September 22, 2025 School Board Meeting

001Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] We'll go ahead and call to order our board meeting on September 22nd, 2025. Can we take roll call, please? >> Miss Atkins, >> here. >> Mrs. McDaniel, >> Mrs. Peterson, >> here. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> here. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Sturm >> here. >> Mr. Rick >> here. Approval of the September 2020. Approval of the September 22nd, 2025 agenda. Can I get a motion to approve, please? >> Motion to approve. >> Vote, please. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. accommodations. Good news. >> Uh, so I do have a little presentation. Just a couple

002slides here. Uh, so we have uh Oh. Oh, this it's coming. There we go. Just faked this out. >> Okay. Uh, so go ahead. So, of course, we had homecoming. So, that was by and large um, uh, resounding success again. So, um, of course we do a lot of cool things here. People ask like, "Okay, what does what does Lewis Central do for homecoming?" Because, you know, we don't necessarily have a main street. We don't have a parade, but we have, you know, we have a almost like a high school parade where we have the high schoolers go around to each building. They walk through the halls. Um, the band will play a song. The cheerleaders do a dance or do a do a cheer. Dancers might do a dance. Um, the football players go

003around from school to school. Um, we take several buses to get them around and it it really is a lot of fun. Um, I'll tell you, I got, you know, three little girls and uh to one at one in each building from middle school, Titan Hill, and Craft and and it's kind of fun cuz every one of them felt like, you know, homecoming was a big deal. Even my kindergartenner was like excited to do all the dress up days and excited. And she actually knew she was schooling me on the school fight song. Um, on Thursday night when I was driving around to activity, she's in the back seat just singing the school fight song and I started singing along. She's like, "That's not right. That's not right." And I'm like, "So, apparently I don't

004know it very well, but my 5-year-old does, so I got to I got to learn from her." Um, so yeah, it was just a lot of fun uh culmination. We had two great things at the end. We had uh we won the football game, and that was an really exciting football game. And then we also um had a very um non-eventful dance. So, that's almost more exciting than the eventful football game that we won. So, anytime I text and I said, "So, how was the dance?" It's always like a stare at it for a while and then finally send it like, "Okay, how was the dance?" And they text back, they're like, "No issues, quiet." I'm like, "Yes, that's the way I like to hear it." So, it's not always the case. But, uh, uh,

005so yeah. So, it was good. Go to the next one. Uh so Asher uh is again I feel like every year this isn't supposed to happen every year at schools but for another year we have another MA National Merit Scholarship uh semi- finalist. So uh congratulations to Asher um what a great accomplishment and for all of his teachers and and um even peers who have helped him uh get to this point. So uh pretty awesome. And then I want to give a shout out to the PTA. Uh I know they do a lot. Booster Club does a lot. I mean, there's a lot of people that that do a lot of extra work for for our schools. Um, one of the coolest things the PTA does is they make sure that every student um in

006in elementary both at Craft and Titan Hill um have something that's Lewis Central to wear. And so every year they go out and get donations. And like I said, these kids don't pay a dime for these. They're all donations. and we make sure that every student is given a Titan Nation shirt um when you walk through the door. I think it's fantastic because we talk about, you know, we're not necessarily a town, so it takes a little bit more effort to kind of get that get that feeling of of that this is a a home district, that this is, you know, get that school pride up. Um and so one of the things we do is we make sure that every student that walks through our doors, uh is they we know they're a Titan

007now. They get to wear a shirt that says they're a Titan. So, thank you very much the PTA um for uh doing that and uh making that happen every year. And it's funny cuz these kids will wear these shirts year round all the time. You know, they they put them on. My my daughter's uh I was lucky. I bought one when when Raleigh last year before she even came here and so she wears her uh gray one from last year all the time as well. So, um so it's just that's just a really nice thing that they do. So, uh, on top of those things, uh, we have we're kind of in the middle of fall activities. Um, tennis is wrapping up their season. Um, they they didn't have any individual state qualifiers, but they

008are going on Wednesday, they go to Walke Northwest. They won their first round of districts over uh, Thomas Jefferson. Uh, but then they'll go to Walke Northwest on Wednesday to try to qualify as a team. uh boys and girls cross country. I think we've won or been in the top two or two to five in every single meet. Um Evan Lily and Kevin uh Coots have both uh won individual meets. Maline Hos and uh Delena Reese have both um this year taking turns breaking the school record. It's like, you know, I think uh Delena broke it last year and then Maline broke it this year and then Delena broke it again and I think Meline broke it again. So they kind of go back and forth. So, uh they just happen to it seems like

009every meet we run into uh the same uh the same couple girls that are state champions. So, but I think all four of them will have a great chance to uh qualify as individuals and then we're really hoping we have conference uh next week. We're really hoping to win conference in both boys and girls. So, uh that'll be an exciting way to uh leave the Hawkeye 10 is to win those win those championships. Swimming, uh we just had our first dual meet. We've had a couple big meets um uh in which we've competed very well. Uh but we just had our first dual meet uh with uh and we did win that uh dual meet on September 18th. Football started off two and two uh started off with losing to a couple rank uh ranked

010teams by three points in each game and then turned around and won the last two games. And just uh Mr. Germany asked me to remind everybody to just breathe a little bit because both times that we won the state championship, we started off the year four and four. So or or two and two. So it's okay. You can lose a couple in the middle or in the beginning and find yourself and continue to do really well. So season's not lost. We're doing very well. I'm excited to see us continue to roll. Uh volleyball uh we are undefeated in conference so hoping to uh win that as well and qualify for state. Uh golf we are very young uh but we are competitive. Remember we kind of play a MRC schedule right now because there's no

011no Hawkeye 10 teams that play golf in the fall. So we play an MRC schedule right now but we're not in the MRC. So we don't really have a conference golf tournament or anything like that to play in. Uh but we do in two weeks we will go to Fort Dodge for districts. Uh again, we're just we're just very young, but we got some really promising uh young players. Um marching band, they had their first competition this last Saturday, uh which they took third that was at Millard West. And that is just that was that is like the opening weekend for like every big marching band that's out there. And so the fact that we walked away with the third place finish is pretty phenomenal right off the bat. Um and then both our fall

012play and our show choir, all of our activities, um they're all just getting running. So off and running. It's it'll be it's going to be a busy fall. Already has been. So, but it's fun. So, anybody else have anything to add? Um, I guess I'd like to thank all the staff that did put in all the time and effort, you know, from maintenance of roping off the new grass to, you know, the transportation department. Uh, just being flexible on the fly because things changed in the last 24 hours. Um, like to say thanks for the alumni to show that showed up to the tailgate. Um, that was pretty cool to get started. Hopefully that continues on. >> Yeah, we had some alumni get get involved this year and help out and do quite a bit

013of work with that. They're doing some fundraising and just anything they can do to help make the experience better for everybody. So, >> absolutely. >> Any other commendations? Good news. >> Okay, then we'll move to comments and suggestions. This is the first section of our meeting that we open the floor to the public or the the virtual public uh that may be watching the meeting to see if they have any comments and suggestions for the board to receive. Okay, we'll give it a minute. Okay, we will move on to the consent agenda. Do we have any updates? >> Yes, there is an updated personnel sheet. Few ads on there. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >>

014yes. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Yes. Report 6.01 curriculum instruction and assessment report. >> Okay. So, mine is going to be just a a followup from um oops, I pulled the wrong one here, but a followup from our board priorities and then bringing that over to our DT. Hope this is the right one. Put September. Okay. So, we started our DLT meeting, and this was just a week or so ago, but this is kind of how we started it by just showing them kind of the flow. So, we're taking our district uh vision and priorities down to the DT, which will then trickle down to building leadership team. And then I really want people to see the whole

015system and how everything impacts everything instead of separate things. So then you can see here's our there flows down to our teacher leaderships uh system that supports the goals which can tie into then our teacher goals. Um and all of this is anchored in things like our Danielson instructional uh framework. We've got a playbook that's come along our curriculum and all of that is to support student achievement. So uh we took the board priorities. So as you guys recall there's a couple different umbrellas. The only one we didn't bring to the group was the umbrella of that was the finance and facilities one. Um the other two was climate and culture and opportunities and access. And then as you guys recall there were several categories within those. So um we asked the group a couple

016different questions. Uh we asked them which of these topics or metrics feels the most important for students right now? Uh where do you feel strong connections to work are already underway? So that kind of kicked us off and got them talking to each other just to kind of ground themselves and some of the work and what's important to them. Um, and then we went through a dot voting process where we put all of them. So there were seven different categories total. Uh, put them up on the wall. Everybody had four votes. And so they could vote however they wanted, but they had to at least pick one thing under climate and culture and one thing under opportunity and access. They couldn't take all four for one category. Um, this just kind of talks through that.

