001[music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey, Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey, Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> All >> [music] [music] >> right, we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Can I get approval of the Oh, wait. We'll do the roll call. Sorry. >> Miss Atkins >> here. >> Mrs. McDaniel >> here. >> Mrs. Peterson >> here. >> Mrs. Sheffield >> here. >> Mr. Senson >> here. >> Mr. Sharp >> here. >> Mr. Wright >> here. Approval of the November 17th, 2025 agenda. Can I get a motion to approve, please? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. Vote, please. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >>
002Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Stern, >> yes. >> Mr. Right. >> Yes. Accommodations, visitor, good news. >> Uh, so I was going to have a presentation. Uh, we're not done with it yet, though. So, I'm going to bring that to the next meeting of all of our fall activities because the spring play just wrapped up. And then state swimming was just done this weekend. Sounds like we performed very well at state swimming. Um, uh, the play, uh, I talked to four different people whose kids were in the play and they were pretty excited about, um, the performance of the play. Uh I know that uh show choir is in full swing right now. They've been practicing a lot. >> Costume fitting is tonight and solo auditions are tonight. >> Yep. And what is the
003uh what is the theme this year for high school? >> Uh karaoke for >> Whoa. karaoke for Corp and the Powerpuff Girls for Company. >> Very cool. >> Yeah. And Corp finishes their coro next week. >> And I'm not sure where Company's at with their show. I'm sure they're almost done, but >> wrapping up. So, >> and we have uh junior high uh basketball is in full swing. We have 84 kids out for junior high basketball. So, um that's a lot of junior high uh basketball players. Um girls wrestlers, I haven't heard of the number yet, but they're um in the middle of wrestling. We also have uh the high school wrestling is starting. I think today was the boys' first official practice. So, I think girls started last week, boys started this week. So,
004that's exciting. Same thing with basketball can start today. Um so looking forward to those seasons. Um outside of that, I know that we've had I just want to give kudos to our DTS, our DT BLTs and um our uh curriculum uh review committee. I know that they have been meeting very diligently and kudos to Dr. Hartman for um the good work there. So just met association today, talked about their good work. So uh thank you. it's easy to um kind of get lost in the shovel sometimes. So, and I'm sure she'll talk a little bit tonight about some of the good work that they're doing. Um outside of that, we did a we're in the middle of a diaper drive. Uh so, we did have uh some packages delivered at the middle school. Uh we
005had quite a few delivered at Titan Hill. Uh we can always use more. So, if you're um out there watching us, the hundreds of people that are watching us right now, remember, we have diaper drive tomorrow morning and tomorrow after school again. So feel free to swing by the middle school or Titan Hill at arrival or dismissal and drop off some diapers. How about the Micah house? So that's about it. Okay. Any additional good news, commendations? All right, then we'll move on to comments and suggestions. This is the first portion of our meeting where we open the floor to any comments and suggestions that the public has for the school board. Do we have any online? >> Nothing yet, but we have a handful of viewers. >> Okay. Okay, we will move on to consent
006agenda. Do we have an updated personnel sheet? >> Yes, there are a few updates on sheet >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mrs. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. Mr. Sir, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. Reports 6.01, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Report. >> Okay. So, uh, what I'm going to present today is just an update on some things around literacy. Um, so, as you guys might recall, a couple years ago, we started on a district literacy plan. Um, it took the elementary about a year and a half to put together their portion of it. Um, so
007now this is secondary's turn. We started last year. Uh, we should be done in January. Um, so it's kind of exciting to see this all come together. Uh, but the goal really is to have this like coherence across our system instead of just different pockets of different things. Um, we'll talk a little bit more about it here shortly, but um, you guys have probably heard the term science of reading. Like we just know so much more now about how kids learn how to read. And so to be able to put that all together and have a guiding document um is really useful. Um when I came um we started doing a lot of training with letters which is like the science of reading. And as we were doing that people started talking about like but
008how do we make this come to action? And so that's kind of how the the whole plan started was people really wanted like a guiding document that helps shape what we're doing when it comes to literacy. Um so I've linked it in here. Um, but the state of Iowa now has this comprehensive state literacy plan, and it's in response to legislation that came through last year, and I'll show you a little bit about that later. But in that plan, it's really asking for um districts to create a district-wide plan. Um, so we're kind of ahead of the game, which feels really good. Uh, but they just talk about there's a lot of research behind districts that have a plan. Um, that you see more improved student outcomes. um you see stronger alignment with things when
009you have a district-wide plan. So, we are on the home stretch uh with our literacy plan and adding our secondary portion to it. Uh but just so you guys know, like Dr. Hazy was saying, some of these people who have been a part of this like they've invested a lot of time and energy and they are really diving in and learning a lot and the part of the some of the people who have been part of this process. So again, this is years in the making. Um are now also part of like our curriculum review committee just because again they they have such deep knowledge and learning um around some of this information. So you can see those bullet points, those are things that we looked at and we analyzed and we scored ourselves on
010of how we're currently doing. We looked for gaps. We looked for some strengths and that's what led us into some conversations and some action points um in our plan. So, here's what we've really got um things narrowed down to on the secondary side. Um so, on the secondary side, some things that you'll be seeing when this is finalized is a priority on vocabulary, a priority on comprehension and evidence-based practices, and then a priority on literacy across content areas. So, um supporting literacy can't just be language arts teachers jobs at the secondary level. like it has to be part of what our science teachers are doing, part of what our social studies teachers are doing. And so there's a ton of research behind each three of those bullet points. I feel really good where the team
011has landed because those are incredibly important, you know, levers to kind of push on when it comes to improving, uh, literacy at the secondary level. Um, so we're finalizing that piece and then in the spring, uh, much like we did on the elementary side, the goal then is to create like a rubric that goes with that and then we'll take the plan to our middle school and high school and have whatever team, it could be their building leadership team kind of score it and then how they score and what they're recognizing as areas for improvement or gaps are things that we'd like to see them then include like in their building goals, in their building plans. Um, I'm not a huge fan of going to all this work to create a plan if it just
