April Monthly Board Meeting

0016:30. Yeah, it is. Hello. Hello. Okay, let's try it. It's Monday, April 21st, 6:30 p.m. I call to order this public hearing. Can I have a roll call, please? Yep. Mark Porter here. Ty Ward, present. Chrissy Kessle here. Megan Robbins here. Mark Thornton here. Deborah Williamson here. Davies absent. Okay. This is the time when anyone may speak to the board in support of or against any portion of the 202526 proposed school budget. Written comments will also be considered if received prior to the closing of this public hearing. Any comments? I have no written comments and I'm not seeing any public comments. Okay. Um, do I have a motion here? A motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I motion carries. Journed at 6:31 p.m. Thank you. All right. Um, moving into the

002regular board meeting. Uh, I call to order this regular board meeting at 6:31 p.m. Roll call, please. Mark Porter, here. Ty Ward, present. Christy Castle, here. Magdal Robbins here. Mark Thornton, here. De Williamson here. Dave, pass absent. Yeah, I guess I failed to say that the regular monthly board meeting is to be held at 6:30 on the third Monday of each month. This meeting is open to the public and the public is encouraged to attend. Time is provided in the meeting for public input. The mission of the Fairfield Community School Board of Directors is one Fairfield where relationships foster growth, protect learners, unlock individual potential, and serve every student every day. Are there any perfections to the agenda? I have none. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? move second. Okay.

003Uh any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I I motion opposed. Motion carries. All right. Um we're going to start with focus on learning. So we have a presentation from Katie Boatright, our afterchool program director. This update will include key achievements, challenges, and ongoing efforts to support student success and align with the district's strategic objectives. Welcome, Katie. Thanks for having me. I always like to do this in the spring so that you guys can see pictures of all the fun things that we've been doing. Um I have asked that the slides not be put on to the um live stream just because there's pictures of kids and some parents don't want. So, but you guys can enjoy them. Um so, I am Katie Boatright. I am the director of before and after school programming for the

004school district and our program is now called Explorers. We were previously just before and after school program. We didn't really have a name. Um and now we are the Explorers and we are in our second year of our second grant cycle. Um this is the first year that we have both Washington Elementary and Pence Elementary. Last our last grant cycle was just at Pence. Um, so it was a great way for us to get started and now we were able to serve kindergarten through fourth grade and so it's going great. John, where do you want me to tell you to do slides? I don't think I can do this. Thank you. So, if you don't know much about the program, I just have some program information real quick. We have before school program that is

005at both Pence and Washington and we have 20 spots available per building. If we need to go over that, we can. I just hard to get staff early in the morning. So, um, we at we haven't had the need. So, it's right now we're right about 15 to 20 at both buildings. Um, and we go from 7:15 to 8:15 and both buildings at 8:00 go to breakfast. So, they then are that's included with the program and we pay for that as part of that. Uh, after school programming, we have 20 spots per grade level per day. So, um, I say that because we can have we have more than 20 students in each grade level on our roster because some kids only come a couple days a week if when they're needed. Um, but we

006try to keep all 20 spots filled every day so that we have a hundred total students served every day. Um, we've been pretty close to that. And Evan, I think we could probably see. I don't know if you need to look it up, but our numbers have always been our average numbers have been 100 or more every time that we've submitted our claims. So, it's been doing good. We go from 3:35, it says 3:30 on there, but 3:35 is when they actually let the kids out to 5:30 um Monday through Thursday. And on Fridays, we have get out early, so we start at 2:00 and we're done at 4:30. And we also have snack every day. John Thank you. All right. The district goals um that we have been focusing on at our program have

007been uh student success and belonging. The I'm sure you guys know the goals the but with um ELA and math assessments. We've done a lot with our homework time and um reporting this data because we are required for the grant to report in our local evaluation um how kids are improving in language arts and math both. So we've done a lot of stuff with that with every day we have we call it homework time. It's not really homework time because no one has homework in kindergarten through fourth grade but if they do have work that they need to get caught up on they can do it then. Otherwise, we are doing um educational activities that are focusing on math, reading, writing um and team building. So, we do those four days a week. Fridays are

008fun days, so we don't always get to do have to do homework on those days. But, um next slide, please. So, here's some pictures of some kids doing some homework things. We did get a grant to get those um wrapups that the little boy on the side there's using and that's a math um manipulative the kids really like working on addition facts on that one. Um then on the other picture the kids are we have reading buddies so they match up with a student who's a higher or lower grade level and then they just read for about 15 minutes. They love doing that. It's a lot of fun. Um in the middle you'll see a picture that is the we received an award at the last um impact conference which is the grant has everyone

009has to go to this conference and we got an award. I didn't even know we were getting it but we got it for um outstanding progress in math. So almost I think we were at like 95% of the kids who were coming to our program had showed improvement in the previous school year. So that was pretty cool. All right. All right. Um, the other go uh district goal was the sense of belonging which we focus on a lot. We do a lot of things that are team building and just kind of building a community within our program. So there's some fun pictures up there of the kids doing some different team building activities. Every Tuesday is team building Tuesday. We do some fun activities where they have to work as a team. Um and then

010we also have small group activities every day that they are working with mixed grade levels. So you're at Washington kindergarteners and first grades are mixed together at Penn second, third, and fourth are all mixed together. So um they're making friends in different grade levels and they're having a great time. You'll see some of those pictures. They look like they're having a lot of fun working together. Uh, we also go on a lot of field trips, which I'm going to show you a bunch of pictures of field trips because that's kind of the highlight of our program and everybody really likes to hear about the field trips. But, um, that picture in the middle of the second graders got to go to Jefferson County Health Center and they had a great time and they all got

011sunglasses. They thought they were cool. Uh, we've also done some clubs. This year we only did two clubs. Uh last year we had a third one that we didn't end up being able to do this year because we didn't have a staff member to do it. But we did the girls who code this year and that's been um Andrea Tub who's a teacher at Pence. She leads that with third grade and fourth grade. So she has one day for one group and one day for the other group. And then we did a junior chef club this year. We had two separate um sessions because we had so many kids that wanted to do it. and Heidi Grunwald helped us over at her fax room at the high school. So, we bust the kids over there.

