001Hello. Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. How are you doing, Emma? >> You're good. >> All right, we'll go ahead and call this meeting to order. Can we take roll call, please? >> Miss Atkins. >> Mr. Bach, >> here. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> here. Mrs. Sando >> here. >> Mr. Sorenson, >> Mr. Sturm >> here, >> Mr. Wright >> here. Approval of the January 19th, 2026 agenda. Do we have a motion to approve, please? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Vote, please. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sandow, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. Okay. At this time, I'd like to open the public hearing uh for discussion regarding the athletic building. Okay. Uh I'm going to have you scroll down
002to the information. Keep going all the way down. All right. So, here is Keep going down. So, there's no formal discussion. Uh we just got to present it. And this is the exact same information I presented at the last meeting. uh or the meeting in December uh when you guys uh voted to accept the um donation from uh the Marshall family. Uh so this is the specs that we're looking at right now. Approximately $1.4 million for the uh uh the building of the addition and then about $1.2 million for the renovation which would include a complete gut job of the current athletic building. though, um, which would be, um, with the exception of the plumbing would remain where it's at, but other than that, it would be, um, new insulation, new siding, new roof, new
003HVAC, uh, new flooring. Um, there would be some tile work we've gone, we've done in there, and originally we thought we were going to get away without doing some tile work, but it's it's it's worse than what I had thought. So, there's some tile work and it just didn't make any sense to put that much money into a building and then not not finish it correctly. Now, as far as like um benches and that kind of stuff that are in there, um we'll just we'll kind of add those as we go. So, there's nothing nothing like that. We'll probably add like some lockers at a later later date. We just need to get the building um up to code. Um we need to install sprinklers throughout the building. Um so, we need to get it
004up to code. We need to make it so it's it's just a good building. And then uh on the flip side um looking at um uh the addition then then that's so that's number one. Do you guys have any question for number one which would be the um kind of the renovation of the of the building. >> So the 1.2 for the original that we only originally had a million set aside right. >> Yes. Okay. Yeah. So we so the other point two will probably still come out of bond funding because right now we are sitting >> um about $1.8 million under budget and so we have some capacity there um to have it come out of bond funding. Um >> so it's kind of comes down to you know if you're going to do
005it let's let's do it right and be done with it. We were under budget in a lot of other areas. This would be one that because of the sheer amount of work that takes place within that building it's probably going to be a little bit over budget. So again we don't know. We haven't gotten any. These are all estimates and so far 98% of the estimates that we've had from the architects have come in under budget. So hopefully this would be the same thing. So um but I appreciate their overestimation because that helps us when it comes time for, >> you know, it's always nice to be under budget versus overbudget, but inevitably sometime that'll probably happen. So um but yeah, it'll be pretty much pretty much done. So, the plan right now is to
006we're time is of the essence when it comes to to um putting this building up and renovating it. And so, um to go through the public bid process to to get the building purchased because the building the steel structure is our is our is of the utmost importance right now. We got to get that order. We got to get that done. They're just finalizing plans now, which means that if we were going to go through with the public bidding process of putting together a a package, putting it out to bid, having that come back, that's probably a four to six week process. That's how we've been doing it. Um otherwise the other option is we can go through uh the public purchasing process which is what we've done for like our LED lights um and
007some of those types of things where the state has already negotiated contracts for like a business like they they have a metal building supplier. So we're looking to go to through the through that method because we can go through blue scope and they have to provide us the state pricing on what the metal building is. So we would purchase the metal building and then the other metal pieces like the siding and that kind of stuff, the roof structure um for the for the building as kind of one package through the state purchasing process which allow us they have a meeting Wednesday and if that goes well I mean as soon as they can put together a purchase price and they can get it approved by the state then we're you know we're essentially I can
008bring it before the board for an approval and then we can get in line and then once we get in line then it's 12 weeks from there. So you can see like if we can save a month, it probably is the difference between us getting this done by football season and and not having it done by football season. So that that would be a high recommendation for me. You're still getting the purchase price that is that the state has already negotiated um and has already approved, you know, by getting the metal building. And then the other option is is you can do one of two things. And this is what we're feeling out with the company right now. they can the state has approved them both as the metal building supplier and as the constructor
009of the metal building. And so based upon their their install price um if it comes in under budget between the building and what they would put pay to have a put up, we might just go with it all together. Otherwise, the other option is we buy the building um as a contract with them and then we put out to bid the construction of the building, you know, the erection of the building and then the the the the companies that would bid on that would be people who have a who are trained in putting up that particular building. So, I don't I remember there's two different brands of building. I' I've had Director Storm look at kind of the the options with me, but there's two different um brands of building that we can choose from.