012like lives on Google Drive. So, we really want to make sure that these come alive and that it's built into buildings PD plans and their system reviews. So, that will come this spring. Um, and then like Dr. Hazing mentioned, district leadership team has spent this fall taking the board priorities and as you guys remember, we uh narrowed down to two. So literacy and student behavior are the two and then the next step has been to uh figure out take that broad goal and then figure out like what's our smart goal. Um so this is what DT it was a everybody had a five across the board on the whole team for consensus on this. So um that felt really good. Um, but this is what their goal statement is. That by May of 2027, state
013district literacy assessment proficiency will increase to at least 80% at each grade level by implementing tier one literacy practices aligned to the district's literacy framework, which is really kind of a nod back to that district literacy plan that we're creating. Um, so the next step at DT is really then to think about what's the lag measures. So those are the measures that we're going to look at at the end. And then what are the lead measures? because if we're going along and things aren't looking great, we need some things to start to put some pressure on. So those would be our lead me measures. So I don't know what DT will land on. However, based on what is written in that goal, they already have you know what I would consider lag me measures like
014your ISAs proficiency probably our fast bridge benchmarks. Um and then some things that could be things that we would create as lead measures could be um just that tier one like what are the literacy practices what's the fidelity of that um could be how our students are performing on their common formative assessments could be PLC's focused on literacy data um I don't know where we'll go with that but I I just think it's important that again not to just have a goal but to look along the way throughout the school year to see like are we making the right kind of progress and if we're not then what is it that we need to go back and change. So um next as you guys know um we have been doing a curriculum review with language
015arts. So we do a seven-year curriculum process here at Lewis Central. So every seven years we'll reook at materials. However, there's a process along the way and part of that process is looking at data. It's looking at our essential standards. Um, so for language arts, we're adjusting the process a little bit just because it's such a heavy lift and we want to make sure that we take the right amount of time to do this. So this is going to be like a two-year process um of what would normally be part of the one year of the seven-year cycle. But um the team is formed of elementary, middle, and high school teachers, coaches, building admin, and again that district literacy plan that I showed you, many of the people who have participated in that are part
016of this. Um, so the goal is for us to think about what kind of high quality research materials um that we're going to bring to you guys uh to have you guys approve. Um, obviously you guys can see a lot of alignment here. This is going to be tied into our DT priorities, our district literacy plan. Um, we started this process again by looking at our literacy data. Um, we'll be getting input and then I think what's important for you guys to know is there's some state guidance for us. Um, and we're looking at that too to make sure that we're aligning things. So, um, this fall we've spent a lot of time just looking at the Iowa's language arts standards. They've been newly updated. Um, they are kind of intense. There's a lot of
017layers to language arts standards. Like one of the things that's a little bit of an adjustment, there used to be college and career readiness standards and they were separate. Uh, but now they are built into the standards. So they are kind of anchored in and and they build off of each other. So we took some time to learn about that. Um there's some other components when you're looking at language arts standards like text complexity, depth of knowledge, and vertical alignment. All things that we've studied and learned more about and thought about how that plays out where we're going. Um and then on the next slide, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about some of this recent legislative shifts around literacy. Um, so again, I think this is important for you guys to
018know as board members, but there is some legislation, it's called House File 2545. And basically what that legislation talks about is they're moving away, the state has moved away from certain approaches when it comes to reading instruction. So they are they have shifted to what research would call structured literacy. And structured literacy is just making sure that there's very explicit instruction around the science of reading. So again, we know more about how kids know how to read and so is that built into our curriculum. So um things like uh vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, just thinking about how all of that comes together um and making sure those components are in our um curriculum materials. So they are very much so discouraging materials that rely on things associated with what's called balanced literacy. Um this would be
019things like guided reading as a primary model. Um you might have heard the term as like a queuing system and that means like look at the picture. What do you think the word means? Um there's a lot of research that just talks about how that's kind of detrimental to kids learning how to read. Um so the state has really pushed and again come out with some legislation. They've gone so far as to say that teacher prep programs can no longer um do any teacher prep work around balance literacy. So I mean what that means for us is we have to as a committee really understand what that means. So it's not just you know having people come and present to us about different resources. It's making sure we as a committee have a shared understanding
020and that we recognize what's happening with legislation with standards and then take all of that knowledge to try to make a decision together. So here's this is kind of what I was talking about this picture. If you haven't seen this, this is a pretty um it's a pretty good one. This has been around for a little while, but this keeps coming up when we talk about the science of reading. But we have these two strands and combined this is what creates reading comprehension. So people will talk a lot about reading comprehension, reading comprehension, reading comprehension, but like there are so many skills that go into reading comprehension. So if you have a kid and you feel like they're not comprehending the text, could be any of these strands. So on the bottom is what our
021elementaryaries focus on. It's word recognition. So within word recognition, you can see things like funological awareness, decoding, um recognition uh on site of familiar words. Those are all very foundational skills. But then at the top, once we've hit some of those, now we can start to get some of these under the language comprehension strand. So, this would be background knowledge, vocab, language structure, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge. Um, the bottom part that's like finite, like you can reach a conclusion to, you know, that learning. The top part, some of that, like it's never over, right? Like we're adults and we're still adding to our vocabulary all the time. Uh, but when we have the foundations of both of those, now we can start to get to reading comprehension and reading fluency. Um, so our team is