012We went and did bunch of baking and learning how to use measuring spoons and cups and stuff. So, it was a lot of fun. Kids really enjoyed that. We also were able to pull in some extra kids and it wasn't just the kids who are coming to the after school program regularly. So, it was a way for some kids to do some fun activities that weren't everyday attendees. Okay, next slide, please. All right. So, here's some pictures from our before school program. Um, this is kind of a chill time where kids just get to hang out and hang with their friends. And you'll see they're playing games. Some of them are coloring. Um, the picture on the far side over there with the girl in the pink, that is Emma. She is my site supervisor

013at Pence. And she always does some kind of an activity with the kids who want to participate. Some kids don't in the morning. It's just too much. I have a kid who sits under the table every single day. and that's just what he wants to do in the morning and that's fine. Um, but it's a really great time for them to just kind of wake up and get ready for the day. So, they really enjoy that. Next slide, please. All right. So, every single one of our grade levels got to go to Obie Nelson Park this year. Oh, I take that back. The kindergarters did not go. I wasn't ready to take them yet, but um these are the first graders at Obie Nelson Park. They all went um in the fall, so they had

014a great time. see some fun pictures there. Next slide. Here's our second graders at Jefferson County Park. Every grade level got to go to Jefferson County Park this year. Fourth graders got to go twice, actually. And then um Austin also came and did some things at the buildings for us during the winter months when we didn't want to do anything outside at the park. So, that was a lot of fun. Kids really enjoy that. I did not put any pictures of the snake on there. You're welcome. Everyone's favorite thing, but not mine. All right. Next slide. Uh, this was a great fun field trip that we just did. My third graders got to go to Indian Hills, their aviation center, and um, Frank Bros actually hooked me up with a guy who runs this program.

015Uh, his son had gone to a camp there and really liked it. And they were great. I mean, they loved having us there. The kids got to climb inside all kinds of different planes. They had a flight simulator and it was a great time. The kids really enjoyed it. So, that was a good one. We'll probably try to do that again next year. All right, next. All right, here's my fourth graders. They um everybody got to go to the library um this year as well. And the librarian does a great job working with the kids and had um fun activities planned. Our fourth graders got to build a fort in the middle of the library. So, they thought that was pretty cool some things. All right, next slide. All right, here's a list of all

016of our field trips. Um I went over most of them with you there, but we also went to Cambridge. uh they took our third graders and our fourth graders are going there in a couple weeks um just to do some programming on um financial literacy type stuff. So that's fun. Um and my third graders will go this week and my fourth graders already went to the Carnegie Museum and they really had a good time there. Um and the fourth graders also got to go to Noah's Ark. So there's that. Okay. Oh, and everybody went to park and rack too. That was always a favorite. Um, so like I said, we are in the second year of grant funding for this program. It is a five-year grant. The first three years, we get $150,000 each year.

017Um, last year we spent $143,000 of that. And the reason why we didn't spend all of it is because we had some donations um that we used for things that we normally would have spent money on, as well as people providing services for us that I thought I was going to have to pay for and didn't have to pay. So that was nice. Um right now we are on budget to spend approximately 146,000 of the 150,000. We are able to roll over some of the funds each year. Um there's only one area we can't roll over and that's professional development. There's a certain amount that's allotted for that. We can't roll that money over. But um anything that's left we will try to roll over. And then next year we will also have $150,000. Um,

018and I put a nice note there that about 75% of our budget is spent on staffing the program. Um, we do a lot of things. We get donations for supplies and everything else so that I don't have to spend money on that kind of stuff because we need the people. That's really the biggest thing. And that's um it's been nice to have the money to have enough staff. So, all right, next slide, please. All right. So, ne the next two years after we're going to decrease funding. So they dropped down to 75% of the grant total for years four and five. So we will have only have $112,500 for those years. Um not sure yet how that's going to look. We may have to cut some things. We may have to cut Girls Who Code

019or Junior Chef Club, some of these clubs that we've been doing if we can't find another way to get some money. So um we are always looking for ways to fund this. That's what uh my board has been working on that for four years now. We've got some good ideas, just haven't really been able to get anything to start yet because we can't really start raising money until we don't have the money, which makes it kind of hard. But we're always open to suggestions if any of you guys have ideas of ways that we can fund this program in the future after we've run out of our grant funds. So, all right. And last slide, please. Here's just group pictures. Um, this you can see all the kids, the Washington group and the Pence group.

020I They were not real happy with me that I made them take time out of their recess to take a picture, but I said I will give you five extra minutes to play after you get this picture done. So, it's good. Anybody have any questions about the program? I've missed the last couple of meetings that you guys had. Now, as far as the funding goes, have you guys made any progress with that? Are we still basically where we were at half a year ago, year ago, or basically the same? I mean, they're getting the word out. Um, Frank and Alyssa have been getting the word out a lot trying to get people to I mean, so you guys don't know what he's referring to. We had um kind of talked about doing a was it

021an LLC or something where they would run the money through? We've talked about doing basically basically someone with an estate so on and so forth that would have enough principle essentially where we could basically fund the program off the residual. Yeah. So we'd have to open a separate LLC for the program to be able to have funds come in and then run off of the interest of donations. And I mean we've been talking about different ways to do that and as of now we haven't come to a final solution per se. So, we're still open to suggestions there. How do most parents find out about it? Is it just the beginning of the year or? Yeah, so the application is open. We have to do an application because so many people want it in. Um,

022and it's open from August 1st through the 22nd, 23rd, whatever the Friday is usually before school starts. Um, and then we take all the applications and I have a matrix that we put in and go through the needs that um, the students have and we send out notices to people to let them know if they were in or not. Um, it is posted on the campus portal so when they go to register their kids, it's one of the things that's tacked up there for them to see. Um, but it's also on social media stuff that we send out. Um, in the past we've also done like flyers to go out, but we have so many kids that want to come that we haven't really needed to do a lot of How many kids do you

