street uh and our heart uh ACH thinking about what we want to do for our kids and how much work we have to do but you just have to experience I

103called president Garlock on my drive back and I was like have you all ever been to we need to and they're excited they they want to share what they've learned um through their uh processes and then uh Saturday I was up at the University of Iowa I had the opportunity to hear Matt superintendent um up in Iowa City they're going to be opening up their Career Center in 2025 and so it's like we we are definitely headed in the right direction I think ours is more personalized like you say on site um but we want to do our best to First go visit some other places so that we can see and then as we move uh through we'll have some things happening in our building that we'll be able to Showcase to as we

104go forward so so thank you for that um exposure is key and before we move on to um the the the the delivery model that Larson can provide for us I think it's important to also understand that we were talking to waterl about their graduation rates they were at about 75% graduation rate until this happened now they're at 96% graduation rate um they they have school districts from all over the Cedar Valley coming to their career center so uh waterl Columbus um another small districts are coming in and that brings funding to their District as well so you you never know where this can lead to but there's potential for us to um to be the leader in um our educational facilities yeah so there was also um so in was the eight years they've

105been open they've had one physical altercation at the waterl career center in eight years because when they're there they're treated like professionals and they they want to be there they also have a hard time getting them to go go back to their um home school um so go back to East or West because they want to stay and work on those projects that they're they're doing there so it is transformational with the kids and then also they're leaving there with the ability to go out into the workforce with certifications um or other uh degrees that they can step right into a job in in the workforce and just to further answer your question I think a good close place that we could start looking at is Kirkwood and watero is really close too but um

106we can bring some of that stuff and then we may be able to talk about some virtual walkthroughs if there was something where we could uh get a a community that may be interested in looking at something like that excellent thank you work in progress but that's good any other questions on Career Centers okay I would just quickly comment that you know when we were down um at our national conference I mean some of the sessions that I sat in where directly related to this and you know everything that we're hearing tonight um is exactly what those districts were talking about I mean it was transformative for these kids um the types of industries that were in those communities how they partner up how they give these kids some real experiences some of the Hang

107like there's like a hanger I mean kids are working on airplanes actually you know doing the mechanical work on that I know there's real interest in this community for that type of work too so just that potential is pretty exciting so love the fact that all these examples are in Iowa just I think we all know there's some great examples around the country too so you know if we could do some virtual tours to actually see what the potential is and I think that we're always impacted when we hear directly from kids right so you talk about the behavioral issues if we can actually hear from kids and how um this is really getting them far more engaged in education I think that would be great for us I have a question about the waterl

108center do all of the students in the waterl school do they all go through the Cur center or is it a do we have a percentage how many kids actually have that experience or choose that experience we don't have hard data but we it is an optional thing that can happen but their numbers increased exponentially um from the first year they open to now and um I would I don't have the numbers off hand but I know their um population dramatically increased because they people wanted to go to school there and then I have one additional question it's really probably for all of you um you have um experienced and you own some companies that provide services in in the CTE area um I'm just curious about um who do we get to teach these

109courses um is there some professional development for some of our existing staff or is it a is it an industry expert I I just am curious about that so it truly is one of these things when you build it they will come and we are in Iowa so but for example um the Electrical uh instructor at waterl career center came from the trades uh really the the building kind of sold him as well as some people that were reaching out throughout the industry saying hey we're looking for and so he came from uh he was an electrical supervisor that was five 10 years from retirement but was ready to make a change in his life and uh between you know the stress and some other things like that so that's one example that it can

110come you know directly from the from there but when he saw the um culture I'll call it or the surroundings and the environment that he was going to be teaching in it was completely different than what he grew up where you went in the back alley to teach trades and so he he loved it and he's happy and when you see the that's part of it and there's so there's a lot of other ways besides just going to e industry experts you would take that path um and there may be teachers that their favorite thing to do they an English teacher but they love to work in the carpenter shop at home um so it it's a combination but it's about people wanting to work in that environment from my perspective when we visited watero