010And then we would pick a contractor who's used to putting up that and they would construct the building. So we're just I'm we'll know a lot more after our meeting on Monday. So but or not Monday, Wednesday. Wednesday. >> Yes. Any questions on on those things? So again, and then probably and then for sure the renovation pre piece of the building that would be a a contract too. So we would either lump that in with the building. we would say, okay, you're going to erect the building or you're going to do the and you're going to do the renovation of the building or if if this blue scope ends up erecting the building, then the renovation piece and everything really inside. So that 1.4 is is a completed building. So that that's not that's not
011the that's not the foundation work. That's not the I mean that's that includes all the foundation work, all of the turf, all of the um everything on the that's that's completed within the building. The the metal the metal building itself is just a a piece of that 1.4 million. So you would still take the rest of that which would be, you know, installing the turf and building the the storage cabinets and and putting the stairs to the mezzanine and doing the foundation and all that would still go in the package of the that would we kind of give one contract out for the renovation. >> The mats are included. >> What's that? >> Mats are included. >> Mats are not included. Okay. >> So we have to figure that piece out ourselves. So this is
012just getting the building up. So, uh, as soon as their plans are done, then I have, uh, meeting I'll get a meeting scheduled, two different MAT companies, and we'll talk about what mats look like. We have talked about doing some fundraising for the mats, but until I know what the what the dollar amount is, it's hard to do hard to throw that out there. So, either way, we'll it'll get done. We'll figure out a way to get it done. Any other discussion? >> And the fill has to come up. Didn't we say three feet? >> So that was one of the things. Yeah, >> essentially that has to get So it was the east end of the building where it comes out. There's areas that it has to be three feet. >> Is that because
013the grade? >> Because of the grade. >> Yeah. So that will it will be bringing in dirt fill. It'll be uh you know pouring the footings. >> Um and then a foundation wall all the way around that side of the building. >> Yeah. So essentially they'll pour a foundation around and then the building will sit on a foundation. So you'll see a three-foot concrete foundation and then the building will be sitting on top of that. So, so but they had thought originally that the state was going to come back and tell us we had to raise it a foot and the state came back and sit three feet. So, >> or we could build it like the middle school and just go down three steps or up three steps and not haul anything. >> Yeah,
014that's right. >> I'm just kidding. >> So, >> but that's a that's a small step. I mean, a small uh impediment. So, Any other questions? >> It's still exciting. It's still I mean everybody's still super pumped about >> Absolutely. So, what's funny is we have we've actually fielded some phone calls from from um primarily girls in local districts who are extremely excited about our dedication to the sport of girls wrestling and um kind of putting money where our mouth is and and creating a space that's for them that there's quite a few girls in neighboring districts from what I'm hearing that are interested in coming to wrestle for Lewis Central and coming to school here. So, but you got one and two covered. >> Yep. >> All right. As part of the public hearing, we
015also open the floor to anyone online uh for any comments in regards specifically to the athletic building. We'll give it a couple minutes here. By the way, just so people know, last time we were having internet issues with building, which is why the broadcast was so bad. So, we believe we fixed the internet issues and so everything should be streaming much better. So, >> well, I think another positive with this uh new athletic building is going to be, you know, like for Special Olympics and stuff, you know, if you have kids that can't be out in the sun or in the hot, you know, temperatures. Uh I think it'll give them uh access to do their their skills inside >> in a temperature controlled environment. >> So I really look forward to that also. >>
016Yeah, great point. >> Okay. Hearing no online comments, we will move to close this portion of the public hearing and move on to commendations. Good news. >> I don't have a formal presentation tonight. Um it's been kind of a fairly quiet month outside of we um just had our first show choir competition this weekend. Uh the middle school did well. I'm not sure exactly where they placed, but I do know that the high school placed third or third during the day performance and then fourth in the evening performance. Um uh outside of that basketball team are are you know they're they're competing. Uh wrestling's doing very well both boys and girls. So, um, just a very busy time of year. We do have, I will point out tomorrow, we actually have, so there's an association
017that recognizes professional athletes from Council Bluffs. So, it's in their own association. They had apparently had a presentation last year in which they awarded they adopted uh several people into their organization as as professional athletes. Council Bluffs. Um they're having it tomorrow and I think that there's uh three essential athletes. Is that correct? I think it's >> Yep. I think it's Max Dugen, um Thomas Fidoni, and uh uh >> Oh, four. There's four. Cole Jensen, and then uh is it uh Greek, uh the wrestler, um uh the guy Grigo? Uh >> Georgie. I have enough. >> Georgie. There you go. >> Georgie, that's it. Sorry. I apologize, Georgie. Not very good at at foreign names. So, >> any additional commendations? Good news. All right, we'll move on to comments and suggestions. This is the first
018portion of our meeting where we open the floor to the public for any direct comments that they have for the board. We'll give it a couple minutes here for anyone online. You always wait for Emma to give me the thumbs up. Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Do we have an updated personnel sheet? >> Yes, there is an updated personnel sheet. There's a few ads on there, including a high school math teacher. Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> Motion to approve. Second. >> Any discussion? Vote please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sando, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Right. >> Yes. Reports 7.01 curriculum instruction and assessment report with Dr. Hartman. It's >>
019between myself and Andrea and Dr. Hazing. We have five minutes for our collective reports according to the agenda. So I will be quick. >> Okay. So uh mine I thought I would walk through uh the curriculum review process at Lewis Central. Um so we have things on a seven-year cycle when it comes to our different content areas. And so I thought I'd just start with like why do we have a curriculum review process? Like um why why did I put this in place? So really the main thing is this process all allows us to have the opportunity to look at state standards which is constantly on a review cycle. They just updated language arts couple years ago, math last year and then they just updated social studies. So the state is always updating standards. So