023think you can't take into the program? So, this year has been the biggest year that we've had a waiting list that hasn't been touched. Um, previous years we've had a few kids on the waiting list and after a month or two some kids maybe their schedule's changed and they can't come and we can fill those spots with kids on the waiting list. But um I think I have maybe about 15 to 20 kids on our waiting list that haven't been able to have a spot yet this year. But I have also been able to put in at least 10 kids off of the waiting list to spots when kids have moved or other things have come up and they've stopped coming. So and who kind of comprises the staff? Um, so our staff is a

024lot of them are school day employees um that work in the buildings, but I also have some a handful of people who are amazing who work at other jobs outside and can just come and work after school, which is great because on days like this coming Friday when all the staff has to be at a in service meeting, I still have people to work because I can pull those people who don't work full-time for the district. Cool. Yeah. Is it any beyond that 75%? What's the like the next biggest expense besides the staffing? Snacks and breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. So, and we've been working with Stephanie through the food service to provide that for us. Um, we do have to pay full price for each one of the breakfasts that we have unless the kids are

025on the free and reduced list already. Um, which is $2.50 50 cents instead of what any other which is like 220 I think for people who like if my kids's going to eat breakfast I would have to pay 220 but we have to pay 250 because they can't submit any of that for reimbursement since we're not paying it right away because they have to bill us later. Yeah, it is kind of a bummer but but it's worked out. Um seems to be doing okay. Cool. Yeah. How much do you think you'd have to fund raise for a program like uh Girls to Code to uh keep that going? Um so really the only cost involved with Girls Who Code is paying a staff person to do it. So and she's a teacher, so she makes

026$28 an hour. Um so it's two hours, four hours a week and an hour of planning. So I pay her for five hours a week at $28 an hour. So, if there was magically a bunch of money, um, do you think that we would expand the program to be much larger or would you think we're at a pretty good size? So, the reason why we have it at 20 is because one, staffing. It's hard to get enough people to staff program and I'd like to keep it at 15 to1 ratio, 15 students to one staff person. Um, but also space. There's not a lot of space available to use in the buildings. So, I mean, in a perfect world, we would have our own building and we would be able to have all the kids

027who want to come. We'd have all the staff, but um we are kind of limited to that. If I if we could get more staff and we could have more space, then yes, we could definitely expand. Um we could probably do more clubs. We could if we had more money. Um because those are easier to do because they're just like one night a week instead of every single night. You got some magic money? Nope. Okay. Anything else? Thank you very much. Thank you for letting me share some things with you. Thank you. All right. Then we have more focus on learning with uh Mallalerie Man will present. Well, she'll bring it. Let's see. Do you have a team? I'm friendless. Just you. Margaret told me I don't have any friends. So, you're here to present

028on the district's career and academic plan. Yeah. So um this is required by its state for us to present um as well every year but um so I'm going to figure I think I do it this way. Oh just kidding. There we go. Um so our decap is a district career and academic plan which is just a roadmap um for our implementation of career development and this then the students individual career and academic plan. I said it's a state requirement that's filled out uh yearly by the district team and then based on district assessment. So what we look at uh we attended a session gosh I think it was August um maybe September in Atoma where we got our feedback and use that to kind of guide where we needed improvements um this year. All

029right. So um our DECAP goal so they identified district goal for this year and thereafter is that by the end of the academic year 100% of students will demonstrate measurable growth in ELA and math assessments. Um so these are just our 100% goals. Uh and then in addition our district goal is 100% of middle and high school students will participate in one or more activities by the end of the 2728 school years. Um additional identified goals that we have are that um eighth graders are 100% of students will visit career and college centers whether that be Indian hills um college visits when allowed JobCore and the military and then high school identified goals are as follows 90% graduation rate 45% of students taking college level coursework and 84% will be CTE concentrators by the year

0302028. um middle school's goal is that they'll have an 80% completion rate of IAP documents and then last year's completed so last year when we completed this their um document percentage was 62%. So which demonstrates a needed improvement in completed documentation starting with the middle school uh we'll examine options for students with increased CTE opportunities for both middle school and high school kind of as we move forward. Um so who completes the decap? So, we had a pretty decentsized team uh this year that met regularly around the decap. Um so, myself and Carly from the middle school. We also had Carla Stewart, Mark Eperson, and Molly Mazinski. So, both counselors from the middle school and high school. Um we had some secondary teachers, Heidi Grunwald, Lissa Tyler, and Matt Shank. We also had our workbased

031learning coordinator this year, which is not an official title, but Mark Eperson took on that role. um our Jag coordinator um through December was Desmond Armstrong and then Augustine um and then students four-year plans as well. So there are five components of the DECAP and those five are self-standing. So just showing interest inventories when creating four-year plans using either uh K navigator or onet um through their JAG classes. This is also in like career exploration employability skills and all of our freshman forum classes also did this as well. Um and then building portfolios um in those work-based learning courses, specifically uh Matt Jones courses. So again, that career exploration and employability skills um and then just gaining more career information around understanding the world of work. So there field trips to and local employers, we

032also brought people in um whether that be in our CTE strands, a lot of visitors have come in through that um and again with Matt Jones classes as well. We have career exploration experiences. So, students to Indian Hills, SEC, local employers, um post-secary exploration, whether that being campus visits, milit military recruiter days, um at Fairfield High School, career day for eighth graders, um career and post-secondary decisions, whether that be four-year plans, FAFSA, and scholarships. Um and then so looking ahead, so from 23 to 23 24 to this year, so improvements that we made right now. So last year the DECAP received a six out of 36 for the 23 24 school year. Um we do want to emphasize so something that happened. So I think you know two years ago um you know they got