017So, um, again, just asking them to pick pick one to two items. They could split up their dots as they saw fit. Um, and it was really interesting. I wasn't sure where this would go. I mean, I kind of had a guess based on some work we were doing, but um, it was really clear. Here you can see um, the winners. Um it was overwhelmingly uh literacy under the opportunity and access umbrella and then student behavior safety under the climate and culture. Um here's how the votes shook out. You can see there for um student behavior and safety 36. The next closest was four. Um and then literacy under opportunity and access um the next closest was three. So um that felt good that everybody was kind of on the same page for the most

018part. Um, somebody had said after the meeting, she said, you know, I don't know if we would have been this close several years ago, but I think we've just laid enough of a foundation and we've been working towards some of these things that it was nice to kind of see, you know, so much of the focus on on the same things. Um, we did talk to them about the other things on the list. It doesn't mean that they're not important or that, you know, buildings still aren't tracking some of these things. It's just that DT won't have the focus of keeping track and and doing some of these things. So BLTs might still um be keeping track or looking at some of these things, but DT is just going to really zoom in and focus

019on those two things. Um so after that then we took a look at like what are some things that we're already doing in the district and how can we make connections. So, I had started a list, but then it was fun to see them add to the list and come up with all the other things that they feel like we're doing in the district that connects to those goals. So, you can see there's a lot of good work under way. And I really wanted people to walk away and feel like just because we have identified these as priorities doesn't mean we are like changing everything we're doing. Um, it's more of just we're streamlining some of the things that we're doing where we're going to use some of these things when we come back next

020to help us create what our smart goal is and then look at like what are going to be some of our lead and lag measures based on some of the work that we do and then see like are there any gaps? Do we need to do anything different or or add anything that's not there. Um, so here's where we're going next for DT. Again, like I just said, we'll continue to connect these priorities again to things that we're already doing. There's lots of connections. So, as you guys know, um this is the first year where everybody is using the Danielson framework. Um there's one component within that framework called managing student behavior. So, like how fitting to focus on that one this year because that connects to um student behavior and safety. Um we will

021be determining as DT like what are our shared metrics? So, what are we going to look at for literacy and student behavior? What's DT going to monitor and look at progress? And you hope at the end of the day that you're constantly looking at these lead and lag measures because if things aren't going in the direction that you want, then you know which ones to push um and which ones are are going well. Um the next thing is uh we really want those priorities to be the through lines for professional learning. So you know there's different vehicles for professional development dollars or just different processes for thinking about professional learning. Um, but we want these priorities to be things that we're constantly coming back through to to think about how do we refine our supports,

022our plans to support these two big big priorities for us. Um, and then it's worked out really well because we already planned a book study for our district leadership team and that book study is about leading professional learning communities and like the very first chapter talks about going from the boardroom and the board selecting priorities to how does that trickle down to district leadership teams. So, um, it'll be fun to to read that and be able to put it in action at the same time. So, um, that's the gist of the the work that we did. Um, it feels good to kind of be on the same page and then again, next steps will be come up with some smart goals and then help buildings figure out how to how to trickle that down and

023just keep doing some of the good work and making connections for people. >> Anything else you would add, Brett? >> Uh, no. The only thing uh just to reiterate with the board, one of the one of the ways we're tackling strategic planning is by creating uh at least one major goal under each one of you guys's um priority list. So again, even though those other items on there you guys mentioned and things that you guys would be interested in seeing some data on aren't ne I mean, we'll still focus on those. We'll still collect data on those. Um but we have to have a direction when we move forward like any company does. is you have to be able to pick some solid goals that you can really focus on. And and so that'll be

024as we move forward, those will be the areas that that we're going to focus on. So literacy and then student behaviors, um literacy is the foundation for all those other uh other areas, academic areas, uh post-secondary areas, etc. Um and then on and the third one which is finance and or finance and facilities that's where our district leadership team will not the one that's more ERC focused um we'll come up with you know some uh one or two uh goals in relation to facilities and um and finance. So so we'll come up with those. So we told told the teachers they didn't have to focus on those. They're like I don't even know what to put. like don't worry we'll get we got those. So um so yeah again still focus on everything there is

025to do with school but when it comes down to what our priorities and that helps us when we have to make funding decisions when we have to make decisions regarding staffing or anything like that to have some clear priorities so that way we know what direction we need to go. Do you guys, based on your guys's uh recollection of how our strategic planning meetings went, do you would you agree with those two as kind of being um kind of the headliners for what we're going to focus on? >> Okay. >> I'm thankful that they align with each other though. That is pretty outstanding. >> I know. I was like, what a sight really. >> You have like Nice balance. It's not an imbalance. It was nice to see. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you, Dr. Hartman.

026>> Okay, we'll move on to 6.02 finance report. >> Uh, so this was also included in your board packets, but here is our um expenditures uh through August of 2025 to our certified budget comparison. Um obviously still a very slow start in July and August. Um as with uh teacher salary contracts the way they fall, we don't start paying those technically until September according to our budget. So um the numbers will start to grow drastically uh next month when you get your report, but so far everything is looking like it is falling into place on where it should be. So, uh, in September or I guess just last Monday, we finalized our C, our special ed report and our transportation report. Um, so here are our key financial metrics um for fiscal year ending FY25.

027Uh the goal that I have listed there is based on our board policy 701.5R1. Um our unspent authorized budget ratio. Um we have been increasing it still working towards that goal of 10 to 15%. Um but we did have a pretty good increase. Once again we went from 2.6 million to 3.6 million. Um so that percentage there is just shy of 8%. So, a couple more years and we should uh be in that 10 to 15% um goal. The unspent authorized budget net of our restricted fund categorical balances uh you want that to be 0 to 5%. Obviously, uh we were very far off from that, but we are making some pretty drastic strides uh towards that. Um but obviously uh with that we want to continue to be very planful in how we spend

028our categorical balances. Um we don't want to hire a bunch of employees that once we have those categorical balances uh spent that we then have to get rid of and we just want to make sure that when we are spending those funds down that they are things that we actually can continue um with. Uh the last one is our solveny ratio. Uh we are just in that 24% which uh that uh we've kind of held steady as you can see over the last few years. Um but with that we also don't want to go and do a lot of spending when we are also trying to increase our unspent authorized >> and explain explain to them what the solveny ratio is. So the solveny ratio would be our total fund balance over our total revenues

029in the general fund only. Um so right now our solvent our uh fund balance is just a little over 9 million and our uh revenue is around uh 42 million putting us right at that 24%. So that is where we just want to try to continue to keep that pretty stable until we're able to spend it down once we have the authority to spend it. In my opinion, our unspent balance increasing and getting up to that goal is more important at this point and then we'll start to work on that solveny ratio. uh we aren't uh levying cash reserve which we keep increasing this. We haven't levied cash reserve uh in those five years that are up there. So that is one thing that obviously the board hasn't done to continue to increase it and

030just trying to uh spend it down as we can. >> And again this is all general fund expenditures. It's not it's not facility money. It's not you know it's it's just general fund expenditures. So, uh, one of the things when when Andrea got here and then when I came shortly after, just a reminder, they went from the district had unspent authorized budget. That's how much the state allows you to spend every year. Like that's that's the carryover of what the state allows you to spend. You can have all the cash in the world, we could have $10 million sitting in the bank and if we don't have the authority to spend it by the state, which the authority is given to us on a per pupil basis, um, then we can't spend it. And so

031we have to, it's almost like a credit card balance. Like we we you want to have a a uh a lot of equity out there. Like you want to be able to spend it because if something bad were to happen, you need the ability to be able to spend some money. And so when we came, there was only $167,000 that was sitting in that. And so to go from $167,000 to 3.6 6 million in a period of how long you been here, six years >> is is pretty pretty phenomenal. So, somebody asked me uh somebody in this room asked me, I won't say who, but asked me, you know, what happens when we get there? Like, what happens when we get to, you know, 10 to 15%. Which is for people listening, you know, 5

032to5 million. What happens when we get there? Well, when we get there, then we'll strategically spend. Okay? And when I say strategically spend, right now we are making do with a lot of a lot of things like we don't have for instance an SRO. We have a security officer. We don't have um you know maybe we're a little short in the maintenance department. Maybe you're a little short in you know we could well part of it space too. You know we don't have enough classrooms so we can't expand teachers. And so, um, but once those things are fixed and by the time we get to 5 a.5 million, we'll probably be in need of a new school at that time. And so, I'm not going to rush to go out and spend money more or

033less because if we end up building a new school, we're going to need some capital because our our class sizes are going to go down, which is what we want. We don't want 26, 27, 28 kids in a class. We want more like 22 23 in a class. Well, just by having more teachers that's going to spend that extra money. So, it's it's strategic. We're not going to run off. But there is a there is an endgame just so people understand. But right now, it's kind of like uh if any of you guys ever subscribe to like Dave Ramsey, like we used to do dams with Arab Ramsey and Dave state like you need to get your savings to, you know, you need three months in the bank, which is essentially what 10 to 15%

034is. You need three months in the bank as fast as possible. you know, and that's what you need in case there's a rainy day and you need something happens. And so, uh, that's kind of what we've been focused on the last four years is we got to get that rainy day fond up otherwise we're we're going to be in trouble. Like the state comes through with a big cut, you know, we can't afford to lose teachers right now. Um, we need to weather the storm. And so, we're getting we're getting to a point where we're going to be able to weather. Um, I feel much better now than I did when I first rolled in here and was told we had less than a half million dollars and I said, "Oh, I left a district