020we always need to be thinking about and looking at like what's been updated and how does that what does that mean for our instruction or the materials that we have. Um, it allows us to also be constantly looking at like what's high quality, what's evidence-based. Um, at the end I'm going to talk to you about where we're at with literacy, but um, like the science of reading has really impacted like what is classified as like a high quality or evidence-based uh, curriculum. So, that matters too um, that we include that. Um, we're also looking at content across grade levels. So, this gives us the opportunity to look like K through 12 and like do we have any gaps? Are we missing anything? Where are some strengths? Um, this also allows that conversation of uh we
021we love this term here, this guaranteed viable curriculum, but basically what that means is if you have twins and they are next door to each other, you should be able to go into each of those teachers classrooms and know that those two kids are getting essentially the same type of instruction. you know, the teacher might add their flavor to it, but they're walking out of that classroom with this the same uh material, the same content being given to them. Um, we also do curriculum review just to be able to be responsive to student needs and our goals. Uh, we're always looking at data. That's a big thing that our district leadership team does and our building leadership team does. So, as we look at data, like what is that data telling us about where our
022students are having success or maybe not having some success and what do we need to do about it? Um, and then this allows us to have this like predictable cycle. Uh, one of the things that drives me crazy is like um like a constant kind of like we need this material, we need we need this material. Um, Andrea and Brent don't let me spend all of the time. So like I need to have things on a cycle so that we can think about budget and how to afford um some different things. So this would be very similar to what's happening in a lot of other school districts. In fact, when I first came, I asked other curriculum directors like, "What does your process look like?" And so, I built our process based off of what
023other schools had sent me and what they're doing and kind of tweaked it for us. So, this would look similar to other districts our size. Um, so then just a little bit more about like what is a curriculum review uh cycle. So, again, it's looking at the state standards, looking at our learning expectations. Uh part of the process is um a committee will get together and I'll talk about that here in a little bit, but that committee usually would have some agreed upon criteria that we're using to look at resources and then we're evaluating resources. Um engaging others. So even though we can't have every single teacher on the committee, we still want to get their feedback and engage them in the review process as well as other stakeholders. Um selecting materials eventually as part
024of that curriculum review process. And then the last two bullet points. Um, and some places get forgotten, but I feel like these are two really, really important things that make for a successful implementation. But you have to specifically plan for implementation. So like what does professional development look like once we have these? What does it look like if teachers get stuck? What does it look like to collect data around how instruction is going? Um, and then it's this monitoring results for continuous improvement. So, doesn't mean just because we got a curriculum that things will be perfect, but it means that like if things aren't looking great, we need to step in and be able to think about what we need to do to provide some support. Um, so that I've built into our curriculum review
025process so we make sure that we um hit that and plan for it. So, all of that to say, it's a multi-step process and I'll show you here in a little bit, but it takes time. It takes a lot of time to go through a curriculum review process and it should because we're going to have those materials for at least seven years. Um, and it's also nice. I like the seven years because it takes it takes time to figure out like is this curriculum working? Is it not working? And also just watching the process of of teachers tackling uh using new materials like it's a lot. It puts a lot of strain on teachers to use new materials. There's professional development that they have to go through which is usually on top of the professional
026development they're already getting in their building. um there's just a lot of like change management and change theory that goes into using some different resources and materials and um it can be a little bit taxing. So um we try not to have heavy lifts like backtoback when it comes to our curriculum review. Um so here's what our Lewis central curriculum review cycle looks like and um I've shared this presentation with Brent so he can share it with you guys as well. Uh, but you can see that um everything is mapped out and I'll talk you through the different stages here in a little bit. But you can see every content area has their place and we are doing things before we ever get to the point where we're like picking out materials and I'll show
027you that in a little bit. But this is just to show you how things align on that seven-year year cycle. Okay. So then here's the six stages. So if you recall each each content area is in a different place along the way. Um so in the first uh stage that content area is really looking at like what are your standards and what's really essential from those standards because if we don't have that information we don't know what we're looking for when we start looking at curricular materials. So we start this whole process with standards. Then next is looking at data. So, it's a lot a little bit easier when it comes to language arts and math because we've got fastbridge data, we've got ISAs data, but we're looking at some sort of data to start
028to analyze and ask some questions about how our resources are working for us. Um, then there's that stage of like we're actually now looking at some different resources, getting some presentations. Um, there might be a process where we're doing some piloting, getting teacher feedback, then we make a recommendation to the board. Um, and at the same time, we're thinking about implementation planning. So, um, again, I'll show you here in a little bit what it looks like with literacy right now, but by the time something comes to you guys as a recommendation for purchase, there's been a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of investment that's gone into that process. Um, so who participates? The curriculum review process is facilitated by me. Um, I like to have the building principles be a part
029of that and they have been so far. But, you know, when the rubber hits the road and that curriculum is purchased, it's the principles who are the leaders in the building who need to make sure that implementation is happening and they're doing their part. So, it's important that they're part of the whole process along the way. Um, teachers who are recommended by their principles serve on the committee. Uh, we do provide them a stipen because most of that work is happening outside of school hours. Um so for example for literacy we've had some people participate in developing a district literacy plan. Um they were the same people many of the same people who were recommended for our literacy curriculum view review just because they've had a lot of background knowledge and have been part of
030the process. Um, so then again, what happens after adoption? I kind of talked through this a little bit, but this is really important to me that we really talk through like how is staff going to be supported? Thinking about how we're measuring progress, talking about professional learning and making that purchase, um, supporting our instructional coaches, thinking about for principles, like what are the look fors that they need to think about when they're going into classrooms, mapping out the timeline, um, thinking about student outcomes. So really like this is not what I want to happen. Like I don't want to just throw materials out to teachers and be like hope it works. You know, we're really thoughtful and the next steps after the purchase happens. Okay, so this is the last part. I just want to