022keeps coming back to this. In fact, in our next meeting, we're going to keep coming back to this reading rope. Um, there's also something called the writing rope, which is again the science of how kids become great writers. Um, so we're going to look at that. Um, and then at our next meeting, we're also going to talk about stakeholder surveys. So, we think it's important to get teacher input. They're the ones working with materials and working with kids all of the time. Um, so we're going to take their input into consideration. um and then possibly do some family and student surveys. Obviously, their questions would be very different than people who work with the materials and work with kids every day, but um you know, it's an opportunity just to be able to reach out
023and see what other people are looking for, too. So, um and then in future meetings, we'll look at there's some very researchbased scoring tools when you're looking at curriculum. Um and then one of the very important things for us is that we plan for implementation. So, um, if we move away from current materials, um, it's a heavy lift for for literacy. So, we want to make sure we're really well planned and well thought out as far as what does implementation look for. Um, and then obviously eventually we'll bring you guys a final recommendation. Um, so this is the last slide, but just like how this all kind of intersects, but basically the district literacy plan, that's the framework, the expectations that we have for literacy instruction at Lewis Central. Then the curriculum review process. This
024is giving us the tools and materials that then support that framework. Um so really it's this shared goal that we want this coherent across the district uh plan with literacy. We want things to be research aligned um and have that vertical alignment K12. And I wish I could say preschool but most curriculums don't are not inclusive of of preschool programming. itself. Um, any questions on anything related to literacy, district literacy plan, the curriculum review process? >> What percentage are we currently at? You said 80% was the goal in 2027. Do you know what we're currently sitting at? >> Uh, I don't know. Collectively, we're not quite there. Like there's some pockets where we are, like the middle school, seventh, and eighth grade had really great scores above 80%. Uh, but there's other areas that we're
025not quite there yet. And then if we do change the curriculum, what does that mean from like a financial budgetary perspective? Is that something that we have to consider if if we do go a different approach? >> It is. Yeah, it's it's a significant investment. I I'll tell you, but one of the things right now the So all of our all of our subject areas, their curriculum review is, you know, it's every five years. And so right now, language arts is at the exact same time as uh >> it was the same time as social studies >> as social studies. And so I mean that's two large curricular areas that we were improving in the same year. So this is considered technically an off year. And so that's why just accelerated the literacy based upon
026our literacy scores and and some of our other [clears throat] needs and the and the emphasis from the state to look at um uh different methods uh for providing that instruction. So that's why it was kind of determined like let's let's change and let's look at putting kind of putting it on its own year. So it's just essentially expediting the expense by you know a year or so. So >> but it'll be a large it'll be a large purchase. So >> yeah. Yeah. I mean it's not cheap but >> have you explored other school districts that have used this and how are their scores >> that have used what >> this plan like changing the curriculum. Well, so as far as curriculum goes, I could tell you that. So, I'm this like curriculum director's group
027and um as far as our elementary curriculum, nobody else is currently using the curriculum that we're using. Um and then as far as like having a district literacy plan, I know like large districts have district literacy plans, but I don't know any other districts like our size that would have gone to the efforts of having a district literacy plan necessarily. We've had this for seven years, so it's time to give the time to Right. Before I got here, there was some decisions made as far as literacy curriculum. So, it's year four, I think, that we've had our current literacy curriculum. >> Yeah. >> But at a certain point, I'm assuming it comes becomes more outdated for us just because we need the kids to be okay. >> Yeah. And this is and this is pretty
028I think in my time at Missouri Valley I was there 13 years in the elementary went through uh at least two different curricular sets, you know, so it's kind of like you get you do what's known to be the best and then new research comes out and state guidance and training and everything comes out and it's determined that maybe something else a little bit better. So if you ask any teacher that's been around for 20 or 30 years, they'll tell you that they've gone through many curricular cycles, you know, and they've learned how to >> and it's hard. I It's hard. It's hard to learn a new curriculum. It's hard if you have something you've had for a while and you really liked it and um you know, you have to think about all the
029the change theory that goes with it, you know, and all the different people have different perspectives about it. Um but I think at the end of the day, you've got to look at data and then you have to look at best practice. And again, like there's so much good information now about the science of reading and curriculum companies have responded and that's been really fast the last couple of years. And so it's not like we want to change curriculum all the time, but you know, as things start to come out and you look at data and again it's now we've moved in on the curriculum cycle, so it's opposite social studies. It's just the time is all kind of right to be able to look at things. >> I really like that you're doing the
030stakeholder surveys as well because it also helps you to determine where some of those speed bumps will be. >> Yeah. >> In that process. >> Yeah. >> Is that going to be a one-time event or is that going to be throughout the process? I it's a good question. I need to take it to the committee to ask them how they want to how they want to do it. And I also hope that people recognize too like it'll be one piece. It'll be a piece that we consider. I want people to appreciate too like how much this committee has really dove in and like really understands. So like they will be the final decision-m body and like I won't be the final decision maker. Like my job I think is to help facilitate a process and
031facilitate a very well-igned process. like hopefully we come here and I don't feel uncomfortable presenting something to you guys. Uh but they they have really invested in this process. Um so whether it's the teacher feedback, the student feedback, the the family feedback, it'll be a piece of it. It'll be a piece that they'll have to take into consideration just like they're taking into consideration all the other things. >> Okay, good. Any other questions, comments for Dr. Harman? >> You're welcome. Okay, then we'll move on to 6.02 finance report. >> Yes, thank you. >> Uh so uh up on the screen is our uh year to f year to date for the fiscal year uh 26 expenditures. Um, as you can see for the general fund, we are running right where we need to be at
032uh 18% of our budget. So, with it being the um end of October that these numbers run through, that is two full payrolls for our certified staff. So, um looking at um that everything is running right where we had budgeted for that. Um the only other one that the number might look a little bit alarming to would be the management fund. Uh but that is because we do pay all of our property and casualty insurance upfront. Um and pay that in August. So that is why that number is pretty large already. Um and then otherwise um everything else is right where uh it should be in the 16 to uh 30%. The ones that are higher up in the 30% are the ones that uh run on a more equal basis throughout the fiscal year.