035a third of the size that had a fourth of the size that had $3.8 million." So, I was like, "That's we got to we got to do some work." And so, Andrea's done a great job and and uh um we're getting there. So, it'll just take a little bit more time. >> So, thank you, Andrea. >> It's really really quick. It's really encouraging to see the the trend that we have right now. So, when it first came on, you showed me that when I was at the training and I was like, whoa. >> But to see it four years ago and then now it's it's pretty wonderful. >> Yeah. >> Uh and then last week uh Thursday uh school board uh director election paperwork were due. So we have seven candidates that are listed up

036there. Uh early voting starts on October 15th and the election day is November 4th in the polling hours will be from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And I believe well I guess it wouldn't be for our candidates yet but >> well they will >> yeah I was at the courthouse they had everything set up but it would be for early voting for uh that but the early voting will start on October 15th >> Yep. And then I think the chamber is also planning on doing a um a forum of some sort. So, if you are on that list, um, you're interested in, uh, we'll be on the lookout for an email. >> October 22nd. >> Is that the date they say? Okay. October 22nd. So, you write that down. >> So, >> and the reason

037why I remember that is it's my anniversary. >> Oh, perfect. Looks like you guys are going to have a hot date at the old uh I guess you don't have to. >> So, okay. Okay, then we will move on to I'm sorry, Andrea, were you done? >> Yes, that's all I have. >> We'll move on to 6.03 superintendent report. Uh just got a variety of things. Um so this year when we started the year, I just kind of want to re-emphasize, you know, all the different safety measures that we took uh through this summer's work um by putting on the um the safety vestibule at at CF. uh all new cameras at CFREF which actually they just helped us. We had a little bit of vandalism happen down there last week and so that was

038awesome to be able to catch it um with the new cameras. Um some new door access systems. Um we're going to very soon have um cameras in our parking lot in our high school parking lot with license plate readers. So we're going to be able to kind of read who's coming and going. Um, we're also going to, as we progress forward, the next steps for next summer will be to continue to replace, we got a good fair amount of cameras that just don't really are kind of not great, like don't function. It's kind of like seeing through like a fog. Uh, we need to replace those cameras. You know, they go bad after five, six, seven years. Uh, so we replace those cameras and then we'll also um put in those door sensors, those door

039um at every exterior build, every exterior door throughout the building so that way if a door is propped open open during the time it's not supposed to be, etc. that we will be notified uh that that happens. We're also talking to the company about for some high frequency doors or doors that are kind of hidden. Um making sure that that they either have card readers for staff to be able to exit the doors because even if a staff walks out during the same time, it's not, you know, they need to be able to delineate between a staff member and a student, but then also an audible alarm uh so we know when when kids uh come through and and leave the door. So, um, so that's one of the things we're looking at. Uh, also

040Raptor. So, Raptor, uh, is a emergency notification system. Sorry, my computer timed out here. That was not There we go. It's computer. It's a It's a couple different things. One is an app. So, on the app, you can go ahead and anybody that has the app can go ahead and initiate a response. You can do a lockdown. You can do a shelter in place. you can do um and evacuate. You know, there's there's different options you can do. And then it ties to strobes that are in every every room throughout all of our buildings that then flash the color of the response that you're supposed to have. Okay. Um and then also we're tying in this week to and it's all been in phases. We're tying this week into our um screen capture. So, if

041somebody sets off one of those, then every screen uh that's hooked up to our uh system will go through and it'll just be blank and it'll tell you it'll give you some some uh um response as well. And then, um along with it is a badge. So, everybody has a badge that if you click it a few times, it does roen response. If you click it more times, it does other responses. um all the way to um setting off a response that will then go straight to the emergency um management and to our 911 dispatchers and that'll tell them that we have a need for somebody up the buildings right away. So it's not even, you know, gone are the days where, you know, if I see something, I got to go find a phone

042or I got to get to the office and I got to call and then I got to hope somebody's there and they can make a phone call to get somebody to come up. Now I push a button a few times and and bingo like everybody is notified at once. And so um we're kind of doing it slow. It's a slow phase in. They do it a like a tapered phase in because we've already had some false alarms. And so if it was already tied into the emergency management, they'd be driving cars up like crazy. So um so I want to make sure that people are used to it, understand it, and then we'll um phase that in. So that's exciting. So, we're getting there. Um, playgrounds. So, playground update. Uh, and I'm going to mix

043some of just general facilities of my update and then I do have uh project advocates here and they're going to talk more about um where we currently sit with some of our inrocess projects and then kind of what next steps are. So, playgrounds um the one at Crept uh is supposed to be done on Wednesday now. So, they had a they had an issue. There's a part of the playground is a mound where kids can climb up on this mound and then they just apparently like to climb hills and stuff. So, it's a hill. So, they tried to make the hill out of like a foam and and it wasn't didn't work. So, then now they have to now they're going to make it out of a different material. So, apparently though by Wednesday it's

044going to be done. I'm actually planning a a semi- ribbon cutting on Thursday morning before like right when school starts um to make sure that they finish it because if I'm going to have a ribbon cutting, it needs to be done. So, if any of you guys can make it, we'll probably do uh we'll probably plan that for like 9:00 a.m. on Thursday. U we got to make sure kids get in and get settled and then we'll do a 9:00 a.m. kind of ribbon cutting there. I was going to wait to do Titan Hill and and Craft at the same time, but Titan Hill, they're probably not going to be done until the end of October because they're like doing a phase in where as soon as they're done with the turf at Craft on

045Wednesday, they're going up to Titan Hill and doing the turf on the musical playground to the small playground. And then when that's done, then they move over to the turf field and the Gaga Ball Pits. And then when that's done, then we they'll allow us to have all of our kids out on those two playgrounds. And then they'll move on to the to the big playground and they'll shut that one down. So when the big playground's all done, then that's when we'll go back and and uh uh have kind of a ribbon cutting up there. So kind of two different ribbon cutings, but I don't want Craft to wait until Titan Hill's done. And we're not going to wait for the ribbon cutting till Titan Hill is done either. So um fireworks, I had a

046couple uh comments about spending money on fireworks at homecoming. Just first of all, those are all donated every year. We have a a generous he wants to rem remain not anonymous, but um we have a generous uh community member and parent out there who uh donates the fireworks every every time. He lights them off. He's got a uh license, so school is paying nothing uh for the fireworks. I do I do uh feed his guys a couple hamburgers and uh and uh chips and and waters from the booster club, but uh outside of that, the school does we we don't provide anything. But I do want to give a big kudos to them. They want to remain anonymous but anonymous but just thank you to them. And again, school doesn't pay a dime for it.

047It's all the uh the community and also we get permits for it. So everything is legal and up on the up and up. So um Titan Hill access road. So that's been that really is a blessing if everybody uses it correctly. We're having still having issues out there. If anybody wants to listen, if you are one of those that comes in the lane and wants to stay in the right lane, we can go in the left lane. We can get in the middle lane and you can drive all the way up. The other day I was stuck in the road and I'm like, why am I stuck on the road and I happen to glance up and it's because that that right lane goes all the way down, which would be technically the middle lane

048now, goes all the way down to to the entry and then nobody else can get in. And the left lane was completely open all the way to the top. So there's about 40 more cars that can get on Titan Hill lane if people would use the right lane and the left lane. And believe me, there's no difference in speed because how they let people go up at the top. It's that zipper function where they'll let the right side go and go pick up and then they'll stop the right side and then they'll let the left side go. So, if you think by staying in the right lane you're going to be sneaking up there quicker, that's wrong. You'll probably get there quicker if you went to the left lane and went to the front. So,

049please people listening, that's the lane only works if both drives are utilized. Okay, that's that's it. So, please make sure that we're using both of those. Um, buses. So, at the next board meeting, I hope to have uh some bus quotes for you guys. Um, it's just hard getting bus quotes. I don't know why they're pretty generic things. The price hasn't changed much from last time, but if you remember, they are pretty expensive uh uh purchases. Um so I'll bring two to you, one with AC and one without AC. So kind of phasing kind of phasing them in a little bit. So, um there is a difference of about $20 some,000 between air conditioning and non-air conditioning, but we really everybody really likes the the two air conditioned buses we have in the summer and

050they would love to have a third. So, um so looking at that, >> are they still 18 months out? >> Uh no, not as bad. More like eight. So, eight. Good. >> Yeah. That's why if we do it in October, there's a hope there's a good chance that we'll get them for next school year. So, um, certified enrollment date is October 1st. So, I'll know at the at the next meeting, uh, kind of what we're sitting at attendance-wise. Uh, the new fields. So, down here, down in the new property that we bought, we're looking to put in uh just some practice fields down there, basically grass, grass and and dirt in order to uh give the community and give our youth teams some more areas to practice, junior high team more areas to practice. Um,