111a couple times now that question's been raised and it's I have heartache over it too um the director there said that was one of their top questions um and then as they got into the specifics they either said oh we can grow someone from within and in more cases than not someone came out of the community from that industry and wanted to participate and be there um but he said it was a combination um but they they they found staff so are we would we be increasing Workforce I just want to make sure that we're being respectful and protecting our our current Workforce um yeah I think it's a good question that we we do want to be respectful there also might need to be some shifts um in terms of how we look at

112programming and who credential who's willing to go get credentialed um but you you can't design all the new program we have um with the current certification so there will have to be some look um at a different skill set um that we'll need and so opportunity within opportunity from external as well okay and I was just I'll go ahead as you're considering the the new staff that you will bring G because like you said some of the certifications don't line up hopefully um that will be a option for some who are inhouse who may be interested of course I'm going to say to cons the diversity piece as well that is huge I don't like to see because we have a very diverse District so when I see um that there's lack of diversity in

113any of our dealings on this level I'm not comfortable with it that's something that really needs to be considered and I know being in this area that's kind of hard sometimes but I would like to see some effort put toward that for sure thank you and there will there will also be I'm putting you to a microphone okay thanks I yeah I kind of got uh cut off there for a bit so this was already reiterated um but just kind of timing I caught a little bit about what you were just saying right there but that was something I had just noted is um you know just making sure that we are thinking about the leaders and who's representing uh as CTE leaders and those who are identifying as nonwhite we want to make sure

114that that is uh that our students are feeling welcomed and supported in their career preparation um so you know uh just making sure that that's part of this learning environment is ensuring that our students can see themselves in those that are represented uh as the leaders of uh those CT Pathways so yeah I I I made have just reiterated something but I I want to note that because I was half hearing things no that was correct I think it's important to also um make a note that the reason we would like to bring Larson on now is because they have the expertise in the physical facilities we're still in draft form on some of our programs andies however we need to make sure that when we are talking about what we're going to provide can

115we do that from a facility standpoint uh resp responsibly and um fiscally responsibly and so the dreamers over here um are doing great work but we got to make sure that we can do that work within what we have but also add to that in a phisically responsible way so and there will also be need for some um teachers to teach English and math and science and social studies still because uh we're going to need to have those academic areas covered as well so and and also to one last point is we're focusing on the the manufacturing piece but we're talking um cyber security AI um avionics um all these different things that we could potentially have and building facilities that can pivot and adjust as the world changes and jobs change as well so

116building a laboratory that um May uh focus on avionics today um but spaceships tomorrow that rigorous uh course environment for all of our students as well so you're getting to get the job training but you're also going to get highly rigorous content as well as AP courses and you know so how you choose which way you might want to go to college but hey if you have this IND industry certification in welding maybe you can walk work on the side while you're going to college or if you don't you can say I want to do nurs Nur in and you go through this program and you're like uh nursing's not my my fit or you go through nursing and you realize I could be a doctor and because of the uh increased in rigor and

117responsibility so we want to make sure that's a focus as well too it's not just the careers but it's also the academic preparation sorry I had one question boy look at that little rabbit holy went down it's good anything I'm done okay yes so uh bird she may chirped into my ear we better get through the project delivery options for you in your District so there are three project delivery methods that the uh School District or any entity that's getting Public Funding are allowed to do uh the construction manager as advisor contract a CMA a construction manager at risk contract the CMR and the general contractor contract design bid build so two of these have been done for a long long time CMA the top one and GC or design bid build the bottom one

118a year and a half two years ago uh construction manager at risk was brought on as an option and we'll just go through and describe these real quick for you and uh we'll let you know kind of what the recommendation is and go from there so uh CMA once again that is an advisor uh where the owner chooses their construction professional you can do that immediately um the CMA is the owner's consultant through design construction and completion design being the key component here the CMA competitively bids all work through organized bid packages and so that means that's really important that means that your local contractors uh and local uh businesses will have the opportunity to do any and all of the work uh the CMA delivery method can save money and assure quality design and