033their scores back or excuse me just a year ago and they worked really hard based around the rubric that they had received. Well then the rubric changed again. So we kind of perceive that maybe the score was so low because that rubric had changed and didn't really know. Um so but it was largely in 23 for the 23 24 school year. It was essentially two people writing the entire decap um themselves. So uh again there was more a shared ownership there including staff of the middle school and high school and a lot of collaboration around that. We really met um probably around 10 sessions of meeting um and planning for our decap. Again, that was teachers, counseling staff, admin, both from the middle school and high school. Um, and those meetings were very intentional. We

034have there's several sections you have to complete within the DECAP. Um, and these are really around what's already happening. So, while we're planning and we're working on this year's decap, a lot of our focus is also looking at what we can implement and change for next year. Um so looking at development and programming for both our jag and career education classes and then leadership courses and then the assemblies that are happening at the middle school. Um we are really planning on like I said you know we're snapshot and small improvements for this year but things we're really looking forward to are expanding in that 2526 school year. Um are additional career exploration opportunities and core classes which has kind of been a focus is working on teachers. We're working with teachers how they can build

035more career exploration um into their own contents and then enhancing the beyond high school curriculum addition of seminar which I've talked about before for next year for all uh high school students which is largely going to be a lot of where the students individual IAP works come from um whether that's course planning but all their course planning and activity planning will be connected to what their goals are after they graduate high school. So just making sure that they have more connections there and that we're more intentional. Um counseling staff will also meet with all students in the fall uh individually and again in the spring individually and just measure where they're at. Um addition of our CCTC. So that college and career transition counselor will also allow um for added opportunities at the high school,

036whether that be career fair um scholarship opportunities, working with individual students, connecting with people in the uh community, bringing in um more internship opportunities for us and working on things that we need to add. And really, so that's kind of where we've been at this year and where we're working towards. Any questions around this year's CCAP? I guess I have a question about why what would it take to move that 80% number for middle school up to 100% of students creating a You mean for just around their IAP documents? Creating the documents. Yeah. Um I think just making sure we're using so I think they have those inventories just making sure we're placing them in an accessible place for kids and using them. Um, so I think there's some instruction and training both for staff

037and us just to make sure that we know what to do with them after the students have done their entrance interest surveys, if that makes sense. Making sure it's housed um with their four-year plan and making sure there's more communication there. So, do they all complete that or do you Theoretically, theoretically. Yes. Yes. In just in their own free time or is there time? No. So part of so when Miss Stewart comes down and does um her days with the middle school in terms of high school planning part of that is taking that K navigator survey. Okay. Any other questions? I guess one other on the 90% number. Um do you foresee the ability to increase 90% is it graduation uh rate up in the coming years? Yes. Okay. This is just for this year

038and where we're at currently. Anything else? I guess one more. Sorry. Oh, you're fine. So, how often do students kind of reflect back on this? that's where the improvement needs to happen. So that's really a big focus um especially in the seminary time. Um so right now I would say there's very little reflection on it. Um so again that's that's a big push for us for next year. Okay. There's a web- based program called Zello. Um and it's all connected to career and academic planning. It talks with Infinite Campus. Um, kids can have all of their four year planning in there. It's got the five different components to IAP. You can create your own lessons that go into that. You can use ones that are pre-made. You can go on virtual college visits. There's a

039ton of um resources within it. It's something that we're looking at. It's fairly expensive. So, um I'm working with a a rep from the company to kind of see what um what we could get from a a deal standpoint um for this next year, but we haven't finalized anything. And there's a pretty big learning curve um for staff if you use it well. There's a lot to it. So, um yeah. Yeah. And then I've got the 30-page kind of big formal Oh, yeah. decap that I'll share with you guys at some point just so you have it, but it it breaks it down a little bit more in depth as to who's responsible for what. Um, yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. [Music] Okay. Um we are ready for our committee reports. Each committee chair will

040will share a two to three minute update connected to the committee work. Um Mark Thornton, would you like to start with policy? Yes. So our policy committee met again Friday, April 11th. Um we did our review of uh we have a policy inventory sheet that Evan and previous staff have created. So, we're coming up with a plan to try and u revamp reinventory that to make sure we're still good and the dates are all correct. So, and I are going to schedule some time here shortly to go uh review that again so we get back on track for reviewing all the policies. Uh we did talk through all the spring IASB uh perimeter updates. So, there were a lot of them because of the legislative session that came out. So you will probably see in

041the next month, probably not till June, we'll bring a lot of those just to make sure that we're in accordance with state law with all the changes that came out of there. So we'll have several to change um then. And we also did talk about the cell phone policy because that also came out of the Iowa legislature and so we have a I guess a a preliminary draft of one. Um, so that'll be coming I think in June as well for finalizing that to go into effect for next year. So we'll have that and there will be more communication coming out prior to that coming out. Zach's going to take the lead on that to kind of prep and kind of give an idea of where we're at, but the actual policy will probably come

042to us probably in June for timing wise for next year. So yes, great. I think that's it. Thank you, Mark. Thanks, Mark. Ty, would you like to speak on strategic planning? Sure. We met the other day. Um, talked about marketing plans for the summer. Uh, what to do uh with our marketing this summer, how best to use it. Um, setting up a meeting with I I guess we have a new uh a new marketer that we're working with because our old one that did the videos. Yeah. Um, also talked about the bonds um and uh the upcoming meeting on I believe what do you say the 23rd? Yep. This week. Yeah. Um so yeah, there's a meeting coming up on the geo bond and uh so that's moving forward which is awesome. And then we

043also just talked about uh SCAK getting that on the uh schedule so that uh we can have a school improvement action committee meeting. I think that's what it stands for, right? advisory. Damn it. So close. It's all good. But yeah, that was uh pretty much it. Great. Thanks. Our finance committee did not meet this past month. Um and then I know facilities is who is going to speak on behalf of facilities? Christie Christie. Okay. Um so they kind of just gave us an overview of um future plans for uh the district improvements. um some projects coming up that I think are going to be um presented to the board for approval. Um so as far as the actual details um I feel like uh Josh will probably be going over that or will you Evan?