051and they uh they just finally got approved. So, we're going to we're going to get going on those. Um, cell phones. This was another question that I had come up a couple times is people just ask how's it going with the new cell phone policy? And so, I actually was down with Mr. Vinadel uh end of last week and and he goes, "Hey, I want to show you something." And he pulls up his spreadsheet and he's got a spreadsheet of every infraction that has taken place so far this year. When I say infraction, this means that like, you know, I you had your phone out and so now I'm going to take it from you and I'm going to send it down to the office because you had it, you know, you're not supposed to

052have it out. So, what do we have them do is they put it at this just high school. We have them put it in a manila envelope and then we send the envelope down and then you can pick it up at the end of the day. Um, to date, now there's a thousand kids attend school. There are a thousand teenagers that attend school at that high school. There have only been 30 30ome individuals that have had infractions in the first 30 days of school. So that's really really pretty good. And out of those 30ome infractions, there were only a handful that were more than one infraction, which meant that it got sent down more than once. And there were only I think three or four individuals who ended up with some sort of of a

053suspension. And the reason they got a suspension was not due to a cell phone infraction, but remember if you flat out refuse to turn it over, it now becomes insubordination, which then results in a suspension. So, um, so really here, we thought we were going to have this giant battle at the beginning of school year, and so far, I mean, I'll I'll knock on this on this desk. It's been pretty really pretty really good and and a lot of really good comments both from our staff like that are, you know, excited to that that it's just taken away a ton of issues when it comes to cell phones and students too. You know, we'll talk to students and they'll say, you know, it's really not bad. Like it's it's fine. Like I actually find out

054that I talk a lot more to my friends and my classmates now that I don't have it. Um you know, they said it's it's gotten rid of a lot of the drama during school. Like you don't worry about it. One girl commented the fact that she had almost 90% of her battery left at the end of the day, which is very unusual. So, um, so really some positive things like that. Um, and then finally, if you guys look around, and this is for everybody online too, you'll notice that there are some pictures missing in here, and that is because we are uh going to be replacing the pictures that are in here now. So when you look around and then uh we have had some individuals whose kids were the ones that starred in these

055pictures and have asked for years if when and thankfully Anna has been around for years and so Anna's when I told her we're going to replace these pictures she said oh my goodness she goes I have a list that she's been keeping on her desk of people that for instance there was uh one over here the one of the graduate and so the graduate's parents really wanted that picture you know and um graduate's mom really wanted it. So anyway, there's some pictures like that that >> Ray Jones >> that has had some sentimental value and so I said, "Well, I said take it down and call her up, give it to her." And so again, I'll I'll be having uh Emma take pictures of all of these and we'll post them online and if people

056want to just come up and get them, we're not asking any money like they're just we just want them to go to a good home if somebody wants them. Um and so kind of first come, first serve. Okay. So, uh, Emma will be taking some pictures and putting them online and then people can come up and and pick them up and then we'll get these replaced with some more current pictures. So, that's it. Any questions for Dr. Hazing? Comments? Okay. Then we'll move on to 6.04 facility project updates. >> Okay. I've asked uh Mr. Brett to come up here and and kind of give us a brief update on where we currently sit with some of our projects that are yet in play. >> Okay. Well, we all know we made it through the summer

057pretty successfully with all the projects that we got done. Um we do still have three active projects going right now. Um the tennis courts at the high school, uh the surfacing for the uh play surface is going to be going down next week on that. Uh the fence is fully installed. The slabs are poured. They're kind of doing some sidewalk work now. And um so really that's pretty close to being complete. We just got to get the surfacing down, a little fine grading and some seating and put the nets up and that project will be coming to a close. Um the also at the high school, the addition that's going on at the front, we ran into a little snag with the permit issue with the city. Um there was some confusion. The city changed

058their policies on uh reviewing plans. Um the architect submitted them in June when it went out for bid and usually when you would submit them it gets into the review process right away. Well, the city's changed some policies with some new software they're using where they want you to pay an upfront plan review fee to even start looking at them. We were not informed of that and went to pick the permit up two weeks ago and found out that they hadn't even started reviewing them because the review fee wasn't paid, which the architect wasn't told it needed to be paid. So, um, but the good news is, uh, the footings are dug. They're waiting to be poured until we get the permit, and there's only one person left to review it in the the six

059person list of the city. So, hoping to have that this week, and and we'll get the footings poured. Um, the structural steel is showing up the first week, October. So, here in two weeks or so, you should start seeing a building go vertical to tie into the existing structure. Um, and just so everybody's clear, the plan with that project is through the end of this year, they're going to essentially build the shell, the addition shell. Um, do as much work as they can inside of that, but then they're going to shut down and pull off the project until spring. And then they'll come back, start doing some work on the interior of the addition side in the spring. And then come summertime, we'll punch into the existing space and tie it all together. So that

060that will sit for a few months kind of dormant. Um and then the third active project that's still going on is Titan Hill up here has the geothermal mechanical supplement going on. Um the boilers are installed uh in the room. um the fluid cooler that will be outside that is currently looking to ship out from the manufacturer on October 16th and then um but they will be back hopefully this week they're going to start doing some of the piping inside of the mechanical room just to have everything ready and um so that that's progressing well. We're just kind of waiting on the main equipment. So that's the active projects that are that are still going on here. Um, but we're already planning ahead for next year. Um, we're in much better position than we were

061uh last year at this time. Um, so as I go through these, these are kind of the major projects that will be happening next summer. Nothing's really changed from the list that we've always worked off of. Um, but uh, so like the high school still has about 40,000 square foot of roof yet to be replaced on it. Um the architects already getting started on those drawings, so we can get those out for bid hopefully end of October. We've got that out for bid. Um the high school also had the uh drive lane we were hoping to add to it. That may push a little longer out. We're waiting on the city with their highway expansion project and the intersection changing. So we might not get that in for a couple years to tell you the

062truth. But, um, Brent came up with a great idea that that we're currently getting some permit drawings drawn up for. We're going to take the old tennis courts and convert that to a parking lot and tie it into the the drive road that we just put in. We can get about 80 extra stalls in that spot. So, um, that's getting worked on so we can get that in for a permit approval. >> Um, >> homecoming really showed that we can use that additional money even though it's only temporary until they decide what they want to do with Harry Langden. It'll be >> Yeah, >> eventually there'll be a drive lane, but for now there's it's perfectly good asphalt for parking on. >> Might as well use it. So, um the high school will also receive

063a LED lighting upgrade, uh similar to what was done at Craft and Titan Hill. Um I've already got some meetings set up with, uh Voss Lighting, who's the supplier that did the other two projects. Um so, we'll be we're starting to get pricing working on that. Um, Titan Hill has a pretty good size uh, call it envelope renovation which is mainly going through the entire exterior of the building and replacing all the existing kind of rotted out rusted hollow metal window and door frames. Um, and and that'll include some door security and stuff like that. Um, and also it'll include, you know, reccocking the building, some tuck pointing, um, ju just repairs that are needed on the outside of that building. Uh, the good thing about what we're going to do, we're going to put

064back mainly all aluminum entrances, which are much better thermally. Um, the windows and stuff that are in there now are just hollow metal. They get cold, they sweat. Um, so you know, you'll be getting a much better system through that building. That is looking to be done uh with the design drawings uh mid to late October. So that'll be going out to bid hopefully by the end of October. Um, middle school paving and utilities project. Uh, that's a pretty big one. Uh, it's also in design already. Um, and that includes pretty much any hard surface you see around the middle school. Sidewalks, patios, entryways, like we're going to get all of it there. You know, up here we did a couple little extras because, you know, we kind of had to draw the line somewhere.

065But that job we we've decided to every bit of concrete, asphalt, whatever's there getting replaced. Included in that will be, you know, some storm utility work, um, some other things like that. Now, Bubba, I know you're waiting to ask. We have started some some more research on the sanitary system. We did a smoke test last Wednesday on it and um we we found four major items down on the lower portion of it. Um some of the manholes by the bus barn were just leaking smoke out of the sides and the curbs and grass and um and then we found a a open pothole line in the courtyard of the middle school. So, we found four major intrusion points for water getting into the sanitary. So, um that was just the first step of the inspection

066work. Now, we're going to go through do a good cleaning on all of them, inspect manholes visually, do camera work, isolate it in spots we know are bad where we're looking for things. So, we we've got the ball rolling on that and starting to find some good stuff. Not good stuff, but we're finding what we're looking for. Um and then kind of the last major project which a lot of you know about is the uh the middle school renovation which um we've had four meetings now I believe with the architect team and and I think we've got the scope narrowed down really good to what the project's going to consist of and I think we're going to have one final meeting just to kind of get a final yes or no. This is the route

067we're going and and they're going to really dive into the design work. So, um, so you know, we're in a a lot better position than last year. Um, the majority of all these projects should be out for bid by the end of this year, which will help us get good pricing as people try to load up work for next summer. Um, so we're really ahead of the game on things, I think. >> Good. Any other questions >> on the city permitting thing? Uh, when did they change their policy? in April. They they got some new software that uh allows you to electronically submit plans to them. Um it allows them to distribute it to all the different departments and you know who's approved it, who hasn't. Um and when they um apparently in April because