031show you then like what this looks like. We bumped up literacy on the curriculum review cycle for several reasons. There's been some new standards. There's been some updated legislation. um just in looking at our data and some feedback, there's just a lot of things at play that made sense to move it up and thinking about what it's opposite of in the curriculum review cycle and for budgeting purposes made a lot of sense to move it up. Um so I just want to talk through a little bit about where we've been so far. So when we kicked this off in September, uh we started with it was great to be able to have some board priorities. We talked about how one of the board priorities is literacy. Um, and then we've also made connections to we
032have this district literacy plan now that's been uh finalized. Tomorrow is our last meeting on it. Making connections to that. Um, there's some new state guidance and recent legislation that is out about literacy that definitely impacts us. Um, so we talked about that. We looked at our data. We looked at ISAS and Fastbridge. Um, and then we looked at our essential standards that we have. So that was September. um October we took a dive into structured literacy versus balanced literacy. If you get bored, that's a hot topic that you can research, but that's a big part of some of what's happening at the state level and legislatively. They're talking about structured literacy versus balanced literacy. Um so we needed to make sure that our committee had a really good handle on what that means and
033what that means for our selection. Uh we took a deep dive into the literacy standards. I think not just because I was a language arts teacher but the literacy standards really are I feel like the most complex standards that are there are many pieces to them. So some of the things under the literacy standards that we studied was things like text complexity use of evidence knowledge building so building prior knowledge for kids. Um there are college and career readiness anchor standards tied into each of the um literacy standards. And then we talked about depth of knowledge. So like all of those things in and of themselves can get a little bit complex and then you put it all together and it's all part of your literacy standards. Like it's a lot. And so that's why
034I think being on the committee and making an informed decision is so important because they've taken the time to really invest and dive in and make sure they truly understand the standards and what we're asking what the state is asking for our kids to know and be able to do. Um in December we came back to um this would be another fun one to research the the reading and writing ropes. So if you think about the science of reading um a lot of that is about the science of how kids learn how to read and it is depicted in these reading and writing ropes but also how kids learn how to write. Very informative um really great work. Um and so we made sure we all had the same understanding of what that looks like.
035Um, our secondary team had some questions about what does structured literacy and the science of reading look like at the secondary level. So, we've read some articles about that. Um, and then in December lastly, we talked about there's an intersection of curriculum between engagement and student behavior and then like what's also in your content. So, we talked about that because I'd hate to get a curriculum and then people be like students can't see themselves in there. They're not engaged. You know, our student behavior is terrible. So like that's important to talk about when we talk about curriculum. Uh we also talked about um staff survey uh maybe some other stakeholder survey and input and we've started to collect some survey some some input from other areas. Um and then because it been so much we
036just kind of did a year and review what have we covered so far. Um so we get together on Thursday again for our January meeting. Um, and we're going to start looking at there's national rubrics out there that show you what a good curriculum looks like, especially when it comes to the science of reading. Um, so we're going to look at those rubrics and we're going to start to identify like what are our priorities when we start looking at literacy curriculum. Um, and then in spring, fall, um, so March, April, May, we have vendor presentations from different companies coming in. Um there's a website called edreports.com and that uh website is a great website that reviews curriculum. It'll give them a green or good rating if they pass a lot of different criteria. Um so
037all of the vendors we have coming in would be green on ed reports. Um, and then going into next year is when we'll probably do another couple vendor presentations in the fall and then we should be ready to start thinking about what materials we're going to be purchasing and that purchase then and the implementation would be the purchase would come at the towards the end of 2627 and the implementation would be the 2728 school year. So that just kind of shows you the process with an actual content area kind of plugged into there. But hopefully you can see like we invest a lot of time building our knowledge and getting on the same page and trying to make a really high quality decision that can last for a long time and that's inclusive of a
038lot of different things. Um, so that's all I have for the presentation, but what questions do you guys have about that process? So, you said that you reviewed I don't know if you go back. I'm just curious. Did you make any changes and is there any noticeable changes in test results that came through? >> Yeah, sometimes you have to wait a couple years to see some changes. Um, I will I will say one of the highlights I could say is that a couple years ago we added UFly. And so that was kind of outside of the curriculum cycle. We kind of had to put a band-aid on things because our current materials weren't doing a great job of getting at phonics instruction. So we added UFly and a lot of what I talked about with
039like the implementation planning like we did that for UFly. We thought a lot about like walkthroughs. What are we going to observe? What kind of feedback are we going to give? Um, and we've seen some really cool results with with UFly. I think teachers are enjoying it, kids are enjoying it, and I've just preliminarily seen some of the data, but in the grade levels where we're using UFly, we are seeing some of the biggest gains that we've seen in our FastBridge data, um, our literacy data screener that we've seen a long time. So, at some point, I'll share that with you. Um, but I think that's a testament to just really thinking that through. Um, math. We just got some new math materials last year. Um, so we'll we'll see. Um, yet to be determined
040if we're seeing some results there, but sometimes it takes a year or two to really see some of the change just to give teachers a chance to get to know the materials and and begin to work with it. >> I do have a question too. So, when it comes to the PE portion of it, do how does that process work? Because the rubrics we use I feel like maybe are outdated. >> Did you say PD or PE? >> PE. >> Just because like the past I think it should be pass field maybe or something different because like a kid will get an F because it can only do 10 push-ups, things like that. Like is that something that we could look at here or is that just >> Yeah, I mean grading would be separate.