033Um such as nutrition and the um LCLC program and some of our capital projects. Um so in October we actually receive our first large payment of property taxes of two of them. Uh the second one comes in the spring. Um but that is a pretty significant amount for um all of our funding throughout the year. Um so ISPs put out their um new information for um comparisons. Uh there's a lot of numbers on this chart, but I would just suggest looking at the totals property tax rate at the bottom, which you guys all know is the $1126 that you guys set. Uh that ranks at 249. Uh so that just means that there are only uh 75 school districts in the state of Iowa that have a lower tax rate. So 248 of them are
034higher uh than us. And we are almost $2 below the state average. um still even with the adding in of the um bond. So um our property taxes are still a very good rate. So are there any questions? I kept mine short since Lisa went long. So next week you next month you guys get a long finance report and she is going short. [laughter] Okay, then we'll move on to 6.03 superintendent report. >> Um, so a couple things. Uh, so first of all, I met with the association today. Um, we discussed last year, if you guys remember, we actually did a 2-year agreement with negotiations. And so we do not have to enter into negotiations this year unless um the legislative body settles at less than a 2% increase or more than a 2.5% increase.
035So, uh, speaking of legislative update, um, this could be an interesting year. Uh, I know that the governor has made a priority of cutting property tax. Um, I know that was, you know, something they tried to get done last year and there was just there was there was it was too far apart as far as the the sides. Um, it it will be interesting because we're currently expected to run a $900 million deficit. Um, and so if we're going to do that and cut property taxes, I am not sure what that means for state funding in general. Uh, because I know as part of cutting property tax, the the hope was that the state as a as a uh as a funding mechanism would take off take over more of the the onus of the
036of the operating budget of schools. Well, the state's already running a $900 million deficit. I'm not sure how they can take over more of that operating budget. So, I am definitely not anticipating more than a 2.5% increase. Um, I would anticipate us potentially being less than two. Um, and then but luckily we have built up that that fund balance a little bit. So, depending on where the where the state finally lands on a number, we may or may not have to go back to negotiations. So, um, so just uh just some food for thought there. uh facility. Uh we do have uh our CMR construction manager at risk. Um qualifications are due this Thursday. Um I will need to get with um uh [clears throat] Director Sheffel um Director Atkins and Director Sturm. Actually uh
037Atkins and Sturm will be with me in De Moine at the AASB conference. So we'll have to kind of pull out for a little bit and and touch base. I'll have to find a good time that I think we said 1:00, right? On Thursday. So 1:00 on Thursday, we'll review the qualifications and then um based on the qualifications, we'll send out invites for full RFQ, which then will lead into a um a formal interview of of construction manager um at risk uh companies. And this is for the middle school renovation. And we'll probably look at doing a special board meeting um on Monday the 8th um probably at could potentially be like 5:30 or 6:30 kind of whatever you whatever works for you guys. The goal would be to bring in three companies that we
038decide on to um formally interview and then offer a a construction manager at risk contract with. So um but again that'll be the 8th. So, uh, at least the interviews where it will be. And then, um, the high school mechanical bid opening, uh, will be this Thursday at 200 p.m. Um, and then approval on December 1st. Uh, Louis Central Titan Hill exterior envelope project. Uh, the opening bid opening is at December 11th. Um, the approval will be on December 15th. Um, ISB is this week and I believe that uh new director uh Bach will be going for his initial training uh during the um uh during the pre-conference on Wednesday and he'll be going down with uh Mrs. raise and then uh I'll be uh going down with director Sturm on Wednesday evening and participating
039in conference on Thursday and then Miss Atkins is going down uh tomorrow night and participating in the um what's that called >> delegate delegate assembly and then um the conference on Thursday as well. So uh so hopefully it's a good conference. I'm sure we'll get to uh listen in a lot um what AI is bringing to the educational landscape and I'll talk about that in just a second. Uh school calendar for those of you out there who are waiting on our 2627 school calendar uh you won't have to wait much longer. We I put out the first iteration to the staff um last week and uh so they're kind of looking through a couple of uh highlights of it is based upon kind of school start date going to the 24th. Again, it's a Monday
040and I'm so sorry we're going to start a the year off in a long week. However, with the state not allowing us to start it any other day but the 24th or the day after the 23rd, which 23rd is on a Sunday, so I don't think anybody wants to start on Sunday, um we have to start on the 24th if we want to get all of all of our other um goals in. So that includes a long winter break, um a um longer spring break this year. I think we're able to get that. It's it's basically a full or almost a full week uh Wednesday through Monday. And then um uh seniors are out on the 14th and rest of the kids are out on May 21st of next year. So one of the things
041that we do have to consider uh and we can just for food for thought we'll talk about this more in detail when I submit it because I'll bring it to you guys on December 1st to have the initial conversation and then on December 15th we'll go ahead and approve the schedule or the the calendar. It's very similar to this year's calendar with the the main consideration of Memorial Day falls on May 31st. And in the past, I don't know how long, probably forever, we've done graduation on Memorial Day weekend. Um, however, with it being so late, seniors are out on the 14th. I don't know that we can realistically expect them to stay somewhat engaged until the 30th. I know that Council Bluffs is already looking to back their graduation date up at least a
042week. And so, uh, based on conversations with, um, our current staff at the high school, counselors, administrators, teachers, their recommendation is going to be to to have seniors get out on Friday the 14th and then graduation be on Monday the 16th. Um, just for the uh, the 2027 um, graduating class. So, that'll be two weeks before Memorial Day. Um, it'll be totally different. It's not Mother's Day. Mother's Day is the weekend before, so it doesn't interfere with Mother's Day. It's just going to be a shift for what we typically do and it's because Memorial Day falls on the very uh last day of the year. I know that we did do a survey with parents at the end of last year to determine do they like having graduation on Memorial Day, do they or Memorial
043Day weekend, do they not? And it was a straight 50/50 split. So, as far as whether they like it or whether they don't, one of the things we did find was almost 76% of them do prefer to have graduation on Sunday rather than, you know, Friday or Saturday. So, this would keep it on a Sunday, that 50/50 split. Um, and really we're just kind of um it's kind of being forced upon us to at least look consider something different because of Memorial Day being so much later. So, uh so just food thought. Yes. >> So, I'm sorry. I thought I heard Monday. >> I did. Graduation is Sunday. >> Oh, sorry. Graduation Sunday. My apologies. Yes. No graduation on Monday on a Sunday. Yes. >> And then I get my days mixed up. Our contract