068I called them to ask what was going on. I've been doing work in town for years and years and this has never been a thing. It wasn't a thing on any of the permits we pulled this summer. Um, but yeah, apparently in April they enacted the the the prepayment for the plan review and and there wasn't really any notification about it or so just kind of a communication breach. I would say >> that was going to be my next question. Was there any notification? Okay, >> so >> thanks. >> Yep. All right. Thank you. [Music] >> That's it. You guys have any questions about facilities or anything like that? I'm just glad that they, you know, may not have found good stuff, but it's somewhere to >> we found something. That's that's, >> you know,

069I mean, we're shoot we've been shooting in the dark. >> So, at least we're aiming in the right direction. I think >> there was so much smoke coming into the school that they uh we actually had to send staff home just a little bit early. The kids were gone, but it was a deal. >> Even on Wednesday, kids left. There was the risk of you If you have floor drains or dry traps in a sink or anything in a building, we were blowing smoke in the pipes. >> If the interior plumbing has issues, smoke will get into the boat. We found some issues. >> Which is good. I mean I mean >> Yeah. Yeah. Let's get them all. I mean, if we're going to we're going to fix them, let's fix them all. >> So,

070>> any other questions, comments? Okay, we'll move on to 7.01 S SWIAC Apex consortium agreement. >> Uh so this is just a um for us to participate and potentially send students down to Apex down at Glenwood. Um we just need to be a part of cons of the consortium. We don't pay anything. It's just like Children's Square or Hartland Therapeutic. We don't pay anything unless we um have a have a student attend down there. So, >> any questions, comments? Okay, we'll move to 7.02 board policy series 300 administration second reading. >> Again, nothing's changed since the the last meeting. Um, so everything was pulled directly from IASB. Um, that was it. There were no no major changes. The only major change was on the one policy that had kind of organizational structure. That was it.

071It's just because some of our positions have changed a little bit. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> All right. Then we'll move on to 7.03 2026 summer high school HVAC mechanical controls. >> Uh so this is the control portion of what we're going to do next summer. Um optimized uh we'll do the following work. Um, so one, I don't know, maybe you can explain this. I don't know what the AHU is and the RTUs. >> Well, I guess I didn't really touch on that. >> Um, a project that's also being designed right now. The, um, the high school, we're going to do another round of mechanical upgrades there next summer. Um, it includes, um, replacing air handler one, which is the main one above the interior concession stand. It feeds like the entire from the offices,

072the cafeteria down the uh activities wing hallway, the band rooms. It feeds all that commons area. Um we're going to replace that unit. Um we're also going to replace um the four remaining units on top of the the small gym needs to get replaced, the wrestling room, and the two locker rooms. And those will come off of the chiller loop, similar to what we did with the weight room and the large gym. um helping the chiller perform even better. Um but then part of that package um is going to be all the VAV boxes which control the air temperatures per room um or area being fed off of air handler one uh their controls are obsolete dead frozen on the boxes. So all those rooms are stuck wherever they are when the controller died. they

073can they can't be adjusted or operated. Um, so we're gonna the the box is still good, but you can't control it. So, part of this package will include replacing the controllers on every single one of those units so that they can regain control of it and get the rooms to temperature and everything. Um, so the the optimized systems proposal is um not to replace them, but they're doing all the the integration, the commissioning, making sure everything is working correctly, uh, talking to the buildings control system. So, they're just there to integrate. >> Um, they have been a a huge help throughout the the last year with just all the systems we've been going through. Um they're usually my number one phone call for troubleshooting and issues and um so a great asset to the team

074of getting everything done. >> Would this be bond work or would it be under pepple save? >> Uh no, this is all bond work. >> Okay. >> So the motion the motion's wrong. I was I had I was on my way to a funeral when I was wrapping this up. So, >> but it would be for optimiz optimized systems for the 60,370. >> That is correct. Yep. >> Any other discussion? >> And when will this be? Next year. >> The work will be summer. >> So, next summer. >> Drawings are correct. So instead of lumping all of these controls into the actual purchase of the uh of the equipment, we just we have our own company where they do it separately with optimize. It's all in the same system. So you're either going to pay

075for it through these guys or you're going to pay for it through through the HVAC bids that come in. So >> but this is open-ended. >> This is open-ended. Correct. >> Yeah. So we're not tied to any >> right >> anybody in the future. >> Yep. >> Okay. We'll move on to 7.04 middle school renovation construction delivery method. >> So I asked project advocates come and present on this a little bit. Uh you guys have a little bit of a definition in the in the packet. Um, and so just kind of letting them uh kind of talk you guys through it a little bit. >> Hi, good evening. I wanted to walk through the three options we're considering for the middle school. At the last middle school design meeting, we started having the conversation and

076um sometimes it gets really confusing when you when you don't work in this every day. So, I wanted to show you the differences between the three options that are being considered. Uh, the first one is a lump sum design bid build. So this is a hard bid project and this is how we uh handled the roofs and the mechanical a lot of the early projects here the the parking lot replacement and what I showed was the organizational chart and then the lines are all the contractual relationships. So in in a lump sum design bid build, Lewis Central has a contract with us as your advisor. Um and then you have a contract with the architect and then after the bids, you'll have a contract with the general contractor who then has a lot of contracts

077with subcontractors. And then there's other miscellaneous vendors that have to be coordinated like the the security systems are likely are usually directly purchased by the school district and and so that's the the structure there. The construction manager risk you'll notice it's the exact same structure. So you you have the same contractual relationships um as a lump sum design bid build. You have one uh contract with the construction manager at risk and then they have all the subcontracts uh under their contract through you. The uh construction construction manager as agent. What what happens in that scenario is the construction manager now has a direct contract with Lewis Central as an agent and then Lewis Central would hold the biggest change is now Lewis Central would hold all the individual subcontracts with those subcontractors. So you you'd

078have a lot more contracts that you're holding. That construction manager is now an agent and um doesn't have any financial risk in the project. you're basically paying them for their uh expertise in managing the project from a site supervision and and project management side. So that's that's just a layout of the the three options and and how the contracts work. The next um slide uh I put together a comparison table of where we have factors on the left far left side and then the other three columns are the the three options lumpsum CMR and CMA. So we call construction manager at risk CMR uh construction managers agent CMA and so uh the first line the contract structure I just walked through and and how the differences there. So then we'll talk about risk allocation. And

079when I say risk, that's the the financial risk of a project. So um at at some point, and when you pay a contractor, you're paying the contractor one to provide supervision to write provide people to run the project. And then the next thing you're paying the contractor to do is to take risk. That now the risk of uh the project going over budget isn't on you, it's on them. That they're saying they're going to get it done for a fixed amount. And so that that risk is transferred and so they they earn a fee for that because they're taking on risk. So um in a lump sum project the the the highest risk is with the contractor as a construction manager at risk um contract there is more risk assumed by the construction manager at

080risk. They are setting a guaranteed maximum price uh for the project. Now, um, why I say more but not high is that when they set a guarantee maximum price, they typically, uh, put in some contingencies to cover unknowns where in a hard bid, they may have contingencies, they may not, but you don't really care because they're signing up for one number at a when a CMR sets a GMP, they're going to they're going to want a a contingency in that to cover some of their risk. and the construction manager as agent approach the risk allocation now is shifted to the high-risisk the owner because now you Lewis Central would hold all the subcontracts. So if there are any cost issues with the subcontracts um the construction manager doesn't have any risk for that. It's all

081born by Lewis Central which is um you know similar to when we bid out the parking lot. um the the school district was at risk if there were any big uh overages or or anything that came up that was unforeseen that was on Louis Central. So the next factors owner control over the project. Um with lump sum the owner has a lot of uh control and say during uh the design period but then once construction starts and once the contractor starts their work you're essentially handing over the control and the risk that that goes with the risk. uh with construction manager at risk. Again, it's high during design. Um and you would still have some control, but still not as much because that construction manager is taking risk and so they're going to have um

082more control of of how the project is is run. And then uh construction manager agent as an owner, you have high uh control during design and construction because now you're holding those contracts. So you can direct the people to do whatever you want. So you have high control the timing of services. So when you would start this this relationship with the um the management company, the construction firm as a general contractor that starts when you uh accept the low bid. As soon as you take the low bid and you contract with them, that's when the their services would start. Uh with a construction manager at risk, that firm is engaged during design development or during the design process and they'll provide input during the finalization of the design. So, um, with the middle school, they

083would start as soon as we would go through a process to hire somebody, and then they would work with the architect, work with, uh, administ the administration, with the principal to, um, come up with the game plan for construction, finalize the design, and then put it out to bid to the subcontractor market. Uh, and the construction manager and agent would be a similar timing as the CMR. They would get on board pretty quickly. provide their feedback um prior to putting out the bid to the subcontractors. So the next uh we'll go to the next slide. Um cost certainty and control. So this is you know once we start uh the project and and you have a number how certain is that going to be? Um you have more control or the contractor has more control