119construction the CMA delivery method can expedite your schedule and the CMA in this instance cannot uh self-perform construction activities or or contract with the contractors okay uh the delivery of this method the owner engages the CMA of their choice the CMA develops the request for proposal documents for design firms at some point very soon we need to get an architect and a design firm on and then manage that selection process of the design team uh the owner contracts with the design firm of their choice to vitalize the team meaning uh the CMA LS construction would be on the team with the architect of that's chosen and then uh we go through the design process and then uh the second item there CMA leads and manages the design and CMA develops bid package and leads through

120the construction process okay under a CMR it's very very similar to a CMA uh owner can pick the construction professional through a lengthy process that's one difference it has to go through a competitive process which takes quite a bit of time uh the CMR is the owner's consultant through design the CMR still competitively bids out all the work uh so local uh contractors and businesses can bid on the work CMR delivery method saves the money CMR delivery method can expedite your schedule CMR can self-perform construction activities so we would be the CMR would be the bidding would be bidding possibly against other contractors okay this delivery method uh the owners are required to go through a fairly lengthy like I mentioned RFQ and RFP process to choose a CM okay uh the owner then engages

121cm of their choice CMR develops RFP documents owner contracts with the design firm CMR assists in the design and budgeting process the CM develops bid packages and manages the bid process and then leads it through construction so the only difference really or the couple of differences between the CMA and CMR is you have to go through a competitive process that's fairly lengthy and you don't get a uh see them on board as soon as um as soon as you would like to then the G GC we'll talk about that a little bit general contractor this has kind of been the tried and true where we bid it so you cannot pick your construction professional uh you're required to pick the lowest bidder and uh the GC is not involved in the design or the preconstruction

122um of your career center uh the delivery is the owner engages a design firm through a process the design firm designs a project the GC bids a project and then the low GC builds it so you're required to contract with the low construction professional uh why CMA for the Cedar Rapids career Readiness program the number one thing is time as Dr Grover mentioned there's uh communities around here are working diligently on their programs I think the Cedar Rapid school district has a distinct um opportunity to be the the best to be frank you have a large quantity of students three high schools and the ability to impact four high schools sorry thank you to impact a tremendous amount of kids within your own District but you are centralized and what's happened with the Rejuvenation of

123the downtown can easily happen with the rest of this community and so that is anyway I got off on a little bit of a tangent but time is still important uh to get this done because when you think of seventh and eighth graders or freshmen how many kids are we G to miss if we don't get done this done fast and also can you you know we want to be a leader so moving on CMA provides the ability to Fast Track a quality design and in an expedited fashion and I want to focus on the quality it is is so vital and important to do this right the first time so there is definitely going to be some give and take some of the what Chad and Adam have had we're gonna have the same

124thing because I'm the person that want we need to do it right the impact needs to be as great as possible and we can do that quickly but we can't get the cart in front of the horse as my grandpa used to say um so time is a big one project uh budget and project scope that needs be determined swiftly uh but the scope needs to be correct and the budget needs to be determined um there's a lot of moving Parts as most as everybody in the here knows with the um elementaries that need work the upcoming Bond referendum and what we do here so that needs to be sorted out and we need to know what we're talking for budget and along with that comes scope uh quality again I keep going back to

125Quality but the correct construction for each program in space uh and choice you choose the construction professional so them are the four things that I would recommend CMA uh for your uh project here and we would just love to get on board and be honored to start leading this process and it needs to happen soon because if we don't get started the programming and all this that you that Adam's been working on is great but to be frank the design and construction of these facilities to get it right takes more time than the programming no yeah no but it's you know so we are talking you know Stones we're talking brick and mortar and we need to do it right the first time and that takes a lot of planning and uh it's going to

126be a wonderful collaboration effort because um you know we're as passionate about this as you are and so we're looking forward to that um what was one other thing I was going to add to this do you remember all right that that I guess we have oh I have the one thing I like to read off this is this is close this is North Liberty and so this is on the verge of being a little sales but this is a quote that I absolutely love and uh Larson construction has gone Full Throttle navigated around a nasty spring and essentially turned what could have been a potentially year-long project and about a six to seven month job they didn't have to embrace this they didn't have to push as hard as they pushed they could have