044with Mid America Center is just yearby year, right? It's a yearby-year and apparently there's there's uh no change in cost. So by us moving it so cost won't change. That's what that's what's been kind of told to us. So >> and could we move it back in 28 29? >> We can move it back whenever. Correct. Yep. So if we have it on the 16th of May in 2027 and people are like hate it, want it back in Memorial Day, it can be adjusted. Remember we we approve calendars one year at a time. The other thing they're considering this year we're having finals week the week after uh winter break they're already considering moving they would they would rather they think go back to having uh Christmas falls on a on a weird it's like
045a Friday and so the 20th and 20 or 20 21st and 22nd are a Monday Tuesday having finals that that Monday Tuesday rather than the week we get back and then having that first day back be an all day uh staff day so they can get their grades done and they can kind of ease in after winter break rather than jump in with kids. So, that's that's been uh recommended as well. Again, I'll uh I I already sent it to you guys to review. We'll continue to receive feedback from our uh BLTs and other staff members and we'll kind of go from there. So, um this last week I went or last week I went to a conference. Um it actually was it was all revolving around AI, you know, that's kind of the the
046evolving space, you know, and I think one of the things that that I wanted to go to conference about is you kind of go in with this perception of like and and I don't know, I I grew up watching like iroot and like Terminator and like all of these like very scary films that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is the beginning of the end." You know, it's going to be no time and we're gonna have robots, you know, try to put us in our place, which might still happen. I'm not saying it's not going to happen, but but at the end of the day, like AI is here and it's real and it's incredibly intuitive and it's it's it's incredible what it does. I've seen so many videos that I have to really like
047focus and try to figure out, is this legit or is this like fake? Tons of videos of like um like a bear attacking like an older lady and the older lady like beating off the bear and I'm like, "Wait a minute, that little lady just beat a bear off and then I see the next one she's fighting a wolf and I'm like, "Oh, that's AI." Okay. So, that's not legitimate. Or like babies like beating and like this legitimate. Like these babies look like crowy babies. Like it's crazy. So, >> have you seen the Ryobi hovercraft? >> No. >> Yeah. There's a Ryobi hovercraft that looks totally legit. So, it's >> Oh, I know. It's getting scary. So, the whole point of this is is AI is here and it's just consistently evolving. Even from what
048it was like six like six months ago, you could figure out if it was real pretty quick or fake because the person might have nine fingers on their hand. you're like, "All right, nobody has nine fingers. Six, maybe, but not nine." So, you're like, "All right, that's fake." Now, they have like five or six fingers. And you're like, "Wait a minute, maybe that's real." You know, so it's evolving super fast. And uh and I think what was funny is up until like the last 3 years with with AI coming around, I think a lot of effort and energy has been spent on educators on how do we restrict it? How do we how do we find it? you know, what kind of apps are out there that we can run uh our our essays through
049and determine whether or not this is written by AI or written by our students. And so, we've put together a lot of effort and energy and resources on trying to figure out how do we stop it and how do we how do we detect it? And when I went to this conference, this conference was all about um well, the first speaker got up and they said, "Do you remember the TI81 calculator came out in 1990?" Okay. When the TI81 calculator came out, there was a big push against we got to restrict this because people got to be able to do math on paper and we need to get rid of the TI 81 calculator. Fast forward 9 years and it was a requirement for everybody to purchase a TI 81 calculator in order to attend
050class. Okay. When I went to school, you know, when back in the late 90s, early 2000, you went to school and it was you were not allowed to use the internet for research. You had to, you know, you had to look through um the botanicals and is that what it's called? Not >> botanical. >> Botanica. Encyclopedias. You got to find encyclopedias. You got to look through books. You can't Wikipedia was like a dirty word. Like you couldn't use Wikipedia. And so, but we all did, right? You looked at it and you're like, "Wait a minute. Why am I digging through books when I could just find the answer online?" And so, the kids like figured that out pretty fast and we're like, "We're just going to do this. we're going to switch some words around
051and we're going to make it so it's my own and etc. But you still had to learn to do it and you had to learn to do it correctly. And then you had to learn that like anybody can edit Wikipedia and it could be totally false. And so I can't I can't tell you a couple different times I turn in surveys based on Wikipedia and I'm like that's not true. And I'm like ah I didn't know that. So it was then it then it shifted from like all right we're not going to stop kids from using the internet. That's just not going to happen. So instead let's put our effort and energy into teaching kids how to use the internet. Let's teach them how to research, how to find uh trustworthy articles, how to look
052at different size, how to not or how to not look at one particular site in general, but you look at four, five, six sites to ensure that there's some reliability in what we're putting down on paper. Then along comes AI. AI will write it for you. However, AI doesn't use your voice. It's getting better. Like, it's getting to the point where it could probably take some writing samples and be pretty close to your voice, but it's not your voice. It's also not putting in every fact that you you should be putting in there. And so the thought process that they've had down there is why are we continuing to restrict the use of AI when in reality this is the next this is the next frontier. There are already students in schools who have accepted
053and turned AI into a model that their school is striving to to utilize who are already putting out apps or creating businesses that are making these students buou bucks. and they're just they're still in school and the thought process is well like well they really need to learn to write they need to write their own essay well if I'm a kid and I just developed an app that made $4 million why do I need to write an essay you know and I'm not saying they don't have to write essays don't get me wrong let's go back to literacy like that's very important however it's just a new frontier so now a lot of our effort needs to turn into what are we doing to ensure that our students because that's what we talked about during
054our strategic planning is how do we ensure that our students have the skills that they need in order to be successful in this in this life in this when they leave our when they leave high school. And unfortunately, one of those things, not unfortunately, it's fortunate, it's really cool. They're going to need AI. They're going to need to learn how to utilize it, but learn how to utilize it in in a in a productive manner. You know, use it as a tool and not as the endall. And so, it'll be really interesting to see kind of where where we continue to go with AI. Um, now with that said, AI needs boundaries and it needs regulations, right? It's not it's not this open-ended AI. I know I don't I can't tell you the last time