041I mean I would I would love to go down the road of grading conversations at some point. Um but typically the grading process wouldn't come up through the curriculum review process. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then another question I had is you said you have you include the principles which then ask their group >> whatnot. >> How often does that group change? Um, so like right now with literacy, they'll they'll be doing this for this year and next year and then next year when we change topics, like it'll be a different it'll be a different group. Um, and for example, I think next year is maybe like ind industrial tech and business. Well, that's like a handful of teacher, you know, like there's only a couple teachers at the high school that teach that.
042So like you're on the committee, you know, and and we probably will streamline things since it's a smaller group and not such a big >> really limiting teachers from being involved, right? >> Yeah. I mean, I can't have all of them, but um so there is a little bit of a a limit. You know, I can't have every craft teacher and Titan Hill teacher. They all would teach literacy. Um but yes, hopefully if people want to engage in that process that there's some opportunity at some point, whether it's math or another content area they could hop in. Yeah. >> Are the principles selecting from each grade? >> That's a good question. I'd have to think through who's on my I believe so because when we first started the district literacy plan like that was the
043initial intent was like let's make sure we can have everything hit. So I think that they've been pretty conscious I'm trying to think. >> Yeah. >> And I would ask if it also includes special education. >> Yes. >> From every building. >> Um I'm trying to think right now for literacy. Um I don't know if we have special education from every building but that's a great point. Okay. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> data is probably one of my strong suits. >> Yes. >> Um, so I like statistics and analysis of of information. >> Yeah. >> So I'm looking forward to to seeing the results at the end of this year. >> Awesome. >> To to see how things have progressed. So >> perfect. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions for Dr. Hartman?
044Good job. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for your hard work. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> All right, we will move on to finance report with Mrs. Race. >> Oh, well, Lisa already took up our five minutes. So, >> and the next and the next and the next five minutes. >> You were talking fast. >> Uh, if anybody wondered, the game is over now. >> I like dang it. Okay. So, uh we have our um expenditures year to date as of the end of December. Um so, obviously the biggest one to keep in mind is the general fund and think of it as the concept of we've had four months of our biggest salary um amounts in there and then plus uh some of the um other smaller amounts for um six months. So
045running at 34% uh we are looking really um good in the general fund. Um the rest of them look to be doing um pretty well. Um as well PEPA will see a bigger influx towards the end when we um start doing more projects. Um the same with some of those capital projects as well once um we start getting um into the end of the school year. Um and then the same with um nutrition and our enterprise funds. So everything is looking good there. Um so uh I wanted to touch on um the history of school infrastructure funding in Iowa. I promise it will not make it super boring. Um so I know that uh Dr. raising um since the email with the legislative update about save dollars and where there's those are going. So I
046wanted to start off by showing or talking about where all those came from. So in the beginning that was the school infrastructure local option sales tax also known as silo. Um and that began as a county bycounty initiative to shift infrastructure burdens away from property tax. So each county was able to implement the additional sales tax of 1 cent. Um and it was all specifically for schools with the primary goal being to reduce reliance on bond issues which are paid for by property taxes. So the challenge uh came as revenue was tied to local retail sales creating massive inequities um between retail rich hubs and rural counties. So think of uh you know De Moine versus you know um a Glenwood uh big difference there even a a pretty huge difference between uh De Moine
047uh and Council Bl. So, um, I went back and looked at looked at those numbers to compare just to see, uh, where they were at cuz I had never looked in the aspect of Louis Central. So, um, the legislature tried to change that. Lisa, can you go to the next slide for me? in and they came up with the um save which is the secure and advanced vision for education and that is when the um state replaced silo with the uniform statewide penny sales tax. So the key change with that is that save funds were now collected statewide and distributed to all school district on a per pupil basis. Um so this ensured equity across um the state for these funds. Um there's been a couple of times that they have extended the um length
048of the statewide uh penny and right now we are extended through 201. And so that's able to provide us a reliable stream for a long range. Um and it also allows for bonding as well with those funds if needed. Uh the purpose of the save is still um strictly governed by local voted revenue purpose statements. So everybody in the Lewis Central School District that voted for the revenue purpose statement had a say in what we were spending those for. And our revenue purpose statements is funds are exclusively for infrastructure and property tax relief. So nobody in Lewis central nor anyone across the state can spend any of these money on salary or textbook or anything like that. So the major projects that we spend our money on Lisa if you'll go to the next slide.