044I can go over it too. Okay. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it was just kind of a reviewing a list of the upcoming projects and um just I think everybody was in agreement that you know everything seemed to fit our our goal and you know preparing to go back to get the bond passed in November and focus on the other buildings and um so that was pretty much all [Applause] um HR our negotiations. We have not met since the last meeting. Um, Zach and Evan, you kind of heard in their update, have been working hard on the insurance portion of things and have gotten that all squared away, it sounds like. So, um, that's really all I have on that. Okay, great. And Tristan is, uh, absent tonight, so we'll move along to, um, a discussion

045on mission and vision. Yeah, we're back. Um, it's really good. I I I think I've captured the process with a bunch of different stakeholder groups, but wanted to make sure that you all heard this, too. Um but since last October, I've really spent um six intentional meetings with our building leadership teams in every building and got um a lot of feedback from them uh connected to where they believe um our mission should fall or should land based on the four key components that they identified as really really important if we want all students to learn at high levels and grow every single year. And so the the framework that we used um was something out of the professional learning community um journey. Uh and I kind of used this idea of moral purpose as what

046a mission should be. Why do we show up every single day to do the work um that we do so that uh our students can can grow and and learn at high levels. And so those four pieces were belief, um, accountability, results focused, and then creating a culture of collaboration. We walked through, um, a bunch of different drafts that I had created um, at each building level and then we just continued to narrow it down. And so when it was all said and done, um, the only building that had their entire staff work through this process was the middle school. Their leadership team felt like that was something that they wanted to do. the other leadership teams did not um articulate that. So, we didn't do that with all four buildings. And then we brought

047all of this information back to the admin table and we spent um one of our uh Thursday mornings looking at the feedback from the different leadership teams and then created four versions of the the mission um that we would like to move forward with. And so you see those four, I'll read them and then maybe just have some discussion thoughts around which one maybe you like and why. U but ultimately I I would just like to come to some type of consensus or hear kind of where you're at connected to these four missions because really this is again about the work that we do daily in and our moral purpose. So uh the four versions and they're very similar but there's a couple things that are different. And I will say that the the the

048idea of one Fairfield, that was a topic that came up a couple different times at the building level, but ultimately we we felt like it was time to move away from that one Fairfield mantra. Um as we continue um to to navigate what's next. So we empower all students to achieve their highest potential through strong relationships, collaboration, and accountability. FCSD will empower all students to achieve their highest potential through strong relationships, collaboration, and accountability. We believe all students will achieve their highest potential through strong relationships, collaboration, and accountability. FCSD believes all students will achieve their highest potential through strong relationships, collaboration, and accountability. I shared these with our teachers on Friday morning and highlighted the work that you guys would kind of do around these um tonight. But yeah, those are the the the four

049obviously the empower the believe those are um some differences and then the Wii as opposed to FCSD thoughts and I know in strategic planning we kind of discussed this a little bit too. So I'd love to hear from some people that are outside of that committee. I personally like the word empower so I tend towards the top two versus the bottom two but just personal preference. I prefer we over FC FCSD. The um believe all students will achieve. I would prefer to see can in place of will. Good. What else? in our in our strategic planning committee, we did like um I think the action of we empower um versus FCSD and believe. There's I guess some alignment there. FCSD is a mouthful. So, is everybody cool with the top one there? Sounds like I

050think that's Yeah, power is a more of an action than a set of beliefs. And I think it's more appropriate. The first one, we empower all students to achieve their highest potential through strong relationships, collaboration, and accountability. Does anyone have any concerns about using that one? Yeah, I don't think we're really taking a vote on it right now, right? and just give him some feedback. Yep. I'll uh chat with Dave a little bit when he gets back from his trip, too, cuz this is close to his heart, too. So, um yeah, and then I don't know if we need to bring him back in May to have a more formal process or not um established in a voting standpoint on that, but um that was a good good conversation. Um so the next two now

051the the district as a whole as far as teachers didn't really have a whole lot of um input or say on this. This is something that at the admin table we drafted different versions of and then landed on these two versions to bring to the board table again to get um feedback. So when you think about where we want to be, what's our proposition statement? Um why would people want to be here? Where do we want to be in five years? Um, it's one of these two. A destination district where all people belong, learn, and grow. A premier district where all people belong, learn, and grow. So, it's between destination and premier. Would district be capitalized there as a proper noun? I don't know. Yeah, it seems kind of at least looks kind of odd

052to me. I'd have to get some. Yeah, I'm not an English major. Okay. What about is there So, between Destination and Premiere, is there a preference? I like like destination better myself, but that's just personal preference. Yeah. Yeah, destination sounds better. People want to come. What if we took out A destination district where we all belong, learn, and grow instead of people. A destination district where we all belong, learn, and grow. Mhm. You like that better? Seems seems less formal. And I like destination because the Fairfield is such a an incredible opportunity for anyone to live here. adult or child. And our district has such rich resources compared to the other um education opport the other educational organizations um in our district. And so when you when you pair that the the abundance of resources

053and programs that we have and talent that we have, systems that we have access to, I mean these little these little competing organizations just can't hold a candle. So it is a destination for sure. And we've got that small town culture and lifestyle. It's just Yeah, it's the best. a destination district where we all belong, learn, and grow. Yeah, I really like the continued use of belong, belong, belonging. I think it's important. And then learning and growing. These are I think these are the the right three words, tens. Mhm. Some of our discussion at the uh strategic planning meeting was around the kind of all people or the Wii as you changed it to um just to catch everybody else up just because we didn't want to make this about students or about staff. We

054want it's inclusive of everybody. So I think there was a version that mentioned students or something and instead we changed it to we because we want to include everybody there. Yep. And even the parents are included. You know, when you have parents that are engaged, when you have a community that's engaged, it is we we're we're all part of the district and part of the future of our children. Yeah. Okay, that's good. I know I seems like a lot of time and stuff to just get to this, but um I I truly believe that there's going to be um ownership of this as we continue to move forward. So, appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Um, do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Deborah, just Mark,