055I wrote a reference in the last, you know, two years because AI is often awesome at writing references or at least creating the the the structure, the basic structure from which I can go in and edit and saves me a lot of time. emails, speeches, um, uh, presentations, you know, all of those types of things can be done in AI in a snap of a finger that used to take us 8 n hours. But you still have to go through and you still have to edit it. The other thing is is when you use these open AI sources, it's taking your data and it's turning it into memory to then create the next iteration of itself. And in some cases, that's really cool. in other cases such as student student data, performance data, that becomes
056a huge liability issue. And so now what we need to do is we need to look at potential partners that can help us create, you know, closed source AI options. So that way that student data is not escaping out into the universe that it's stay it's staying within or utilizing having teachers utilize AI in such a way that it's not going to record student data that it's going to remain anonymous. But all of that needs to be regulated. And so over the next probably couple weeks, I'll be continuing to work with our attorney to develop an AI policy that I'll turn around and give to you guys because right now we don't have an AI policy and we're going to need an AI policy. Something that helps us create those regulations and and uh standards
057for which our our staff can operate with our students. So it's really cool. It's really scary. Um but all new things are. So, I just hope that, you know, when that time comes, Will Smith will be around still to to combat the robots for us. So, but that's a IRO joke. If you haven't seen it, you got to go see it. It's a great movie. Okay. Uh, so yeah, that's kind of the the extent of uh my board update. Any questions? Okay, we will move to discussion items. 7.01, Iowa Western Community College Memorandum of Understanding Careermies. So, Iowa Western um passed their bond. They're going to create a new building and they're going to put diesel mechanics and some um truck driver training schools out there. Their current building that they do diesel mechanics in,
058they're going to they're going to renovate. And and when I say renovate, they're going to clean it up. They're going to make it good. and they're going to um open it up to high school students. So, right now there's not a lot of uh options because they're so full um for high school students participate in those classes. So, by moving out to their new campus, the old campus is going to turn into a more of an high school ready um option. So, what they're looking to do is there's grant funding available for consortiums. So if you're an independent school school district or entity, it's hard to get the grant funding, but if you're a consortium and they can show that it's going to impact a lot of different people. So my recommend So what this
059is, this is a memorandum of understanding that allows us to enter into their consortium um which then basically allows our students to take up seats if seats become available in classes that they want to take. Okay? There's no uh requirement for our students for us to pay for x amount of seats. There's no money exchanging hands right now. It just basically says if if there are seats available, our students can take them and if they take them, that will pay the cost for them to attend the school just like we do every other Iowa Western course. So, that's really about it. Um, and I think any any opportunities we can give for our students to to participate in maybe a passion of theirs or a potential, you know, career would be would be great. So,
060>> any questions, comments? When do they start the collegiate courses? Like what at what grade? >> You can start per Iowa code, you can start as early as ninth grade. >> Okay. >> Yep. And we do have some ninth graders that are taking college level courses. >> Okay. >> Yep. So >> I love that. >> Yeah. It's pretty awesome. >> Mhm. >> Now, I don't know if they're going to have uh like for instance, I'm assuming if you're going to take truck driving school, you probably have to have a license. So, you know, there there might be some restrictions on that. I don't know that we want 14year-olds out there driving driving straight trucks right now. [laughter] So I was laughing. He's probably been driving since he was 14. Straight trucks. >> Say they drive
061[laughter] tractors. So yeah. >> So uh legally from a college standpoint, there might be some liability issues, but I do know that it's a pretty cool opportunity anytime we can expand course offerings for our students. So and like I said, there's no guarantee of it. It's just it helps them get the funding. You will see that the document that I provided for you has my signature on it and it's just because he had to have it for a certain grant deadline by last Thursday. So, I signed it with the stipulation that this is a temporary signature until you guys are able to review it, approve it, and we can get um director Wright's signature on it. Any questions? All right, move on to 7.02. 2 tennis court to parking lot conversion bid. >> Uh so
062we received I'm going to have you pull up. Well, I'll just we'll talk through this first. So the tennis court, the old tennis court we talked about just to kind of give you guys background. Um it was originally supposed to be dug up when the new tennis court went down. Uh and we were going to because we're going to put a lane through there that was going to give us another lane for the high school. The city has decided that they want to do an overhaul of Harry Langden. They just don't know when. they're anticipating potentially 2027, 2029, somewhere in that range. Uh so in the meantime, until they tell us where they want that lane to go out to, we're kind of stuck. And so the recommendation was right now it's a pad out
063there, like it's just a big asphalt pad is what it is. Can we turn it into temporary parking for the next however many years it takes the city to decide, which is usually later rather than sooner, and allow us to recoup potentially 76 parking stalls. So, um, Mr. Bench at the high school would be forever grateful if we would do this because his parking lot is completely full, as would I think anybody that attends any of most of our events. Having additional parking would be uh, greatly beneficial. Just so you guys know, uh we are set to receive $138,000 back uh from the tennis court project because how the tennis court project was bid was a maximum price which included a lot of contingency things. Well, there's approximately $138,000 of contingency that was included in
064that from uh additional ditch clearing, um unused irrigation allowance, uh the there's $36,500 left from existing uh tennis uh demo work. That's what it was going to cost to go. Now, a little bit of that um they did take the fence out, so that's not right now. That's that hasn't been accounted for. So, it'll be a little less than 36,500 cuz they did take out the fence. and then $51,000 uh for unused soil stabilization that we didn't have to be done. So that was like the fly ash if we needed to be able to put the the foundation down. So we have $138,000 coming back. Um so when we kind of were initially receiving bids, he said anticipated to be about $100,000 and that is because the city is requiring us to make the slab
065more structurally sound. Apparently the the core samples came back not great because there was some soft spots in the asphalt. And so what we have to do is we have to grind off what the engineers are recommending the city accepted was for us to grind off the top 2 in of asphalt and then go back over with the two inch over 2-in overllayment of of asphalt and then it would be striped and then we would put in what the city has approved as curb stops um or parking stops kind of those big cement deals um that will then be installed around the perimeter so cars just don't drive off the edge. So, cuz the fence is gone. So, um that's kind of the the recommendation is to do that. Um if you go, uh Dr.