049Um so we use it for technology integration all of our Chromebooks that we purchase for students safety and security upgrades. So, our installation of secure entrances, camera systems across the district, uh critical infrastructure, HVAC, roofs, school buses, vans, uh carpet, anything um like that is we use these funds for that. And then we've also used it for the fine arts and CTE expansions um as well. The other thing that you are able to do is uh pay down bonds with this and which uh the district did do that with the uh Titan Hill bond that was originally a geo bond and paid it down with or the end of the bond and paid that down in conjunction with Titan Hill with the save dollars. Does anybody have any questions? I know Brent might touch a
050little bit more on one of the files that is proposed that's sitting out there that would uh change how sales tax dollars are used. >> That was going to be my question. >> Yeah. >> So, >> yeah. And well, I guess the time you guys have any more questions for Andrea? >> Thank you, Andrea. >> Thank you. Okay, then we will move into >> the superintendent report. >> Okay. And Lisa, I did send you an email. Uh, yep, that's it. So, first of all, before we go to this one, I'll touch base with kind of closing out. So, kind of my legislative moment is uh the governor did uh propose her uh tax base or her tax plan. I know that her main priority is lowering property taxes, which I think we all we all
051agree would be awesome. Um, one of the things that she has in there, she does have a recommendation for a 2% uh, state supplemental aid increase uh, for schools. Um, and then she also has in there kind of a phase out of um, the um, 1 cent sales tax uh, for school infrastructure as as high as 50% um, by over the next 10 years. And so that means 50% of the money that is fundraised now by the state penny would essentially go to for property relief or other areas um by 2036. One of the things that I have uh reached out to legislators about and I included you guys on a copy of that email um was to make sure that we are thinking about that before that becomes law because right now what keeps
052our property tax relatively low is the fact that we do have that source of funding for our for our facilities. The way that we are structuring our facility improvements moving forward right now relies solely on PPE and which is our physical plant or physical plant and equipment levy and our once incent sales tax as we move into the future if we and that's just maintenance and upkeep of our of our current facilities. And then a portion of that could be used if we decide in the future to build a school if that's such a need. If we end up getting, you know, if if all the new housing developments in our in our area become, you come to fruition and we get more students and we need to build, the idea is that we wouldn't
053do it solely off of property taxes. We would do it based upon a mix of uh another a renewal of G of the uh general obligation bond and bonding out for this 1 cent sales tax that we are projected to receive. But if they're going to phase 50% of it out, right now they're already set to phase out 30% and they would raise that to 50%. Which means that we would lose an additional $6.5 million in funding for facilities over the next 10 years. And so I've emailed out which means that when we go to build a school or we go for other infrastructure projects, we would have to go back to our citizens and say we need another $6.5 million on top of what they're already giving. And so, um, one of my questions
054to them is, if you're really doing it for property tax reduction, doing it this way does not lower property taxes. All it does is shift the burden from the state and the in the retail sales tax back to our individual land owners and property owners because we're going to have to have it one way or the other. So, um, that's not necessarily a great way to do it. And, and talking with I already got a hold of, uh, Senator Dawson, he did agree with me in that piece. And so, his plan apparently does not have that in there. Um so hopefully that that is something they focus on moving forward. Uh the other piece that they have to understand the community has to understand is when we talk about state supplemental aid we there's a
055formula that that dictates how much money your state gets from a per student basis. So, if we're at 8 if we're at $8,000 per student across the state of Iowa, approximately, let's say 60% of it comes from state sources and 40% comes from local sources, which means local property tax, and then the state sources, which is primarily income tax. Um, the state last year wanted to increase their portion. So, let's say they increase it to 70 or 30. Okay? If the state comes through and they say, "Hey, we're going to increase supplemental aid by, you know, 4%." That means that they're increasing the amount of money that they are putting into the pot. Okay? They're increasing the over their overall amount that we're getting for students, but they're also increasing the the amount of money
056that the state's putting in the pot, which lowers the amount of money that we're getting for property taxes, especially for the schools that have lost enrollment and are going to look to do it go on a budget guarantee. Because if you go on a budget guarantee, primarily what you're doing is is you're locking in that you get a 1% increase and that almost goes solely onto your property tax or it does go solely on the property tax. So the higher the SSA, the less amount of local taxes that are being paid. And so that's one of the things that we're trying to communicate with the state is the state for whatever reason, let's call it loss of loss of uh of residency. Um has about 7,000 less students statewide, doesn't matter, public, private, whatever, 7,000
057less students uh this year than they did last year, which means there's 7,000 less students, which means there's that times $8,000 or approximately, what is that? If you help me do the math here, $56 million of funding that is available to be able to give uh you know, public schools or any schools in general, you know, that money also private schools. So, so that's one of the things that we need to make sure that they that they are properly funding schools so we don't shift that tax burden onto the taxpayers. Otherwise, what ends up happening is the looks like we're the bad guys because we're raising property taxes, but in reality, it's it's completely controlled by the state government. We have no control over it. So if the state really wants to lower property taxes
058or keep property taxes low, they'll let us keep save and they'll raise SSA. So that's essentially what the what the U argument is right there. I'm sure there's lots of other cool legislative things that are going to come about and we'll have lots of conversations move forward, but right now that's the main one. Uh other thing I just want to point out this list. Uh we'll just go through it real quickly. This is the list of remember on top of the bond projects we also do just summer work. Okay, so we've been starting to build our summer list of things that we're going to be doing. So on top of the bond work that you guys know about which includes high school roof, high school mechanical, middle school parking lot, middle school renovation, um we're
059also going to in uh Titan Hill exterior work, Titan Hill HVAC. We are also going to be work on working on a crept window sill project. So across the it's really on the north side of the building. There's a been a lot of um moisture getting in from the windows. So, we need to reccock them. We we we need to redo the window sills. We need to check for mold, that kind of stuff. So, we're going to do that. Um there are three units at the high school uh that we need to replace. So, we're going to look at um doing that. Um VFDs, remind me what that is, Director Sturm. Variable something. Basically, they they control the amount of air that's coming in and out of like the fans that come in and out.