084because they've provided a fixed number. Um they they've sharpened their pencils and they've give you a fixed number for the contract. uh the construction manager risk there's more control because the uh the construction manager risk provides a guaranteed maximum price at that same uh time point and then um cost certainty and control of the construction manager as agent. Uh they don't have you don't have as much there because there's really no teeth. They don't have a guaranteed maximum price. They're just um acting as a um as an agent. And then when we talk about transparency, there's the least amount of transparency with uh a lumpsum uh contract because um you're taking the low bid. So they don't have to tell you how much the painting contract was or who you know all this. They're they're

085telling you we're going to do this project for $3 million and that's it. Um with a construction manager at risk, you do have more transparency. Um because as they take bids, we require that they show us all the bids and we are part of that process and the buyout so we can see that all that information. And then the construction manager's agents the most transparent because the owner we are taking the bids we're taking those and and part of the process and selecting the the subcontractors. So then on the the procurement side and selection criteria. So all three would have a a competitive process. So this isn't something where you just pick somebody. Um there would be a competitive process for all three approaches. Um with lumpsum, it's the lowest bid. It's uh we get

086a sealed envelope, here's the price, and and uh unless there's a a big failure or an issue, we take the lowest bid. uh for construction management at risk, we uh ask for qualifications and uh a financial portion. And I I'll walk through that at the end here, what that could look like. Um so it's qualifications and fee. So the one thing you can do is you can uh interview and and talk to the staff who's going to be working on your project and get comfortable with the superintendent and the person who's going to be at the school. Again, with the lumpsum bid, you're taking whoever uh had the lowest number and whatever staff they plan put on the project. With the with both CMR and CMA, uh you do have some say in uh who

087the people are who are going to be on the project. Uh conflict potential with the construction firm lump sum, it's higher. Uh there's a higher potential conflict because the contractor is taking a greater amount of risk. their number one priority is to protect their financial bottom line. Um and uh and you know there's it's nothing wrong with that. It's that's what they're in the business to do. Um but some you know to protect that there's a higher uh risk of conflict. It's a little lower with CM at risk um because they do have a fixed fee contract. Um so they are at risk and there's guaranteed maximum price. you know, occasionally there are some conflicts that come up as they're protecting that and CMA is the lowest because again they're not at risk. So, um

088there's not as much potential for conflict. So, when we look at the three options, uh the recommended types of projects usually for a lump sum project, those would be straightforward projects with clearly defined scope and a complete design. So, the projects that we've done so far that have been bid like that were, you know, a roof. we know exactly what the scope is and it's clearly defined. We have a good design. Uh construction manager risk is you those are usually more complex projects where uh the construction manager's expertise and early involvement adds value to the project. So they can come in and provide some some value early on. And then a construction manager and agent is typically owners with substantial construction expertise who who want direct controls of the project. So, those are kind of

089the the three big areas I I was looking up. Um, we typically in the Council Bluffs and Omaha metro area, um, we see, if I had to rank like volume of projects, we see CMR as probably the highest volume, lump sum next, and then CMA um, after that as far as how many. And um we're we're doing a another bond uh program management for Westside and and we've used both lumpsum and CMR. We've had two lumpsum bids. One was a bathroom renovation in the high school. Um and that went great. We got a low number that came in under budget. The contractor we'd never heard of before, but they were kind of a a diamond in the rough and and did a great job. We bid another project, got a low number, and it's been

090a challenging experience. So, so we're we're kind of 50/50 right now uh there on the CMR. Um we've with a lot of the renovation and new schools, that that's the the approach we've taken. And um and those projects have gone well. We're wrapping up a a um elementary school right now that um was supposed to be completed in December of this year and the students moving in in January and we got our certificate of occupancy two weeks ago and they're moving in in October. So, um it's there's there's ways working together that uh that you can improve that. Um, the other thing I'll I'll I'll just say as well when we look at a project, like I said earlier when I started, what we're buying is for them to take the risk. And when we're

091talking about the value of a dollar value or percentage of a project, I looked up the a middle school renovation project we just wrapped up this summer. Uh, the total construction value was uh $4.7 million. And out of that, 88% of the project was what I call cost of work. So that was all subcontractors was 88%. We had 41 subcontractors on it. This was a a renovation project. The the construction manager at risk, their portion of it was 12%. And that was their uh bond, performance and payment bond, their insurance, their people, their supervision, and their fee. All that added up to 12%. So as we talk about what we would commit to before having the final numbers, we would be committing to um about 12% of the value of the project through that first

092procurement process. Um but it is whatever whatever you you uh decide to move forward with um we can run a very competitive process and you'll get good value with with any of these approaches. Um I the the good thing is we're working on right now we're in this again in the metro area over $250 million worth of projects, eight different architects, 15 contractors. So we we know where the market is for the fees and all those markups. So, um that's something where we can help make sure that um if you choose either of the construction management approaches, um help you make sure that you're you're getting the best buy for those services or if we go lump sum, it's we go out to bid and and we see what the market comes back with. >>

093So, just to ask a question. So, you said 12%. So, if we had a project that was 9 million, we'd be adding roughly a little over a million. No, if if you wanted to say you had a $9 million project, 88% of that 9 million would be direct cost. Okay. >> 12% of that 9 million it you're going to pay that. >> Okay. So the 9 million stays 9 million. We're not >> you're not adding to it. It's just I I wanted to give you an idea. So with 9 million, you know, now you're talking um Oh gosh, don't make me do math quickly. So let's say 10 million, you know, now you're talking 1.2 2 million is going either way you'd pay that. Uh that that's what the typical fee and supervision and insurance

094and bonding would be. Um even with a hard bid. Now they with a hard bid they might sharpen their pencils a little bit and go in with a lower fee or or um you know get a little more competitive but it's really still that 12% is going to be >> but but the risk the risk of doing the risk that I found in doing projects both ways both uh I did CMA not CMR CMR is relatively new to Iowa that's just in the last like five six years uh CMA has been around used to only have CMA or design bid build so I've done those two product projects Um, one of the things I did find was that by having a CMA, we had a lot less change orders than we did by having a

095design bid built because the the we had a contractor there the whole time going through and just contractors look at things differently than architects do, you know, and so, uh, the design big build, we had a lot of change. might get the best. You might the the initial bid might be the best. It might be really low, but what you can't control are the change orders and you're going to have with as many unknowns as there is in the middle school. That's what I worry about is having a billion change orders, you know, and then that's just on top. So, you might think, "Oh, wow. We're, you know, you know, our budget's 7 and a half million and we got we're in for five, you know, but who knows what happens when they start digging

096up because the architects only know as much as they know, you know, based on plans and drawings and those types of things. If you get somebody on board earlier with construction company, either CMA or CMR, they can come in and they can do some of the pre-demo work that's included within their fee, you know. So that that's that would be that's with with a project as complex as this. That's where I would advise the board to look more at a as one of the two other models there. Now I did talk this through and if construction manager at risk, they still have a maximum uh price that you agree on when they go in, right? Like they will still be we're going to get this done at 7.5 million. So if there's money under that

097that you're saving, the bids come in relatively low because they still own all the bids. Then that's still their money, you know, >> actually. >> Well, that's not okay. >> No, no. The way we write the contracts is the savings come back to the owner. >> Okay. >> So that is an advantage to see that's good. Okay. So that's where it's it is collaborative where um you know and they're they are working in the best interest of the owner to make sure that and so that is a difference with CMR and lump sum is and they kind of build that into their their feed. >> It's part of why they like they would carry a contingency some of that unknown they there's still going to be unknowns >> right for sure >> and so they

098want to make sure that that's >> that makes more sense but >> if they don't spend it we would get that back. Well, that's good then. >> Yeah. >> So, that's the CMR is the one that I'm not as familiar with. So, >> when is a CMA? Does that mean the district has to hire somebody to man these projects all the time? >> Well, that's what the CMA does is they would for the middle school, they would provide a a superintendent and and they would provide a project manager and do the project management. They just don't hold the contracts. They do all the supervisory stuff. So you would see whereas these guys have been really active in these smaller projects because we don't have need for a construction guy here all the time. So they've

099been more active, you'll see them take more of a step back in the day-to-day functions. You won't see Brett here every day and you'll see somebody an actual not that Brett's not an actual uh construction guy, but you would see the actual construction guy take over those dayto-day. And then these guys are more as like a as an advisory for us, you know. So >> yeah and actually that's a good a good analogy where the summer when everything was going you know Brett was here >> there was there was no general contract >> right right he was here every day right >> you know 8 10 hours a day where >> yeah with these with any of these our our time pulls back a little bit to where it's more a supervision advisory >> we

100would consulted >> yeah we would go the weekly meetings, do an inspection, you know, a weekly inspection and review all the pay apps and and everything, but uh but not directly manage uh the work as closely as what we did the last summer for the middle school. >> Well, knowing I mean knowing what we have what we're facing, um yeah, it's uh it's going to be a really complex deal. Would you lean one way or another? I I would lean towards the CMR um because I I do think it does it does provide um every everyone's got a little more skin in the game, >> a little more leadership on one side, but yet a little less risk on >> our end. It's kind of a 5050 give and take. >> Yeah, that's what I

101was kind of >> Thank you. >> The CMA one with the chart didn't make you when there was all pretty much all the riskiest areas it was on us as a school. I don't know about I always want to try to play it as safe as possible. Of course, especially this big of a project really fast. >> Well, >> and I think the CMA one I think you'd you'd better know what the heck you're talking about. Well, that's what when they said that like they >> on all different scopes, whether it's electrical or plumbing or uh elevators, you know, they said the the school's on 17 different levels. I mean, holy mackerel, if you're an inch off, you're in trouble. >> And just to give you an idea, we we are currently in the process.