127said no we can't do it but they've really jumped on board with us and are going to make this happen for our kids what they build here will leave a legacy and that's what we're going to do here so awesome that was in the newspaper so we didn't ask for that I have a question probably for a Chad um what are the district procurement requirements when we're looking at like bidding out and stuff I mean I guess I'm a little confused between like CMA and CMR and um seems to me that someplace in there we're required to go through so many bids and then lowest reasonable and responsible sure so according to um the way the the laws are written with CMA you can engage with a contractor to have them come on as a

128consultant and help you with that process um they the negative or the uh the caveat to that is they can't personally perform any of the work and so we're still going to bid out all of our work and take low bid on that um and then we would hold those contracts for each of those packages um for that um project um CMR there would be um it's it's very similar to how we engage with a a um an architect firm um same kind of process when we do CMR uh we do an RFP and we take them on their um quality of work and and their interview and then we can select that um person um the CMA does allow us to to expedite our choice according to the way that's written okay thank you

129y um and then my second question is you know I I believe in this work and I I do believe in the citizens of Cedar Rapids I really do think that the community wants what's best for students and that understanding that students are community members and and would' like to keep them as community members so I I really do um believe that people have hope and will invest in our students I I'm curious what happens to this plan if the referendum does not pass the Bon so we are going to be looking at our our buckets of money and we're going to be looking at how we can um strategically fund this project um through um the money that we have right now um whether that be P um or a little bit of both

130save and P while continuing with the elementary plan um the timeline that we have 25 and 26 uh we are um we can't wait for the bond to be able to do that because we need to be um um designing and and planning our facilities while these guys finish up um what they're doing and the reason that's so important is because of the fact that we need to make sure the facilities we we build in our schools are going to serve the programming that we're we're building so having someone that has has experience in building facilities like this to be able to answer or ask those tough questions even like today when we were at wash and Jeff and the the questions that came up about um our facilities in general it's important to have

131someone on board that can answer those those questions um for us did I answer your question yes thank you is there any plan um or thought around asking our specifically our business Community but our community to to essentially um fund raise for some of this cost yeah do you want to answer that one or yeah go oh sorry so we've been engaged with economic Alliance recently um putting the numbers together I think that that's why it's so important to do this in a on Parallel tracks together so we can get a right number to that community and how I think we've been told there's really good interest to support it um but having right numbers that we can paint a vision for with Clarity um will be really important so walking along those two sides

132um just that conversation alone surface the need to have expertise alongside of us to say if we do X it's going to cost y um and so we can feel confident when we say hey we need X number of dollars we can stand behind that um and that the donors will have confidence in that as well and our neighbor to the north also shared with us that um they were also feeling this through when they wanted wanted to First build the College and Career Center up in waterl and they specifically said if you build it you will have uh businesses that will want to be a part of this um because they see the importance of creating a Workforce that would not only go into their field but also stay here in Iowa and be

133the next generation and then uh so we've met and actually you guys set it up me met with the economic Alliance and then uh we member of that and gonna Reach Out directly Doug Newman was gonna try to do lunch today but uh and yeah we we need the it's good timing we need people um within our businesses all of them so and and it's exciting to have young young people and yep I'll just end with that but I I would add the conversations we just had today with Travis and the principals walking those schools it was permission giving or when we talk about buyin um the principles talked in sounded differently when we talked about space because they knew that there was a professional in the room who knew how to do the things

134we were talking about um and it was gave me great confidence to say no this is this is real this is this is gonna happen we're going to do big things here um and having him alongside of us on that Journey there is a level of permission giving for people to dream bigger to to have confidence and to buy into something because they know it's real um and it's going to get started any other questions okay thank you Adam Chad and Travis we we appreciate all the information it's a lot to absorb I think um we're all pretty excited about what the future brings here for this so um is there a motion now to close the work session and return to the regular board meeting so move a second second all in favor say

135I I those oppose same sign for the ease of the directors we're going to stay in this arrangement we have have one last action item left for our regular meeting do we have a motion to approve the agreement between the Cedar Rapids Community School District and Larson construction for the 2023 through 2025 school years so move is there a second this is a roll call vote I I director tinsky I director humbles I director Newman I director buyers I president Garlock I is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so move second second all in favor say I I those oppose same sign We Stand adjourned at 739 thank you for