060>> Fan dampeners. >> Yeah, dampeners. >> Fan dampeners. >> Yeah. So, we need to start replacing those cuz there's a lot of those that are dead. So, three of them um we're going to start replacing at the high school. >> Control work. So, we're we're continuing to um >> Did you say dead? Like they're not working at all? >> They're dead. They don't work. They don't respond. They don't do anything. They're just dead. which means that when those aren't working, when they work, then we have more control over those individual areas. When they don't work, then we're just >> we're just guessing, blasting air the whole time. So, um, we need to do some investigatory work or investigatory work with our, uh, with with our controls to make sure because right now with all those
061VF those VFDs down, the all of that that new frontend system and everything else that we put in is supposed to tell us exactly what's wrong. Um, and every single unit throughout the school, well, it's it's coming up with red flags everywhere. So, we need to go through and try to look through and say, and it's a lot of it's probably just those issues where per a certain piece is out or whatever, but it it takes a lot of money to go unit by unit by unit, make sure they're all in line. Uh, hot water problems, we're going to look at that. We've we've been having hot water issues at the high school for forever, primarily in like the FCS hallway. Um, there's a sewer smell. We believe we have it figured out there, but
062it's going to we're going to have to There's actually two areas where there's a broken pipe that is allowing gas to to escape. Not like it's like sewer gas stinks, you know? So, they're going to be able to go in and do that. Um the there's a lot of broken drains in the middle school that'll probably be done as part of we have it in here as a separate item, but that'll actually probably be done as part of the middle school renovation. Uh the science room gas repair. We need a there's a we're not running the gas right now because there's a leak in it. We got to repair electrical upgrades at the athletic complex. So part of our storage units will be temp controlled and that's primarily for a lot of our uniforms and
063that kind of stuff that we'll store underneath the bleachers. They have elastic pieces in them and elastic pieces when they are exposed to really hot or really cold weather uh they get brittle. So, we're gonna we're going to put a small uh unit in there to make sure that we can uh um temperature control that. Just in general, the storage units, the basements, the plat, everything's there. We just got to actually put the building in there. Now, um Oh, keep going. I already talked about temp control. Uh pool space heater. So this is actually the if you walk back in the mechanical room there is um couple units uh that we run all of the that heats all of the space those one at least one of the units is dead and where it's stuck
064up in the ceiling above all this it's almost impossible to get through so we have to build a mezzanine in order to get up there to it's going to be an absolute mess but we'll get it figured out. Um pool boilers. So the cool thing is is we have been looking for pool boiler. They're about $30,000 brand new. Um we just we stumbled across one. It was brand new. Was ordered for something else and the people just backed out and didn't want it. So they're giving it to us for 50% off. So brand new. Uh now we still got to install it, but we are going to pick it up. Um so at least we have it. Uh we're going to install a ADA accessible walk path. There's no good way right now ADA wise
065to get to the the hill, what we call the hill, which is where we put the the grass playground. that was always in the works as far as what we want to do. We just got to wait till spring to do it. Um little things like move, we got to do some tree work. We got to move a tennis shed. Um we need to get the flower beds up and going um in the spring. So there's a lot of those some blind work renovation. So then as you look through here, renovation of the wrestling room, that's going to be a fairly big one. We need to figure out because once the resting room is out of there, we want to open that up and and do an extension of the weight room so we can
066create almost like a sports performance lab which will be more focus on injury prevention and calisthenics. Um locker room renovation actually in the high school. But when we say renovation, it's really lights, duck work, painting lockers, you know, as far as straightening them out, making them look nice. Um we need to paint the gym floor in the big gym. That's that's been on the list. So we got to sand it down and then repaint it. We're probably just going to do the big floor in the gym cuz in the other gym we have to do some mechanical and we have to do some lights. So, we're just going to do the one gym this year. There's carpeting stuff in there. Um, athletic entrances, we want to spruce those up a little bit. Um, another item
067that if we end up having money at the end, and I'm not sure we will, but we've been having uh issues for a long time at all of our home games of just getting people in the crowd. There's just not enough room. So, I did have them give me a bid on what it would cost to put a whole another bank of bleachers on the west side of the home bleachers. And uh it's about $160,000, but it would open up more. You know, the we don't really have that many ADA spots for elder pe elderly people with wheelchairs or, you know, that are kind of bound by scooters. Um that would expand that. That would move the middle school and high school further down, which would open up more community um seating in that area.