102We have an RF an RFQ out for CMRs right now um on a elementary school and we had a kickoff meeting and you know to for the companies to show up and ask questions. We had 13 companies show up to the uh to the pre-proposal meeting. So I I think the there's it's a good buying market right now and and I think you'll get some good competitive um proposals. And just to confirm because I want to go off the the design or the DBB if we they're very under their their bid and stuff then all of a sudden the degree we could then apply to something else. You're saying no with CMR for some reason we are still a million dollars under after all we get all the bids. >> You get the >> we

103still get the the savings. Yeah, that was a a turning thing for me hearing that because my assumption was >> we just agreed to an amount and then if there was anything left over that was kind of an incentive. >> Yeah. And sometimes, you know, and once we get into talking about the contracts there there are contract agreements that we would build in a a shared savings. So maybe the owner gets 80%, the CM gets 20. Um but so far um with the schools we've all dealt with the owner gets all the savings just to to be good stewards of the taxpayers money. >> Yeah. So in in Iowa the CMR is still required to publicly bid out all trade contract to subcontractors with contracts awarded the lowest responsive responsible bidder. So that process is

104the same as far as so what we did when we when like it' be the same thing when I did CMA. So they came up between the design uh between the architects and the construction manager they came up with um like I think we had seven different areas you know you had like general trades you had uh plumbing and electrical uh uh what do you call that like concrete but they called it something else grounds and something I forget what >> site work >> yeah site work um and then they bid them and then we did we did public public facing uh bids for for all of that. So um so that still would be required. um >> the CMR since they're working in extension of the school district, would they also be able to

105uh use, you know, how we have state vendors that if they're within a certain list, they can use without having to bid out certain contracts or is that only limited to the district? >> Well, no, they could. Um, usually how they design these though, like when you do that, it's for very specific like products and >> Okay. Um, for this particular work, they'll probably lump it into like categories that'll they'll be, you know, you might have, you know, plumbing and electrical potentially be the same sub like subcontractors. You get a company that comes in and they're going to use So, the subcontractors are going to use their own subcontractors, you know, so, but yeah, it's a little bit more it's a it's not quite as fine detailed as that, but if we found something that

106we wanted them to, they could. >> Okay. because we would still I mean they would own the contract but they're doing the work on behalf of the school >> and and and we would have some flexibility. Brett and I were talking about the the lighting upgrades that we've done at the other schools. You know, maybe with the middle school we have work out a deal and have boss provide the fixtures and we bid it out as part of the electrical package where >> the install of those fixtures is by the electrician who's doing all this other stuff. Um, but we already have a a deal set up with loss to buying directly. So, there's there are some opportunities to to maybe capitalize on on some of those items. >> And that item high school installed

107the lights and couple months later. >> Yep. I'd say I'm leaning more towards CMR now. I don't know how anybody else feels. >> Yep. >> So, would we still be um approving the subcontractors? with the three bids, they just take the lowest one and are you vetting them? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we um Oh, how do I We're not signing off on each one, but we meet with them, but and have a detailed review. It's like an all day review where we go through every scope of work and and we assure that they get, you know, they got a good number of bids, they got competitive bids, they're going with the lowest bid because, you know, sometime there's all kind of games that can be played, >> right? >> We make sure and that's where

108when I I had the transparency in there. Um so in that case you know we require transparency so that we can make sure that for all those scopes um they're going through the process and selecting the the correct >> because I know we've had low bids before but they've never done that large of a project >> or anything and so that's why that's all Yeah. >> So, who ends up selecting the con construction manager? >> You guys, >> we do. >> Yep. >> So, who's going to present candidates? I guess. >> Well, what what I would recommend is um and and this is a a process we can work with you guys on is put out a request for qualifications and and I'd say we open that up to the whole market. Um, like I

109said, we we had 13 interested in an elementary school. Um, and then typically we there's a put together committee um of a selection committee. Uh, get the uh statement of qualifications from all the um firms, shortlist it to however many we want to interview. You know, could be as many as three, you know, three to five maybe. Um, >> okay. >> We have facilities. >> Yep. It's the same process we've done for the for our architects and >> so and for you guys too. I mean that's how we selected is we'll just put out requests for proposal request for qualifications. They'll submit them the facility committee which is uh director shuffle director Atkins and >> oh director. >> Um so we would review them with project advocates select probably a final three and then request

110those three to come in for for an interview. uh with the board and then the board would select one >> and and what we'll help you with the the fee because a lot of times it's important how you ask for fee and the break breakdown. So, we'll help you with that just to make sure you're getting a fair comparison. >> And the So, the CM the CMR in Iowa is and I'm just reading this off their guidance is um so it's a lot like selecting an architect where we can't use there there's no simply the lowest bid. Like we can't say like we're going to select somebody based simply on the lowest bid, but we can request that they submit their fee with us and then we you know have that as part of the

111consideration when we consider their the rest of their the rest of their experience, you know. So that's one of the things I would recommend and this that just that prevents somebody who's never been a CN CMR before from coming in and throwing in a really low bid and and then trying to tackle that track tackle the project. So, um, >> well, wouldn't we just list the requirements for experience to match the project itself? You know, they need to have experience with, >> right? Mhm. >> Electrical or >> maybe not electrical, but >> but we'd still put in like they said like the to get some idea of what their what their >> what their fee schedule >> Yeah. >> would be. >> Yeah. But I think everybody here can agree that sometimes lowest price doesn't

112always mean best quality. So making sure that the the fees in line with the appropriate experience and the qualifications and then picking picking a somebody that can help execute, you know. So >> and this isn't a new project. It's renovation. So someone that has experience with that. >> That's going to be that would be important >> with the 15th level building. >> Yeah. 17 or 17 >> 17th of June. >> Well, in a functioning occupied school. Well, and like what was said, change orders get so far out of hand. >> Yeah. >> So fast. I mean, >> yeah. You would you could eat up a couple million bucks really easily, >> especially with this >> change. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Well, and we have had that when they were doing Titan Hill, the addition, there

113was a beam that was never connected >> at the front. It was never connect. I don't. It was like hovering. >> Oh. Oh, no kidding. >> And so then that was a change order because we had to make sure that was stable and connected and >> and the Native American burial ground. >> Um that was before >> Oh, that was way back. >> Build the building. >> They just said if they ever find any bones, they're kind of report it. >> It was a delay. I think it was a couple months delay. >> Yeah. But no, I think I agree with you guys. The CMR seems like the most effective effective way to get it done, but yet still be as cost of effective as what we can be with all the unknowns. >> And

114hopefully we can find somebody local to cut down on any travel costs, things like that. >> Well, again, >> oh, go ahead, jump in. We have there's a in this market there's a lot of >> there will be a lot of capable companies that will want to compete for those >> and that wasn't done with the um auditorium or the bus bar >> those are designed to build >> yeah and so I think that was I think that's it's it's good we learned from that >> definitely >> there's a reason that the majority of schools in Omaha have done CMR for a long So before we before we have the capability to do it over here in Iowa. So >> um one of the most important people on the project is going to be the

115superintendent, the day-to-day person and with this process you meet that person and that's a part of the selection criteria is what company has the the team that you're most com comfortable with being in the school doing that work. >> Okay. I think we're good. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion on that point? >> Okay, we will move on to 7.05 allowable growth supplemental special ed aid request. So 98% of the schools across the state of Iowa special education deficit. That's just simply because between the federal government and the state government, they don't they they have a lot of requirements for how we serve students that have individual education plans, but they don't provide the funding to be able to to serve them. So, um, you might have like a great example is

116you might have a student that we received $37,000 for in in funding from the state and federal government, but we, you know, have them attend uh for their own personal needs, have them attend a therapeutic school or uh Children's Square or Apex that you guys just approved. And, um, down there they have a 101 parah, they have a maybe a 101 nurse, and they have, you know, and so their costs could be 50, 60, $70,000. and the state federal government don't care. You know, they they'll say, "No, you have to provide those services, but we're still only providing you the standard, you know, $37,000 that that particular student with with the level of need would get." And so, um, that leaves us with the deficit every year. um you guys the I shouldn't say you