055any discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Um, sorry. Okay. Public participation. Do we We have We have no public. So, I guess you guys have changed your mind. I'll forgo reading. You can come on up if you want. Okay. Let's move on to new business. Uh 9.1 motion to adopt the proposed fiscal year 2025 2026 FCSD budget. Do I hear a motion to adopt? So moved. Second. All right. Any let's discussion. Evan, this will have to be my roll call. Okay. Um we do have some notes from Dave which I can share too. Can read through those. Um any anything before I do that? Would you like to just hear hear Dave's words. Sure. Dave's words. They're good words. Okay. Um it's also it's in the agenda if you want to click

056on it. So uh as the finance committee chairman, I am offering the following perspectives on the district's proposed budget and the accompanying tax levy increase. Number one, the finance committee reviewed the proposed budget and the tax levy increase at its February 10th, 2025 meeting and reached a consensus that the budget was fiscally sound and accomplishes the goal of financial health as defined by the board policy 701.5R1. After cutting the operating general fund by 900,000, the main drivers for the tax levy increase are the need for an additional 67 cents 67 cents in the Pebble Fund to continue to support the 5-year facilities plan to maintain our buildings, the large increases in property casualty insurance coverage premiums, and the special ed deficit. All these demands are largely unavoidable. Number two, the tax levy rate offers a

057s sustainable path for the district and lowers the dependence on more volatile state funding sources. This is achieved while also maintaining a low tax rate relative to other similar districts in Iowa and with other conference schools. And number three, any burden for our taxpayers comes from the assumed 10% increase in property valuation as mandated by the Iowa Department of Revenue and not from the district's tax levy rate. This cash obligation will affect taxpayers differently depending upon their situation and a 10% valuation expansion is the worst case scenario for most property owners. In any event, this should be viewed as an investment in our public schools who are a cornerstone of the community's development. Respectfully submitted, Dave Easturn, chairman, finance committee. Okay. Do you have any thoughts, Evan, or anything you want to share or? Yeah,

058I mean, there's a couple things that are still going through legislation right now that could impact our levy. Um, there's a proposed property tax bill out there right now. Um, part of that bill, if it was to go through um the $134 ple would be cut in half to 67 cents, so that could decrease this initial proposal. Um, and there's also some other changes on the debt service levy component, but we currently do not have that as a district. So, um, as always, we have to propose and send this in by April 30th, but legislation is still meeting and past the deadline for some of these things to be determined. Um, and that property tax reform has gone much quicker than anticipated. I just got another um update this late this afternoon that I'll share

059with all of you that will maybe help wrap our heads around it a little bit more. Um, but ultimately it's going to impact homeowners um the most is how I kind of look at it. So, um, sorry to interrupt. No, I was just So, what do you say about the state the$134 being cut in half? What? Yeah. So, there's a proposed property tax levby out there right now that cuts all fixed levies for school districts in half. So, the maximum you will ever be able to do for plea moving forward will be 67. So, we just passed $134 last March, which is reflecting this budget. But if that were to go through, we're going right back to 67 cents, which is where we have been. So, how do we rectify that shortfall then? We'll have

060to cross that bridge when Yeah, that money is much needed for our maintenance of our aging building and then cutting that in half seems to then our $2.70 bond that failed last year. If we were to rego a bond um with this new legislation that already go through, we could only go for $1.35. Without a second question, um even with the second question, the max you can get is $22. So, I have a pretty good idea of the answer to this, but why is the state doing that? I mean, well, then the uniform levy would also go down from $5.40 to $2.97 per 10,000 beginning in I think July of 26, right? Correct. So, the I'm just going to read this. The decline in the rate is roughly offset by an increase in residential taxable

061valuation. So, this would set the foundation percentage to 100% for both regular program and special ed beginning July 1st, 2026. They're also wanting to move there's a technology component, right? Correct. Uh and what's the other one? Uh inflation. Yeah. Um I I don't fully understand it yet. So, as we get more information, I'm just going to continue to read it and share it. Um but it it will impact us for sure in some capacity. It's just figuring out where we're going to have to move money. So, the only reason I want to mention that on this item tying it back in is we're at $2.77. We did not switch that from the original public hearing. If that legislation were to go through, John Parker will do a true up um he's a department management guy.

062Usually May, June, sometimes into July, just depending how long it takes to fully understand the new bill. And that could decrease our levy before people will start paying taxes next October. But if nothing were to go through on that bill or if it was to get tabled or not get out of the house or whatever, um it'll be a total 77 cents. So I just want to make people aware of that. And this yeah proposed reform isn't just going to impact schools. It would be government city um as well and much more of our income will be coming from state aid versus property tax and the reason behind it is property tax relief. That's quite sweet. So, when will we know the answer from the state if that didn't change? They're moving really, really fast.

063I mean, I went to a presentation in De Moine last Thursday. Um, and we got the initial update last Wednesday at 7 a.m. So, by Thursday, the financial advisors were rolling out information to all the SPOS's and it's now Monday and we've probably had three or four new communications around webinars. We've got another one. There's another one on Friday. So, it's moving fast. So, we'll have to cross that bridge when it comes. if it comes. Yep. And we can't do anything on the budget at this point because it's still due April 30th. So even if they stall to May one or anything else on what happens, we just have to proceed with what how it stands today after your guys vote obviously, but and it'll impact districts completely different whether or not they're property rich

064or property poor. Yeah. But what you're saying with that thing you read, they're going to offset some of it by 100% taxing instead of the 46% roll back on they're changing what's called the homestead credit. So roll back would be eliminated. Yeah. So they're moving homestead from $4,850 to $50,000 homestead credit. So if you had $100,000 taxable taxable assessed value house right now, you'd be paying taxes on 50,000 of that. But if you look at the current roll back, it's currently at 46%. So if you do 100,000 times 46%, you're only paying taxes on 46,000 of your house as it currently sits. So that's where we were talking about how much more goes to the residential owner. The commercial is another big piece as well, but it's lessened on the side, how it's currently written.