066Arman, I sent you an email on this. There you go. So, we did receive two bids. Uh one was from High Plains, which is the c the the the company that put in our tennis court, who owns the contract right now. Their bid to do this work, and they're apples to apples. I had uh Brett Wallace from Project Advocates go through and compare them. Um [cough] their bid was $125,58. If you go back to the other one, this is Century Asphalt came in at uh $91,429.50. So recommendation would be to go with Century Asphalt um to do the work and then we would receive back $130,000 and change. Um so we would still be about roughly $40,000 uh under budget on a project that was already under budget. So tennis court was already under budget
067and then we're going to get $40,000 back from that. >> And we've used Sentry Asphalt before. >> Yes. A ton. Yep. They're local. They I would say they've done 95% of our asphalt projects around here. Now, one of the things that they mentioned is the work's got to be done quickly because uh if you guys give the go-ahehead uh tonight, they'll start grinding tomorrow because um asphalt companies uh close down around Thanksgiving depending on the temperature and the weather. And so uh they need to get it going. They need to get it ground and laid and moving. >> Can they get it all done before? >> They think so. >> Yep. >> Because whether >> unless it's changed, they're >> He said he would turn out a crew ASAP. He was going to have it
068out this weekend and I said, "We don't technically approve you until Monday." So I said, "Can't do that." So they didn't even have a bid to me till 2 today. So I'm like, "Well, unless you're going to do work for free." So >> any other questions, comments? It's just too bad it wasn't done for football season. >> Yeah. >> Be ready for clash though. >> Where are they going to How are we going to tie it into the existing because it's kind of right where >> Yep. coming in. >> Yeah. If you go back to the uh We go back to the It's that this bid. Oh, yeah. This bid does include Can you zoom in just a little bit for me, please? >> This bid does include you see milling. Um there you go.
069>> [snorts] >> Uh >> it's 25,000 square feet as well. So >> number two. >> Yeah. So milling it. And then the bottom is uh we going to saw cut out of the curb and then create a lane a twocar lane in and out >> right there. Okay. >> Yep. >> Will it be used through the school day? Will students be allowed to park there? >> I think I think uh Mr. Finch talked about potentially having um freshmen park out there. So, >> do we have cameras on that lot? >> We do. Yeah. Well, that's part of the uh part of the uh camera install. So, which will should be taking place next week as well. So, since they're going to do this as soon as possible, how is that going to um will it
070interrupt? >> Nope. >> Cars coming in and out. >> No, because they'll do it. They'll do uh they'll do I mean OB it's just kind of offset from the from the road a little bit and then um I think it'll go pretty quickly. I think they'll be able to grind it off and I think can you what do you think it'll be a day of pouring? >> Um yeah it'll probably run a day. Um the milling will take the most time but the trucks when they mill will be right next to the milling machine. So they'll actually be on the lot. So they won't be out in the parking. So and they have to wait for a little bit for the temperature to rise for it to work. >> So it won't be as long
071as they're not really as long as they're not coming and going arrival and dismissal, we should be pretty good. >> So okay, >> any other comments? >> Okay, we'll move on to 7.03. 03 high school gymnasium speaker system. >> So high school gymnasium sound system is original to the building. 25 years old. It's no longer functioning. I mean again 25 years ago they they've gotten their use out of it. There are a couple speakers that are blown. Uh the Bluetooth is sketchy at best. Um doesn't stay connected to to any of our sound systems and then the microphones depending on where you stand in there don't really work uh super awesome. So this we received two bids for the system. One was from Midwest Music, $65,637. And then Electric Sound, $59,975. Uh, and reviewing the
072two bids, which Mr. Vincent has a pretty decent background in speaker systems and sound and electrical in general. So, I had him kind of uh, vet the two proposals. Electric sound best bid is actually two more speakers. So, there's 10 speakers versus eight. We currently have 12 in there, 12 small speakers. So be replacing 12 small speakers with 10 larger speakers. Um Bluetooth and the integration through the commons cafeteria was the main reason we liked electronic sounds. So the idea is is that um the the the sound will be integrated all the way through the the gymnasium area and the commons area and the cafeteria area. And then they'll install two speakers um out in the commons area. So then that'll actually integrate in with the auditorium as well. So then regardless of where you're
073at, if we have a basketball game and you come out to the uh auditorium, we'll have the screen down. We'll be broadcasting the game out in the commons area and you'll be able to hear everything that happens. If they make announcements, if they do whatever, you'll be able to hear that loud and clear through the commons area. Same thing with performances. If you have to go out in the area because you have a young one or you just need to get up and stretch, we'll be able to broadcast and you'll hear the music much better through in the player, whatever we have going on the auditorium through the speakers. And then what's really cool is is for certain events like uh the the example I gave is the Bluetooth speakers because of the Bluetooth. It's
074not only speakers, it's microphones as well. So hot wireless mics that'll be be able to be connected uh continuously through the high school gym and into the commons area uh that whole area. And the reason that's pretty cool is because like I think of the uh um uh the what's it called? Craft fair. Like craft fair goes all the way through the school. But if somebody could walk around at the mic and go up to uh let's say they're going to Aaron's Aeron's uh boutique there. I could be like, "All right, I'm standing here by Aaron's boutique. You know, she got really cool stuff here. Does anybody want to come out and take a look? She's at booth. Whatever. Right outside in the commons area." And then I could walk down and be like, "All
075right, I'm at Tim's woodworking stand and Tim over here is been doing work working for 72 years and he, you know, you know, you could kind of, it's kind of cool. You can do something like that for wrestling application." A lot of times kids are walking around through the whole area and then when you're calling people to a mat, you might announce and say, you know, I need Alex Sorenson's going to wrestle uh, you know, Bubba Sterm on Mat 3. Uh, need you guys you guys out there. That'd be a pretty good match. You got speed versus Braun. [laughter] pretty good, but you know, people just be able to hear it. So, it's just it's just an overall upgrade to the to the speak to the to the system. >> Will there be an AB