117guys Louis Central for a long time didn't run a deficit because they were spending they were covering the deficit out of their general fund which is why our general fund was then so low. So um but they do provide a mechanism uh for schools to basically uh apply back to the state for funding that is left over through this process and then whatever money there's left over at the end of that then kind of gets rolled into our tax base. So, um, again, it wouldn't it would affect the tax base very minimally from what it always usually is. But again, we don't have a choice. You know, state and federal law says we have to serve students um at at the level at which they need to be served and they just don't want to

118give us the money to do it. So, but I'll tell you, I've seen some incredible incredible things happen at these schools when our students have an opportunity to attend. So um but any other discussion, >> okay, we'll move on to 7.06 resolution to consider continued participation in the instructional support program. Uh so this is a uh levy that we currently have and uh it expires um next summer. Um the levy provides us um just under $2 million for straight instructional support. So, it's only spent on students and teachers in their classrooms. So, um the school has had this levy for forever. Um and so the board in order to just renew the levy just needs to have a a vote. Um it'll the vote will be next time. There needs to be a board hearing

119and a vote and then you guys would uh vote to renew or not renew the levy um for period of 5 years at a time. But again, it's a levy we already have. Wal taxes just continues to have a levy that we've had for 30 years. So, >> and it only goes to classrooms. >> Only goes to classrooms and teacher pay. Yep. Instructional support uses. Can you think of anything else, M Rays, that >> we use majority of ours on curriculum and teachers? Y >> any other discussion? Okay, we'll go to 7.07 laser cutter purchase. >> Uh, so the applied sciences, so the CTE um teachers, they applied for um some different a variety of different funding from Perkins and RPP funds. Um, and so they received the money to buy a uh laser cutter.

120And so we just need to approve the purchase. What a laser cutter does, I don't know. >> You can use it to cut sheet metal. >> Oh, sheet metal. There we go. >> Well, I I don't know if that's what they're using it for, but >> Yeah, >> typically. >> I think it's got to be metal. I think it Yeah. >> Well, it could be uh more like a laser engraver. >> Yeah, you could use it. >> So, you could use it in the plastics lab, maybe. I don't know. >> Uh it's it's a high school. They don't have plastics, but they have that I I think it probably has to do with that new welding lab is what they have. >> It kind of once they say laser >> once they say the word

121grant money, I'm like, "Okay, yeah, you guys are good." >> Wonder if laser is kind of the new plasma. Maybe that could be. >> Yeah. >> I heard lasers and grant and I was like, "Yes, sweet." >> All right. 7.0. 08 educational lane advancement. >> Um so we have uh two so according to the master contract um we in order for teachers to advance in an educational lane which means that they've met one of the criteria so they might have gotten um 15 years credit above their bachelor's towards a masters or they might have gotten their masters or maybe they got their masters an additional 15 credits. So, as they uh proceed um with with their education, getting more credits, they're allowed to uh apply for almost like an additional stipen to go that goes

122onto their uh check in the form of a lane. Okay, is what is called lane advancement. So, um in order to advance, you need to do two things. One, you need to provide us an intent according to the master contract. You need to provide us an intent to advance, which basically allows us to budget for the advancement. So that's due by April 1st um every every spring and then in the fall we ask you by August 15th to provide us your transcripts. Okay? If one of those two uh components are not met then they didn't they didn't technically didn't comply with master contract and then I bring it to you guys to for a consideration. Okay. So last year you guys didn't see anything because we switched systems from um a paper system to or

123like an email system to uh uh we actually put it into our uh new HR system. So they would have to fill out a form online. So we had a couple people that missed the deadline last year. Um but we just went ahead and said, "Okay, it's a new system. We'll kind of let it go this year." Um the first person up here, Miss Jones, she didn't she didn't miss the the the deadline for submitting her information. She didn't get her transcripts until August 18th. So the 15th on a Friday. She didn't have them in time. So she got them in on the 15th, which is that Monday, and she submitted them as soon as she got them. So my recommendation would be to approve uh um Miss Jones for because she did submit her

124intent online. For me, that's the biggest one. Like you just got to I mean, we can we can play on the back end, but the front end, you know, we need to make sure that we're at least budgeted for it. So, so that's that's kind of where we sit with Miss Jones. Mrs. Jones. >> Okay. So, you want me to go to 7.09? >> Yep. >> Okay. Uh, educational advancement for Miss Arnett. >> Yep. So, uh, so, Miss Arnette, this is a little bit different because she did not submit it on time. She submitted it, um, as of August 6th. So again, due on a April 1st, submitted August 6th. Did have her transcripts by by the deadline, but um obviously didn't submit it back in April when it was when it was due. So

125um that makes it obviously we can't budget for it. Um but again, because we brought one, we're we we have to bring both to you guys to to consider. So, my recommendation would be to approve Miss Jones um and not approve Mrs. Arnett because simply we we weren't able to budget for for it. You know, it's pretty clear-cut in the master contract that you're submitted by April April 1st. That way, we are able to budget for it. We were not able to budget for this. We were able to budget for Mrs. Jones. So, the fact that she was a day late with submitting her documentation, at least we were budgeted for it. So, So would she just reapply next year or just go into Okay. >> Yeah. So she could reapply next year and then

126she'll, you know, as long as she gets her paperwork on time, she's already has the work done, she would just advance at that time. >> I think we have to stay firm with missing the intent because if we start letting people >> then that there's no intention date and therefore we have to consider every single person that every time a year. >> So holding true to that the intent to want to go based on the master contract is really important. >> It is spelled out really clear. >> Extremely clear. Yep. That's actually the the language up top. So >> Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. Okay, we will move on to the second portion of our meeting where we open the floor to the public. So, comments and suggestions button. >> Yes. >> Okay. Good evening,

127Jeremy Bach. How are you guys? >> Uh, just a quick question on the consortium agreement that you brought up for Apex. So if if I'm correct in stating that in order to attend a different institution to get credits, you have to have the agreement in place, right? >> That's correct. >> Okay. And with the deadline for excuse me for the approval, when would that go into actually place? Because Iowa doesn't have a deadline. So the institution itself would have to have an addendum or an agreement deadline for the consortium. So does Apex have one? >> We've we've had a we've had an agreement. We've been in the consortium for for I think I'm very long times >> with Apex. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, this is just a continuation. >> This continuation. >> Okay. >>

128Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. That's helpful. Okay. >> Perfect. >> That's what I needed. Thank you. >> Sounds good. >> Do we have any comments, suggestions? Okay. Nobody online. All right. >> Then we will move forward to action items. So 9.0 9.01 01 S SWIA Apex Consortium Agreement. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> Like to make a motion to approve the S SWAC apex consortium agreement as presented. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. 9.02, 2 board policy series 300 administration second reading. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the review and changes to board policy 300 series as presented. >>

129Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheff, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. 9.03, 03 2026 summer high school HVAC mechanical controls. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the um summer high school HVAC mechanical controls for um next year 2026 to optimized systems for $60,370. >> Second vote, please. >> Mr. Sturm. Yes, >> Miss Atkins. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Peterson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Sheffle. >> Yes, >> Mr. Sorenson. >> Yes, >> Mr. Rick. >> Yes. >> 9.04 Middle School renovation construction delivery method. >> Mr. >> Yeah, Mr. President. >> Yes. >> Like to make the motion to approve the CMR as presented in the meeting. Did

130I say that? Second. Yes. CSR. >> Yeah. Moving forward with the CMR. >> Moving forward with the CMR. >> Vote, please. >> Miss Atkins. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Peterson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle. >> Yes. >> Mr. Senson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stern? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> 9.05. Allowable growth supplemental special ed aid request. >> Mr. Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to approve the special education supplement SCEs with the amount of allowable growth request of $865,19286 for fiscal year 24 2024 2025. >> Second vote, please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Atkins. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> 9.06. Resolution to consider continued participation in the instructional support program. >>

131Mr. President. >> Yes. >> Like to make a motion to to introduce the resolution to consider continued participation in the instructional support program and move its adoption. >> Second. >> Vote please. >> Mrs. Sheffle. Yes. Mr. Sorenson. >> Yes. Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mr. Rick, >> yes. >> 9.07, Laser Cutter Purchase. >> Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to approve the purchase of the laser cutter from Prism Sales in the amount of $20,745. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Ray, >> yes. >> 9.08, Educational Lane Advancement, Ms. Jones. >> Mr. President, like to make a motion to

132approve the educational lane movement salary increase of $2,000 for Miss Jones for the 2025 2026 contract year. >> Second. Vote, please. >> Mr. Sturm. Yes, >> Miss Atkins. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Peterson. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Sheffle. >> Yes, >> Mr. Sonson. >> Yes, >> Mr. Rick. >> Yes. >> 9.09 educational lane advancement. Ms. Arnett. >> Mr. President, I'd like to make the motion to deny the educational move and salary increase of $2,000 for Miss Arnett for the 2025 2026 contract year. >> Second. >> Vote, please. Miss Atkins. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Ser, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> Items of interest, future board meeting. That next scheduled regular board meeting is October 6th at 6:30. Do we

133have anything in between? >> Nope. Nothing. >> Okay. With no other business on the dock, can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. >> Second.