065Yeah. But it would set the role back to 100%. And what he means the residential values will go from being taxed 47% of the value to 100%. The valuation growth is partially offset by a change from the 4850 homestead tax credit to a $50,000 homestead exemption. So So basically you wouldn't be paying property tax on the first $50,000 value property. Correct. A lot more to come on that. But I just wanted to mention that to you guys as we're discussing levies and you're getting prepared to vote that that could if I come to you guys in June. So a substantially different levy. That's why. Yeah. And I'll share this eight page update kind of a memo from um ISIS with you guys. Any other questions or thoughts related to the budget? All right. So there's

066a motion to adopt the budget. Um, all in favor roll call. Roll call, please. Mark Porter, yes or I? Ty Ward, I. Chris Kessle, I Robbins, I. Mark Thornton, I. Deborah Watson, I. Dave is absent. Motion carries. 9.2 Approval of capital improvement bids for the fiscal year 26 summer our summer projects. So move. Sorry. Thank you. Um Okay. So we've got two projects here. There's multiple multiple projects. Two documents. So are we is it all is the vote on everything? Yep. So um just for clarity around that now that we have the motion to second is when we went over the facilities committee when we're going over the capital improvement plan. So when we went over the whole plan, these projects tied to the 2526 plan that we've been reviewing facilities committee. Okay. So we're

067just showing you the bids as they come through individually as tied to the plan. So were you just approving all these things in one vote or Yes. Okay. So like the baseball fence. I mean I'm totally fine with it. I'm just kind of what is the other one worn out or just not reliable? Yeah. So, if people go underneath, um there's been some incidences of like where the chain link or whatever is like kind of rolling up and people slide under there and they get caught. Um it's I forget what color it is right now, but this would be all black fencing. It just screws up the field. It's it's just time to replace when it actually got blown down last year or this back stop got blown down last year during the storm. They

068got a whole assess um assessment on it and they said it's actually in worse shape than we thought. So, this was originally pushed out two or three more years. Um, but after we tabled or decided not to do solar this year, we moved that one out based on the need of that assessment. When was the last time you replace that fence? It's a great question. I would have to pull the old files, but it's probably okay. I'm just It's just one of those things you just kind of like to know how often we're actually having to replace it because that's actually quite a pretty change. 43,000 or no, I'm sorry, it's more than that. Is it 73,000? So, this was on this is within the 5-year plan. It was just expected to be further. Yeah,

069it was going to be further out. So, a lot of what we did in the facilities committee last week or what we presented was when the solar dropped out, we shifted things up and then we reenalized what needed to be done. But that's been the plan. Then the gutters, is that where's that located? Where are we doing those at? Those are seamless gutters out of Washington. Okay. Yep. Just worn out. Yep. Water's pulling up on the roofs and stuff like that causing ice which causes damage to her. She's several beds here. Who are you guys recommending? Uh which one are you looking at? There's McCabe and there's Crabel. So Jambo, so the McCabe is the winning bid. Okay. Then the 58,000 the value inspired products and services. What's that? Those are for new tables at

070Pence. Okay. So, are those going to go into the wall then or what did we decide there? They're go on the wall. And this is the one company in the nation that does it? Yep. We reached out to six and they're the only ones that do so bad. So, And there's no mechanism that can be fixed like a spring or something. No. Okay. And is is are these tables like adequate to serve everybody in the school? There's enough tables in this Yeah. configuration. Yeah. We currently have three lunches there. So, you know, depending on down the line what that looks like as far as pence and who's there, we may have to get more tables that we we could definitely add more tables in the middle. They would just have to be fold up and

071then the storage piece of it. Um, and we talked about doing that with this transition, but right now we just don't have the space um to store that many tables with everything being utilized um from a room standpoint. So, and then are you guys doing asphalt there next to the football field there along the road? Yep. Okay. Yeah. Just out of curiosity, I think that's been rock for, you know, ever, right? What's kind of the decision to put asphalt there? I think just continuing the the process. We've done that at other um buildings as well. I mean, you can jump in if I'm misspeaking, but it'll be nice to have um that space. I don't know about like our current like Trojan field. Yeah. Yeah. So, we've had some incidences of um people slipping when

072it gets wet down there and it getting all muddy and getting hurt. Um so, we've weeded, not a lot of complaints, but a few complaints about can we just make that nicer and pave so we can keep up with it better so people fall less. Okay. Thank you. I think these doors the doors in the middle school. No, these are in pants. Pence. Okay. So, if you go to Pence, if you look at all the hallway doors right now, they're wood. So, they're not actually like fireproof doors. So, if we were to shut their fire, I mean, how long it takes a fire to burn down wood. Um, so when our fire marshall has gone through, they've indicated that we get to replace those with fire doors. And are there two quotes here for that?

073No, there's different sets of doors. So there's one hallway has a set of doors, another hallway has a set of doors, and there's some at tops of stairwells. And we're using two different companies for the different doors. I guess I'm just trying to There's two sha vorhees. Well, the first I thought the first one was the library exit doors at um Washington. Is that not in here? The exterior doors. There's There should be some in there from Washington. Yeah, those are the aluminum doors. The Minko. Yep. That's the same. What's the second one then? Pence. Pence. Okay. Okay. So, Washington and Pence doors. Those are exterior though. Yeah. So, Shorhees is the exterior ones. The Mike's custom is the interior fire doors. And the exterior doors are just it's a safety dete all sorts of

074stuff. Now, back to the fencing for all field. Did you guys only get one bid on that or was that he reached out and he saw three bids for all of this and these he put in here the winning bids from the three. Okay. And they were all the lowcost ones. So, the fencing we had more than one contractor bid on that. Then he contacted three different companies. Has the facilities committee kind of evaluated like athletic groups, you know, facilities wise, like if there are other needs? Yeah, there are. And we looked at the the list of those. I wouldn't say that the facilities committee prioritized what was going to be this next year. That was more us, but there's a huge scope of um improvements that really should should be addressed over the next

075four four years. um but they're not currently on one of the tabs for the next four years. So, that's something we talked about at the facilities committee is getting those placed into a specific year. Um yeah, there's a lot. The black fence is something we'd like to do all around at the football stadium. Um there's quite a bit there to do um honestly. So, and it's all in the capital improvements um document. Um, so that's that first document. And [Music] then the second Yep. So the second document was a quote that we just got in late Friday. These are garbage cans. Yep. So I remember we set aside $25,000 for marketing. Um, what we learned is we needed some more garbage cans. What we've learned is with more garbage cans means less trash with school.

076Oh, these are a little bit everywhere. Um, so essentially the feedback we got is if you see consistent trash, even though there's a trash can 20 yards away, if you just keep putting more trash cans, it means less trash. Any questions? When it comes to vote, I'm going to take myself out because a couple of the bids. So, you'll just say abstain when each call for good. Do we I guess do we feel good about the marketing dollars of of these nice trash cans? I just want to make sure we continue. I mean, this is there's other stuff coming. So, it's 25,000. The trash cans are 11,000. Um some things we're wearing our quotes on are actually some nice new tables for our um ball fields like picnic tables with Trojan heads and um make

077that all good looking and stuff. But we've also talked about some signs just so people know where to drive to and locations for entries. So that sounds good. Okay. Um any other questions or discussion here? All right. Um, I guess that's vote. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. Mark will abstain. Uh, motion carries. 9.3 board policies. We have three different motions here. Do I hear a motion to approve the board policies listed with no change? So moved. Second. Deborah and Mark order. Any discussion? Does this include the one that was deleted? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it's no change. It was It says delete, but was that? And so I My only question was is that just being deleted because it was a duplicate kind of covered by another one that we have or

078I don't I wouldn't say it was a I don't know if it was a straight up duplicate, but the guidance was we didn't need to have this in there from ISB. Yep. So, I would say um I originally presented it to the committee as no change and I'm familiar with the committee, they actually wanted to move to get it deleted, which the motion is second is from the committee on there. Um so the motion to approve board policies with no change on the table um pending your guys' decision. Technically it failed that and we should amend that language to say motion to delete delete delete the policy is presented. Okay. So we need to fail it first. Fail motion a second. So we're going to fail. We'd like to fail all in favor of approving

079the board policy. Did I say board policies? No change or delete. Oh, sorry. I see what I said. Motion approve board policies change. Yeah. Um, all in favor? All opposed? Nay. I I mean nay. All right. Motion fails. Um, and I can just create a new Yep. So, do I hear a motion to approve board policies for deletion? Do I hear a motion to approve the board policies for deletion as listed? So, moved. I Christie. Okay. So, we're deleting this one because we ISB says we don't need it. And I think I saw later on there's another one that's kind of covers investigations of these kind of matters. So, maybe that covers some of what this used to cover. Yes, I think there was a lot of discussion because these [Music] are the Rs are

080what? More of the Help me out here, Evan. RS are regulation, not policy. So, there's policy, then you can put a regulation behind policy. So if we want to be more descriptive around the policy, we could. But what we were running into with some of these R policies is they change so quickly that we on some of them we've decided it's just easier to abide by law, which is what the policies are in the state. And I don't remember if it's this one or not, but we're finding more of these regulations are in some of the handbooks. I have to go back on this one specifically and remember back, but you'll see some more coming up in the next ones too that we're relying more on the handbook than these regulations. So, we're going that

081direction where we're going to define it more in handbook and less in policy because some they're already there and or they contradict each other. Yeah, we have a lot of contradictions. Yeah, we we want to make sure that the handbook captures the process and protocol. The policy should be the overarching here's the board policy set. Now, how that's operationalized is up to the building level leadership team. Okay. So, this is a part of a larger effort to try to make sure that our policies and our handbook. Yes. And our handcuffing. Okay. Y I approve of that uh initiative. Any other questions? Right. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Do I hear a motion to approve board policies at the first reading for deletion? Isn't that what we just did? Yeah. Just just checking. Okay.

082So, I'm just reading the agenda, but I'm not doing a very good job. When I corrected my index, it repopulated for you. Okay. Um, so do I hear a motion to approve the board policies with no change. So, moved. Second. Discussion here. These again, we just picked a bunch and they're mainly in the 500s that were just up for review. So, we just went through and reviewed them. No change from my ASB. So, we didn't think of the need to change it for ourselves. Any other questions? All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Do I hear a motion to approve board policies at the first reading and wave the second reading? So moved. Second. Ty and Mark Porter. Any discussion here? You guys look through these. I think these were the couple that there's

083like a new form layout was one of them. So, we're deleting the old one and taking the new. It was a lot of the same lingo, just a better format to read and understand. Yeah. And then we actually have the new form in a Google form that they fill out. So, it's not actually this, but it's Yeah. Yeah. And that's that's what I was talking about. The one you have up on your screen, the uh it that kind of looks like it supplements takes the place of the policy that we're building. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Okay. Um, so do I hear a motion? No, we just do I need to Oh, sorry. I was too far down. Um, so we're at 9.4 a closed have a motion to go into the closed

084session or I read all just read the motion. Okay. Do I hear a motion to go into close session pursuant to Iowa code section 21.51i to evaluate the professional comp competency of an administrator whose performance is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to the that individual's reputation and that individual requests a close session. So moved. Ty. Second. And Mark. Roll call. Roll call vote. Mark Porter. Hi. Ty W. Hi. Christy Castle. Hi. May Robbins. Hi. Mark Thoron. Hi. Deborah Wson. Here. I I So we'll now go into a closed. Let's take a short recess. 3 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever you guys need. Just come back quickly.