076and not that we would necessarily want it to, but at some point there might be a necessity to use it in the gym and not in the commons because so there's a there's zones. Okay. >> Correct. Yep. There's zones. You can turn them off, turn them on. Um the other thing is is there's a kind of a phase two. I didn't lump them together and I just wanted to do one phase at a time. Phase two would then be putting a speaker system uh smaller speaker system in the small gym. So then that way because we can we can communicate between the two, but it was an extra like $35,000 and or $30,000. And I thought, you know, at this point, let's just get the the the commons in the gym area taken care of
077because it's our highest need. And then we'll, you know, expand out in future years out into the small gym. Especially if we can get booster club or somebody after they're in maybe that's the next project to the booster club. So, >> and we do we keep the old equipment? >> Yeah, we can. >> All right. >> Yeah, >> perfect. >> Got some ideas for it. >> Huh? >> Got some ideas for it. >> I do. >> Okay. Perfect. There you go. >> It's definitely nice having a speaker system that works. >> It would be nice. Yes. I can't tell you how many how many times in the middle of of a dance performance, the music is just click clicked off and then you just hear them five, six, seven, eight. Well, and then the music
078will come right back on. sometime or >> just the bad sound in general? >> Yeah, the bad sound in general. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> When would this work take place? >> Uh they're going to start it over Christmas. >> Any other comments? >> Okay, we'll move to 7.04 Northwestern College Memorandum of Understanding. This is just for them to allow us to for us to allow them to consider sending us students, soup teachers, clinical teachers. So, the more partnerships we can have, the better. Any questions, comments on this one? No. Okay. 7.05 employee request for leave. We've evaluated the request and have determined based on the review that it is necessary to hold a close session under Iowa code section 21.51 I. Close session is recommended to discuss this employee request for other paid or unpaid
079leave per Iowa code 21.51A. Close session is appropriate to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that governmental body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds. And I take it the employee did request close session. >> Yep, they did request close session. All right. >> Can I get a motion to move to close session? >> Motion to move to close session. Vote, please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Storm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mr. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey,
080hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Good. Everybody's mic's on. Yep. All right. Returning back from close section or close session, we will move into comments and suggestions. This is the second portion of our meeting where we open the floor to any of our online public that may have uh something to share with the board. >> Okay, we'll give it a couple minutes. How soon will they start the diesel mechanic program for? >> Well, it's going to be I mean it's going to be a little bit because they have to build the building first. Yeah. So, I would say >> probably year and a half to two years. >> Yeah. Because they would have to >> They're just trying to get the grant funding now. So that way they can have >> it in place. Yep.
081I'm excited to see how many kids sign up for that. >> Yeah, they should. A lot. >> What's that? >> A lot of them should. >> Yeah, >> they make a lot of money. >> I just saw the statistics, too, on the mechanics right now. >> Uhhuh. There's shops that are well over $250 an hour. >> Teach myself. >> All right, we'll go ahead and move into action items. 9.01, 901 Iowa Western Community College Memorandum of Understanding Careermies. >> Mr. President, like to make the motion to approve the Iowa Western Community College memorandum of understanding for careermies as presented. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mr. Sheffield, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mr. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >>
082Mr. Right. >> Yes. 9.02 tennis court to parking lot conversion bid. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the tennis court conversion bid from Century Asphalt for the amount of $91,429.50. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Stir, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. Mr. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> 9.03. High school gymnasium speaker system. >> Mr. President, >> yes. I'd >> like to make the motion to approve the high school gymnasium speaker system upgrade quote from electronic sound for $59,975. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mr. Star, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. Mrs. McDaniel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >>
083yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Ray, >> yes. >> 9.04, Northwestern College Memorandum of Understanding. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the Northwestern Collegeou as provided. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Mrs. McDaniel. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Senson, >> yes. >> Mr. Star, >> yes. >> Mr. Ray, >> yes. >> 9.05. Employee request for leave. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I would like to make a motion to approve the request for unpaid leave as presented for employee A. >> Second. >> Vote, please. >> Mrs. McDaniel, >> yes. Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. Mrs. Sheffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Star, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >>
084yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> We're going to change the order up a little bit here between 10 and 11. So, we're going to talk about items of interest, future board meetings. So, we have an organizational board meeting December 1st, 2025 at 6:30. Anything you want to add on that? >> Uh, nope. So, we'll start the meeting. Um there will be a we have to do a a board hearing that day too on a on a facility, don't we? Or no, we've moved that to the se 15th. So yeah, so we'll start the meeting. Uh we'll uh dismiss the the current board and then we'll roll back in with the new board. So >> Okay. And then 11.02 special board meeting scheduled for December 8th, 2025 at 5:30. >> I just threw out 5:30.
085Does that work for people or is that too early? Too My thought is if we have to interview three different groups, I would factor in about an hour per that gives us that takes us to about 9:00 on that particular night. So, and make that work. Okay. Okay. And then we're going to move to 10.01 superintendent midyear goal review. and then we'll end the meeting in close session. So, we have evaluated the request and have determined based on the review that is necessary to hold a close session under Iowa code section 21.51i. Close session is recommended to discuss the superintendent's review. For Iowa code 21.51i, close session is appropriate to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to
086that individual's reputation and when that individual requests a close session. And you request close session. >> Okay. Do we have a vote to move to close session? >> Motion to move to close session. Second >> vote, please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shuffle, >> yes. >> Mr. Storm, >> yes. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> yes. >> Miss Atkins, >> yes. >> Miss McDaniel, >> yes. Dur.