068It's really hard to do crowd control right now because we got people running a muck and I can't make them go to the stands because there's nowhere to go in the stands. So, um like I said, that would be if we have uh some some pimple money left over this year. We need to still purchase some tennis bleachers for the tennis courts. Um then we need we're going to automate some stuff. So, the whole reason I'm showing you this is is you can see it's not just the the bond projects that we have going on, but every year we do about this much work. Okay? So, and this is actually less than what we've done in in prior years. This is just chipping away at a lot of other things to make sure that classrooms
069and and athletic areas and exteriors and mechanical and everything continue to to to keep up to date. So, when we talk about the save money in the ple, this is an annual list. This kind of stuff happens every single year and that's what we use that money for. And if they take it away, we're going to have to figure out some other way to get this money. So that's about it. Any other questions? And I'll tell you this list here is actually created by it's it's the principles go to their go to their teachers and their staff. They ask them for any input that they want done in their classrooms. They put it all on a document. The document then gets vetted by uh the whole um administrative team and cabinet team to say, "Okay,
070what are priorities? What do we get done first? Where does the money?" And then it's Jim's responsibility and my responsibility to go get bids and figure out budgets and try to figure out what makes a list the final list, what doesn't. So there's on top of this, there's other things that if it doesn't make the list for this year, doesn't mean we discard it. It just means it gets pushed to the next year. So we actually have a five and a 10 and even a 20-year um option on our on our document where we keep pushing stuff out. So nothing ever is forgotten about. It just maybe, you know, we only have so much funding every year to do it. So, so if you guys think of anything, let me know. I'll put it on
071my list. >> I hope the bleachers work out. >> That'd be great. >> I do, too. That would be the That would be the large purchase, but we got to we just got to see. >> So, all right, we'll move on to discussion items. 8.01 van purchase. Uh, so if you scroll down, we did we do have we did find a P van 12 passenger 2023. As you know, we can only buy used 12 passenger vans. They don't make eight passenger vans anymore. So, anytime we find one if it's a reasonable mileage, reasonable cost in the area, uh, we kind of jump on it. This is the second one we found this year. So, we'll be done after buying this one, and we won't buy another one till the new fiscal year. Um, but this
072will replace a van that currently has about 165,000 mi on it. And not replace, what usually ends up happening is we take the 1605,000 uh mile van and that becomes our our new maintenance van. And then we take the maintenance van that has 240,000 mi and that um probably gets rotated out of the fleet. So, it just makes sure that the the vehicles that we're transporting students in are all um relatively I mean they're all in good shape. I shouldn't say relatively. They are in good shape. They can't have rust on them. They're all expected inspected by the DOT. Um, so this would uh help us replace some an older van. >> Okay. 8.02 high school roof bid approval. >> So, we got 15 bids. They told me at first we were going to get
07310 bids. I was surprised when 15 came in. the budget for the for the high school roof was $650,000 based upon the the square footage price that we got the last time plus a little inflation. We actually got a lower bid than about $223,000 lower than what we had anticipated and that is from dry roofing uh or Dre Dre roofing. So they're out of Omaha. Uh recommendation would be to approve them um as our as our uh roofing people this summer. >> They're 63,000 less than the next lowest >> they were. Yep. >> Wow. >> And everything everything they do has to be bid, bonded, and guaranteed. So >> Okay. >> Yep. Okay. 8.03 optimized systems mechanical commissioning proposal for the middle school. Yep. So this is the company that does all of our controls.
074So they So we would So a lot of times you do controls either with the HVAC project, in our case we do it separately. And so instead of having the control work being done uh by the general contractor when they come in to do all the HVAC, it's just going to be done by the optimized guys. And remember the reason we went with them is because then we don't know the the system they're putting in for us is propri proprietary only to us and it actually connects to every uh different I mean we're not stuck on a certain brand of unit that we can put in. We can put in whatever unit is the most cost effective and works the best and is most readily available. So so again you end up doing control work
075no matter what. We just take it into our own hands and do it our way. All right. 8.04 disclosure council engagement agreement with Ailers and Cooney. >> Yep. So, the purpose of this letter is to disclose and um memorialize the uh legal services that will render uh and serving as bond council and disclosure council for the above reference financing. So when we purchase our bonds um we have to have uh legal um advice in doing so and Allers and Cooney is our attorney but it's a it's a separate agreement that we have with them uh for this. Okay, we'll move on to comments and suggestions. This is the second portion of our meeting where we open the floor to any comments from the public that they would like to direct towards the board. We'll give
076it a couple minutes here. All right. Hearing no comments, we will move to action items. 10.01 band purchase. >> Mr. President, >> yes. I'd like to motion uh to spend the 35,278 on the purchase of a 12 passenger bike >> from what house? >> Huh? >> Say from >> Oh, from what house? >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Vote, please. >> Mrs. Sandow, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. 10.02 102 high school roof bid approval. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> Like uh to approve Dre roofing for the high school roof in the amount of $427,000. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Vote, please. >> Mr. Ser, >> yes. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >>
077Mrs. Sando, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. 10.03 3 optimized systems mechanical commissioning proposal for the middle school. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> Like approval or approve the proposal from Optimized Systems in the amount of 59,620. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Vote, please. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sando, >> yes. >> Mr. Storm, >> yes. >> Mr. Right. >> Yes. Disclosure council engagement agreement with ers and cooney. >> Mr. President, >> yes. >> I'd like a to make the motion to approve disclosure council agreement as presented. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Vote, please. >> Mrs. Peterson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sando, >> yes. >> Mr. Sturm, >> yes. >> Mr. Bach, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. items of interest, future board meetings. >>
078Uh, so we do have a board meeting on February 2nd. Um, and that'll be our next regular board meeting. And then on February 3rd, we have a uh kind of a board work session with uh the architect and um project advocates and then our uh facility committee to go over the middle school um renovation uh kind of scope and proposal as well as other projects that we have going on that summer. Okay. Having no further items on the agenda, do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed.