001e e e March 10th 6:30 p.m. I call to order this regular board meeting monthly meeting of the board of directors of the Fairfield Community School District to be held at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month the 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 serve serve every student every day can I have a roll call please mark Porter here Ty Ward present Christy Castle absent megel Robbins here Mark thoron here de Williamson here dve here okay do we have any um Perfections to the agenda we do um I will I would like to add the
002sunrise Trail agreement under new business as presented um you have a copy of it currently it would be 7.4 so when we get to new business can kind of highlight what that is and then walk through it and if there's any questions we can go from there okay great is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended still mov second Deborah and Tha any discussion all in favor all opposed motion carries agenda is approved I mean okay so first up we have focus on learning we have a presentation from Tina Townsen our Washington Elementary principal and she'll provide an update on the progress toward the building goals good evening hi Tina hi so moving on to the next slide from the welcome our first building goal is in the area of academic which is
003by the end of the Academic Year 100% of students will demonstrate measurable growth through targeted instruction differentiated support and continuous progress monitoring um our the way we track the this goal and this growth is through um for preschool we use the gold assessment data for kindergarten and first we use our fast bridge data that we give beginning year mid year and end of year and we use our wind mtss intervention data our second building goal is that by the end of the Academic Year 100% of students will demonstrate measurable growth through targeted instruction differentiated support and continuous progress monitoring again we use the same three goals um gold fast um win and intervention um the one I did not include on there was our student climate survey um that he's on the wrong Slide John
004next slide there you go there it is Tina I'm like that's you got it by the end of the academic he's not even paying attention he's probably dozed off back there and you guys don't even know it by the end of the Academic Year 100% of our students and staff will rep report a a strong sense of belonging based on districtwide survey results um for Progress tracking we use the gold um for preschool and then we use the climate survey for kindergarten and first and these goals come directly from the work that Zach set for um the district at our back to school days um and the goals that he set and suggest and encouraged us or suggested that we could also use next slide please current vast Bridge data again we want 100% of
005all of our students to show growth I believe Zach shared this um data with you last month so we don't have anything more current than our midyear data so just a couple things I would like to point out is that um and you know the font when you put it in the notes is really small so um first with the math data that I wanted to note that when we assess math data with the end of or the midyear assessment place value is assessed on that assessment however we have not explicit explicitly taught place value at that point so our students are being assessed on something that they have not been taught and that is reflected in our scores the other thing I I want to put out point out with this chart and um
006in our building we consider it a huge celebration that this is the first time since at least the 1819 school year that our our fall to winter first grade fast reading scores have gone up instead of down so we were very pleased to see that um and like I said we went back those five years we might have been able to go back further next slide please I wanted to make sure that we had um some way to include preschool in our presentation this evening so I met with the preschool team and gold has 36 standards so we didn't really feel like we could take time to share all of those but we did pick two that we were focusing on and we picked on we selected the um identifies 10 letters that's one of
007the skills that's measured um and you'll see tremendous growth in most of the rooms from um in all of the rooms excuse me from fall to winter and then um we selected the accounting from 1 to 20 so we selected a measure from um reading academics and from math academics they also have social emotional learning we did not put that on this chart so and then again even um then you'll see um significant growth in the um fall to unders scores in math also so next slide please um for the sense of belonging I referenced the climate survey earlier um this is a survey that our school counselor Mrs Roland um has kindergarten and first grade students due in the fall so you will see of the first grade students surveyed um it is agree
008in between or disagree and we measure that we feel safe at school and the grown-ups care for us at school and I feel I I feel like that's pretty positive when you're asking little ones that question um trying to ensure that they have an understanding of what what you're asking so that's what we're measuring for sense of belonging the next thing I wanted to point out on the next slide is that um and this also stems from our beginning of the year work with Mr waggle and then our PLC Academy participation um we're really focusing on our clts on Richard de's critical thinking for questions asking our students what do our students need to learn how will I know when each student has learned to that how will I respond if a student doesn't learn
009it and how will I respond if a student already knows it so this is how we're using CLT time in our weekly CLT meeting and also on our Friday early outs when we have building time and grade level team time so their whole focus is on these four questions whatever lesson they're planning for and then also um that's how they're measuring and recording what they're putting in their agendas we may not see them review each and every question every single time but they're focusing on at least one or two next slide please to highlight other things from Washington Elementary for this year um tomorrow night we have our Title One stem family night um it's from 5: to 7 we will be having STEM related activities in every classroom and we anticipate having about 250
010families attend we have 41 pizzas ordered so we're going to be feeding a few people we also hosted a stem night a title one stem night in the fall um around Halloween and we had around 250 attend that evening and we didn't even feed them so they still came to see us so I wanted to highlight our Partnerships with the high school um we have stem Days Every trimester um we have invested in a lot of stem activities that um we save for these days and our students rotate around by grade level um to work on these stem activities we usually have anywhere from 12 to 18 high school students that come over and participate in that honestly they just set with the students and do the activities so um they might be sitting and
011doing marble run kids they might be working with magne tiles with the kiddos they might be working with Legos um with our students but um it's a fun time for everybody we rotate them through um they get about um about 10 to 15 minutes at each station um but it's a it's it's a nice little reward and break from our regular day and then for our second trimester PBIS science reward we are partnering with Mrs smithburg and her science classes and Wednesday morning she's bringing over a science class and we're going to also rotate all of our students through and they're going to do some Hot Wheels experiments and I believe the other one is volcanoes so they will rotate through those and the high school kids will demonstrate that so it's just a nice
012partnership between um the high school and the elementary um our next highlight of the year that I wanted to highlight was the implementation of leader and me we have completed core one training and Core 2 TW training for all of my um certified staff we have on our Friday early out that is a leader in me day our um Associates stay and we have introduced them to all of the seven habits from Franklin cubby so that we could they were seeing the lessons being implemented in the classrooms but they didn't have that background knowledge of the seven habits so that's why we started there with those leader and me early out Fridays to utilize that so they could develop that background knowledge of the seven habits um also with leader and me our Lighthouse team
013is established so we meet in conjunction with our be uh building leadership team once a month because we have um we have SE a CP a few members that are the same on each team and they've also established our action teams so those action teams are meeting um and we we've set goals for our next steps um we're moving forward with um this Pat after our Core 2 training the 1 of January we started the wigs and had the classroom teachers identify those and we've been measuring those um our next goal will be we've kind of talked by possibly after 4 three training which is more student and family involvement possibly moving to student-led conferences if not next winter spring then at least by fall of 26 it's kind of a long-term goal um our
014student of the month um and our student shoutouts these are a couple of the things that the kiddos when they were doing the building principal tours last Thursday really highlighted that they wanted to keep that they really like having those celebrations through PBIS and they really love when um we have the students shoutouts and they get to come down and we make a phone call home and um they get to pick some treasure from the prize box so they love those celebrations and that recognition um the next thing I would really like to highlight is our emergency building preparedness team and plan when I I came to Fairfield four years ago um our building plan was emergency plan was pretty willy-nilly um due to some trainings and the guidance of John we and are um
015work with I love you guys we have really made a lot of growth there I think if you ask any of my staff in the building they would tell you that they feel so much more safe so much more secure so much more prepared um and we feel that with the I love you guys training there's preparation and activities for our kids so they also are better prepared um I know John had commented when we did a lockdown you know everything was done like it was supposed to be done he as they were going through and do unlocking the doors kids were not visible they were all hidden and you know just as they should be and they were quiet just as they should be um we have are making preparations to actually tour with
016staff our reunification spot and then we will also before the end of the year have our students do a walkth through to our reunification spot our emergency building team meets monthly and um we've made a lot of growth there we have a spreadsheet and we have staff that ask us questions we've been able to answer them and again make a lot of growth there um year two of our stuff your stocking event again we had approximately 250 students that went through that um this is an event that stemmed from um some of the surrounding schools activities I think one of them has a Halloween trunker or treat we took that and wanted to invite our community to be able to prepare our students to provide our students and children in the area with a small
017treatment because we know there are some kiddos that don't get a lot for Christmas um we we've had a huge success we have um between 18 and probably 20 Community businesses that donate things um I know one of the things um Marge from Margie from the radio station she provided the stockings this year um and I know we've we've given away toothbrushes toothpaste toys books um aggr Plastics gave stocking hats this year um so the kiddos go home with a with a stocking stuffed full of Trinkets and it's it's just it's been a huge success and like I said we just we did a year two in December and um I would anticipate it's going to continue to grow any questions I guess I was just curious about um maybe it was two slides back
018um where there was the four different kind of boxes um with intervention and enrichment yeah this question the questions yeah do you feel like you're able to find a balanced approach for both intervention and enrichment or do you feel like guys strong I feel like it's a work in progress that um I've worked with a focus of these questions for a lot of years um from a lot of in in several different districts um we have in my staff mixed some that had seen these questions before when they were doing some PLC work several years ago to some of the newer staff they were brand new so I think teams are still finding their footing on how to use them so it's a challenge um in our PLC Academy when you when we go and
019the leader that presents there is from Carlile and they've been doing the PLC Academy for a number of years so just seeing where they're at in like year eight is Becky and I attend together with the team my instructional coach so it's just uh it's where we would like it's a plan of where we would like to see us go but um we can't do it all at once so and right now we kind of leave it we've kind of left it to the teams to to kind of pick what their focuses are for when they're planning um we still need at Washington to work on common assessments so that we know how how we will know when each student has learned it so but that's something that we know that we're aware of um
020I think this year they're probably the biggest goal is working together as a team on what we want students to learn and then that intervention piece of what we're going to do if they don't um I know that probably one of the things I should have included on our highlights is looking at our math data um we knew that and we talked about this a little bit earlier today we knew that um number sense was something that we needed to develop in our first graders and we have a a protected we call it wind time it's an RTI response to intervention or an mtss multi-tiered support uh system um in in our day for reading um we have that protected four days a week but we didn't have it for math so we built that
021in we invested in uh we worked with Lynn selin who's the aea math person she came in and worked with Becky and I um and looked at what our needs were and we invested in a number cense supplemental curriculum that was suggested and so that's what the first grade team have um they they found 20 minute blocks in their day to work with the small groups that the data shows have a need um so they're just they're going back and filling that Gap cool when did that start uh we started that right around Thanksgiving yes I don't think you had the data but does it go back further than like that was just what last fall and spring data this year data this year's like is it comparable to previous years or do do we
022know that like when with the reading like I said we went we had five years worth that we went back to 1819 and this is the first time with first grade that we had seen growth from fall to winter so yes can we go back yes we do have that um I didn't go back to that for this presentation sure thanks I mean if you if you want it we can I mean I can get it for you sure or I can get it to Zach and he can pass it along yeah that' be good for sure um how about you know behavior um issues well how about Behavior how's the support level that you know like do you does it is it kind of the same frequency it's been the last few years is
023the support there or anything you want to speak on about um I would say our our a our aea Behavior specialist um that's in the building this year is a stronger support she's doing more coaching with um with our teachers um I just said to somebody today in our kindergarten classrooms and I don't just mean our here in Fairfield I I think we're seeing it nationwide we see we are seeing more kids come in with higher needs um I had shared with Zach in a conversation earlier we have probably eight students in our in our building who families have shared with us they're supposed to be receiving some kind of counseling services or going to was City for an evaluation of some of one type or another and for whatever reason families are choosing not
024to do that um those are very high needs kids that un unfortunately an elementary building can't provide what they need so I mean we have had three kids that we have pulled out out of the general education classroom and locked them down in a cubicle with a one-on-one and they're getting their instruction from the classroom teacher via an iPad because they're their behaviors were so interruptive to the teacher and to the learning of the students the other students in the classroom that we had to ask ourselves how can we continue to educate this child who's entit to an education but still educate the classroom and not have that Interruption to the other's learning um I'm happy to say that two of them have been able to work their way back into the classroom for the
025majority of the time one kindergartner and one first grade student um we have some really high needs we have um right now on our roster to go into the four kindergarten classrooms next year we we already have 13 IEP students and of those 13 IEP students only one of them is speech only and probably four or five of them are already on a behavior Improvement plan so those High need students now you said that they have chosen not to go to Iowa City I mean can they still get the support of the AA in those situations or do they have to have a diagnosis from Iowa City depend on the circumstances some yes some no I guess my question is do you have access to what they need or is there are is there just
026basically legal hurdles that you have to hop through to get um with some of the students in some of the instances yes the aea has the support services that we can provide and we can provide to them some of them have higher needs than than we can provide even through the AA even through the AA um most of our outside counseling services that come into the school typically don't take a student until they're six years old so um that means that most of my kindergarteners don't have access to Services some some some do but there's nothing that we can do as a board you if that is there you're um that would be a question for Mr wagle um and I don't know that he has any magic answers but um you know and and
027here in southeast Iowa we're Limited in the services we have um one of one of the a student that we received from De Mo um she was in a self-contained room and they had called law enforcement on her and hauled her to one of the hospitals to do an evaluation we don't have that option here in ffield so other questions you have this you have an amazing staff at Washington you there it's it's a great team of teachers and they're doing a lot of great work and they're working really hard for our kids I think this is your last update before your retirement so thank you for the time the last four years thank you you done a great job so thank you thank you thanks you thanks Dina thank you thank you you okay
028so this month um as our meeting is earlier in the month we've had fewer committee meetings um prior to this meeting so I think there might just be two updates um You' like to if Ty would you like to provide an update on strategic planning or do you want to hold off until sure let me pull up my notes so let me pull the agenda yeah so we just met uh at 5:00 couple hours hours ago um and uh strategic planning we talked about uh mission and vision statement um Mr wagel has uh talked to the administration and uh the administrators and they've uh come up with some mission and vision that we're going to be taking a look at um pretty soon I don't know what meeting that's scheduled for but April 21st there
029you go um but yeah we'll be deciding on that um we talked about marketing uh talked about how we're marketing uh right now we're marketing the uh Washington talking about moving into Pence and the high school um and kind of strategies there and anything right we're at the middle school right now oh we're at Mid SCH right now all right sorry that's okay um yeah so we're talking about kind of our strategy there um what we're going to highlight um moving into the high school and talking about CTE and stuff like that um just kind of highlighting that for new ads we put out um we talked about uh hiring and we seem to be on a pretty good pace for hiring uh for next year which is awesome um talked about the uh the
030incentive that we gave uh to get early notice so we could start hiring early um you know and what if that's worked out or not and it sounds like it helped um us get a our foot in the door early for everybody and what else do we talk about a little bit of AI curriculum we always kind of bring that up um just kind of getting ready for AI in our classrooms and what we're going to be teaching kids for that having a strategy around it I think that's about it great thanks any questions from anybody chrisy or Mark do you w to Christie yeah um so Evan's been working on uh the insurance side of things um I'll let him speak more to that because I have not attended those meetings but um we
031also met just trying to kind of set a direction for the HR committee and what you know what our focus should be and what that's going to look like so we're still kind of just finalizing that so once we kind of have a better idea of what that looks like we'll share that with all of you but cool and we're going to talk about insurance and Tristan I know you have an update High School you want High School update or you want this how about both how about sh we'll go with the high school update first so today mean wle had a slight little meeting at the end of high school's fifth hour he's like hey what if we talk about high school highlights for a little bit at the end of the section I'm
032like sure man so I reached out to some people some people I know so here are some updates from the high school in the past month first off third trimester started we are on day three of that at the high school it's going good uh Bandon Choir they're getting ready to go on a Disney trip over spring break so that'll be fun for them track has been starting tennis starts next week play practice for the spring play has started Golf I have with a question mark I wasn't able to find anything out about that but I assume they'll be starting soon um Jazz choir the top Jazz choire has made it to state speech members are going to State 14 of them are FBI F oh my gosh fbaa had a state showcase last weekend
033and from what I heard it was good uh we have an assembly to celebrate activities at the end of this week that our student council is helping out with today the Juniors took the as ASVAB test I could have said that wrong I don't know um soccer is starting soon I assume and finally tomorrow night's family bingo night at the high school from 8 from 6:00 to 8 with high school students involved as celebrity bingo cers so that's my high school update and then we'll go over to this paper which was kindly put on your thing from by Wile which I'm a part of our trim Association here at Fairfield High School and I've been asked to read since I'm on the board so for 40 years March has been officially designated by the National
034Association for music education as music in our schools month otherwise known as the Acron acronym m i o m encouraging communities Across the Nation to focus on music education music education is a part of a well-rounded education for every student as outlined in the every student succeeds act the purpose of this celebration is to raise awareness of the lasting positive impact of music education on the academic personal and professional growth of our students music education shapes the way students understand themselves and the world around them allowing for a deep engagement with learning music in our school's month reminds us that school is where all children should have access to music and music educators music oh my gosh just pardon me students in communities throughout Iowa demonstrate the importance of quality music education programs to the
035lives of young people please join our music students Educators and community in celebrating the power of music education therefore I Tristan Garson fcsd Board of Education student representative do hereby Proclaim March 2025 as music in our schools month in Fairfield Iowa and encourage all citizens to celebrate and acknowledge every day but especially in March that music education is an essential part of every student's well-rounded education cool that's great thank you all right um let's move along to our consent agenda um do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented moved second David Marks um any discussion right um all in favor hi opposed consent agenda carries uh and we'll move along [Music] to public um participation any of you guys want to speak we're with the city okay so later when okay
036to so it sounds like no public participation tonight okay so uh we'll move along to new business um 7. one do I hear a motion to approve the board policies uh at the second reading so moved second Deborah and Christie uh any discussion here okay all uh in favor opposed motion carries uh 7.2 approval of capital Improvement bids for fiscal year 26 asphalt bid do I hear a motion to approve Norris Asphalt Paving in the amount of $765 for the Pence back parking lot project move second Deborah and Mark [Music] Porter um any discussion here I see the bid have we got did we go over this in facilities Evan I'm trying to remember yeah so we reached out to two other companies um most of them are up in like Northwestern North Central Iowa
037and they stated that if they were to transport all the supplies down here it would not be good product by the time they arrived so therefore we only receive one B from Norris um it was about 1,500 over the original budget but we came in 15 grand under on the gym floor project okay so we were just kind of Shifting the budget priorization so the overall conceptual budget is not over so when will this be completed then um by the end of the summer by the start of school and is this comparable comparable to like last year's yeah so we budgeted 75,000 um based off standard bids Blaster bids so $1,500 does not seem okay too much different and this is the so what what all will this cover at Pence then so it' be
038the back um foret what side of the building the back parking lot that's all gravel right now put that asphalt there a bunch of teachers Park back there um it should also assist us with um some of our workman comp insurance um and that makes a difference in lower comp rates yeah I mean the safer places for that we can clear and salt and plow for snow stuff as well okay any other questions discussion all in favor I I opposed motion carries um new business 7.3 uh do I hear a motion to approve the Professional Services contracts for the 2025 2026 school year as presented so move order and Thorton uh any discussion any questions so why why do we have to vote on this separately then because for Sarah it's a new newly structured
039position y based on Jeff moving into a slash role um we're going to up her a little bit in in more of a salary type position as opposed to a um hourly and then in the consent agenda I don't know if you saw but hopefully you did we're moving away from the difference between a 9mon secretary and a 12-month secretary as far as the hourly wage goes um because it doesn't make sense to me for nine months of the year people are doing the exact same job but because one of them works all year they get more money during the year the school year so we we got rid of that as well so now they'll all where they fall based on their years of service but they'll be in that upper bracket um but
040with Sarah just the amount of time um that she puts in and maybe some of the new things she's going to have to pick up um we up this it it's not a ton more than she was making with overtime and hourly but it's um a step in the right direction that's what I was getting ready to ask Jeff's job kind of changing a little bit this next year is that is she going to have to pick up some of those responsibilities that he was doing then yeah I think yes she she should yeah y okay um all those in favor I I opposed I refused myself and abstained or refused one all right motion carries um superintendent oh sorry new new uh 7 point 7.4 yeah I don't know if you guys want to
041speak to this a little bit first so kind of give them a rundown I will introduce it can we get a motion a second first uh yeah so uh we have uh 7.4 Sunrise Trail agreement the sunrise Trail agreement uh to approve it do I hear motion to approve the sunrise Trail agreement as presented move second and Christie um and any discussion she can discuss now okay all right well thank you for adding us to uh the agenda my name is Melanie Carlson Public Works director with the City of Fairfield I have Rebecca ler our city clerk with us um she knows a lot of the ins and outs of the document um but I can um I'm here to talk about uh the development and U really why we're here um so if you
042have not heard uh the city um has been approached by grow Fairfield formerly feda um to work on Housing Development on the south side of town uh south of the daycare center and um the first phase of the development includes 32 single family lots there's actually three phases um I think nearing 60 Lots by the time all three phases are done um for the city to participate in this uh the first phase would include around $2 million of infrastructure needs including the water sewer and streets for this first phase uh to pay for that infrastructure the city wishes to use tax increment financing or Tiff um which uses the new taxes from the houses within the development to pay back the money that we would the 2 million that the city would borrow um for
043to pay for that infrastructure uh with the projected valuation of those 3 32 homes um it's a projected payback period period of 15 years um so we are here to request uh that the district um and we have made this request from the county already um allow us to increase from the minimum the state minimum of 10 years uh to 15 years I will say uh make note that we have many 15 years uh tiffs already in this um Community this state just recently changed the rules that we have to come ask special permission when we increase from 10 to 15 so um many of the developments take 10 or more than 10 years for payback um it's not uncommon um everything is increasing at the same rate the houses and the infrastructure um so
044it's more a matter of the state changing the rules than necessarily um how the subdivision is laid out or anything it's as to why we're here for um for this special request so um any other questions I might have to bring Rebecca up here but that's what I can speak to tonight I think that uh certainly I think that we should support this and in the payback period certainly 10 years is probably too long for it a $2 million Pro project um we just have to understand that as a school district there's two two risks to Tiff financing and that we're extending our exposure for f five more years as I understand it so the first one is is that it's called over capture so the the um the land that this is being developed
045on would increase in value value anyway and so we're not we're over capturing that and taking it out of our Revenue stream okay it's a sometime a difficult concept it's sort of like this would have happened anyway um and the last one is that the the city obtains the tax revenue for this to pay off these bonds we don't get that tax revenue so potentially our revenue streams to support our budget could go down or we would have to increase the levy or we'd have to increase the levy yes that is correct um now on the plus side of this as I understand it I mean the uh this plot of land is probably marginal to the whole valuation that we get in our in our school district and certainly the upside of of providing
046H housing relief to our community will could potentially help our school district you know enrollment attract the families we have a lot of people that are communing into the into the district that don't live here because we fa we do we all recognize we Face H housing shortages or quality housing so uh in my perspective as long as we understand the effects of this and and extending our exposure for five years then I think we can vote for it so that's my pitch no you did a great job explaining tip so normally I have to draw draw diagrams in order to explain tip so I appreciate it um the one thing I will say as far as over capturing is we um well Rebecca is required to certify the debt each year so um that
047um if we don't have the debt we're not certifying anything so we're not um capturing we're not collecting the money just to collect it it's only going for this infrastructure unless we do another set of hearings like this in order to do phase two or um other with there's a lot more transparency surrounding Tiff that there were several years ago where the city ran into some trouble with uh the City of Burlington particularly yes yeah so what currently approving this what what kind of effect would that have on our Revenue stream in the near term next five years we can't we can't say for for sure we just have to be okay with it potentially taking away from it a little bit so but it would still be minimal though right correct the value of
048housing would far exceed correct that yes that's the Assumption yeah y you know um we're a high property value District so it should be a pretty small chunk of a very large District um just my two cents I think it's a no-brainer if anyone's going to support this the schools need to support it schools and housing feed into each other so much so housing is one of our biggest concerns in this community so how confident are you that 15 years is enough does that is does that pose a problem if um you know cost of everything could just Skyrocket we don't know this is according to our financial advisor it work thank you any other questions concerns the other good news is that um with this approval and then some action by city council that
049we're going to go to right after this um we should be ready to go to bids within a month and start turning dirt on the subdivision yet this year so that's awesome maybe even some houses starting construction this fall so you said right now there to build 32 houses um it's 32 Lots um so so grow Fairfield is being the developer um working on the um the houses and I really I would need um edoy here to discuss more on that I believe there's a commitment to 10 the first year yes I okay it was like I I had to miss that part of the grow Fair field um presentation the other day so how are you guys financing that then is it actually I F I believe has investors and they have some pre-old
050Lots as well SOI it's fantastic thanks Melanie thank you all right so we we have um a motion to uh on the table here to approve the sunrise Trail agreement um all in favor I I opposed motion carries all right uh that's it for new business uh superintend update yeah see I'm going to start with um something that happened a couple weeks ago on the 28th of February we had our first um TQ event TQ day teacher quality um planned um learning experience and we invited um over a 100 community members Business Leaders um and and they joined us for a really good um keynote um by a Fairfield resident who um has done a lot in just promoting public schools and um highlighting the need for strong community support and so he did a
051great job setting the tone and then we broke up into smaller groups um got a lot of great ideas down on paper um at every building TQ committee came back together last week looking at how we can continue to move forward with some of the ideas and things that came from that work um and so April 18th will be next day that we have um specifically um carved out for that teacher quality work so that was really exciting can Roundup um will be on Monday the 24th of March um looking forward to that you kind of highlighted this already but um just wanted to to Showcase um our Jazz choir what's the name of it Jazz X Jaz X yeah Jazz X um they'll be going up on April 2nd I think is it's a
052Wednesday maybe um to Dallas Center Grimes or ADM one of the two um to compete um yeah for a state championship uh they had to submit audition their their audition tapes to get selected um they were one of eight 3A schools that got the G pick so that's a big accomplishment and a shout out there uh I wanted to highlight um just again the work that that Evan has put in um as we've sifted through the different Insurance Brokers um not really Insurance Brokers the Brokers that help facilitate um our plan moving forward to a self-funded model for all things things um health planwise and so we have identified shw North as the U broker that's going to be um utilized and we're going to meet with them Evan and I Friday to really start
053laying out the plan um and how we best communicate this I'm going to share it um with the entire staff EV and I will create something that goes out probably midweek um that captures um why we selected them and kind of how the next month or so will look U moving forward because it's going to be a huge shift and I I think the important piece that we need to make sure we do a really good job of is um creating an experience for all of our our staff members as they get onboarded in this process so they feel competent and um able to to make decisions and um move forward with what this looks like because it it's new um I think somebody hit on this too maybe in your update tie but we
054just completed our Middle School uh marketing video and really going to highlight all of the co-curricular extracurricular activities um that'll be going out um I don't know if we go later this week or right when we get back from spring break but then we're going to focus on Pence um next we're going to highlight some of the growth um around their leader and me work um kind of that theme around the mountains and and and and climbing to the top in regards to growth uh and then we'll move to the the high school um to really capture and highlight the offerings that we have both on a concurrent kind of fronts and um in the seat GTE world one thing I want to make sure you guys all were aware and I talked with Megan
055about this but um on the Cal calendars that were approved we had the wrong date for um Memorial Day 2027 so it's actually May 31st we had it the week prior so that's all been changed and updated but just know that was something that nobody caught as we sifted through all the different people um that were looking at it so Memorial Day is a week later which means graduation would move a week later which means the senior last day moves a week up as well so um wanted to make sure you all heard that was able to get to the Middle School play uh this past week a lot of fun um very very talented kids um enjoyed enjoyed that space so I know Tina does a really good job um directing and working with
056kids and and devoting time for that so it was an exciting thing we've got three family engagement nights this week um tomorrow both uh Washington and the high school trist kind of alluded to what they were doing at the high school and then Thursday night will be um penes quick Staffing update um we're we're doing really really good um we've got one we interviewed for special education at the high school that's our last one at the high school to fill um potentially depending on this other piece I'm going to share with you and then we still have a second grade um opening that we're inter interviewing for later this week um but then that should really get us all of our teachers for next year already hired and when contracts go out Friday um they'll
057have what is it 20 21 days 21 days to sign um and again hopefully we get all those back so we can lock it in and be ready to go um for next year community support specialist this was a position that Four Oaks um had under their umbrella we contracted with Four Oaks this person really works um to ensure all families that that need extra support um can find it and so this position was moving to us and under our umbrella so we were going to assume um this contract have a little bit more control as to how how it looks how what it supports um but the individual that was in that role is leaving the state and so we've posted that um we've got some applicants that we're going to be screening this
058week to hopefully backfill that as it was part of our budget and it is an important piece um uh to our our families that really do need some additional support another um unique opportunity is um what's called a college career transition counselor uh this is something that community colleges started probably six years ago five years ago through some grants Fairfield hasn't been a part of it before but all of our surrounding districts pretty much do utilize a cctc and so I had explored sharing with Mount Pleasant but that's not going to work so we are in the process of um finalizing an agreement with Indian Hills in at Tuma which would mean um we're going to share this position with atmo it'll generate two students for us from a sharing dollar standpoint um the money
059that we had earmarked for iag we we're going to use that specifically towards this position now um the goal would be to have this person on site at least three days a week um most of the the work would be with eighth graders and up um our vision for what this looks like would be supporting our district career and academic planning um support for kids um our work based learning uh potentially some um some case loads as well of specific maybe first gen college students we can really craft how this looks um based on our needs but then this individual would be um in a Tumo one day a week at their alternative um high school so the other piece I'm working on with Indian Hills which they haven't done before is they're on a
0604-day work week they have been since the late 70s um but they they still work 40 hours so I'm trying to just figure out can we work 40 hours over 5 days so we get them here four days a week instead of three so we'll see if that that works but we've had some great conversations there um again another support um for our students as um we move forward we're still gonna have I right correct iag has um essentially communicated to us that they're going to have the specialist in the space um free of charge so we're not going to have to spend a dime um for that support at the high school so yeah cool does the Four Oaks position cover the whole K through 12 okay pk2 yeah so works with all four
061buildings um has a a case load for lack of a better way to say it um overseas all of our um food pantry stuff um won't be on a teacher contract it's a different type of contract so any other questions the updates okay guys are quiet tonight I'll have to make you talk the other thing just thinking about April's meeting the 21st normal board meeting but then we'll go to to to close session to for um for my kind of year end evaluation um we've got March 24th special hearing right two public hearings two public hearings on the 24th as well so all right good so what does that look like as far as us prepping for that right do we have a do we need session in April to do that or how does
062that work well I mean last time we kind of had our homework right kind of took it home um yeah I'm I'm we want to have a work I mean we can at least in a work session maybe identify I guess our process again um or I can just work to provide you guys with some documents um so we are kind of all evaluating I think we're evaluating the same uh yeah all all 10 standards but those three specific ones that I'm going to provide artifacts for so I'll have a document that has a links to all the different things that I think I've done that I have done that you know people have shared that would fall underneath those specific U priorities that you guys identified at the start of the year and then
063it would be up to you to kind of justify whether or not I've met those those other standards as well if some if one of the board members can't be there that night I mean how how do you want to handle that or or you still want to just kind of go through and have it that night or I have concerns about being at that meeting is the only Reon I ask um um I would say just make sure you submit anything that you would like to have shared or communicated in that Clos session to Megan ahead of time but I'm okay having it if not everyone's here if you guys are I'm gonna do my best to be there my work schedule's very weather dependent so so for sure I'm not going to be
064able to beat her we're taking a trip so yep there was a recent iasb um you know hourong seminar I think it's probably something we can all watch in our own time if you want just on how to go through an evaluation so since we're fairly all of us fairly new to this it might be worth it was in the board the brief that went out for Friday this last Friday or uh it might have been yeah um I didn't I don't always read those all so if we're not if we're not you just submit something in writing to to Megan yeah why don't you send it to me and I'll make sure it gets you know process through during the the review so I you know I just I don't know if we're having
065a a work session we've kind of not we've moved away from that but are we going to continue to move away from that for the next month seems like it I would like to unless you want have one specifically to get ready for this that would be the only I just thought it might be helpful since most of us haven't really done it before so but it's up to you guys I mean TI I've only done it once so and we just did it that night I think it's I think we can probably do it one day yeah I'm hearing that you would like to have a meeting though no either way I'm good with whatever I just thought people might feel a little more comfortable but if everybody's good with it I'm good with
066it anybody else feeling like okay so maybe we just do some extra to be clear you the you two that have been through it before you you don't think a work session is necessary I mean there's really not a whole lot to talk about other than just you know maybe go through what the standards are that you know we plan to discuss I think think yeah most of most of the talking will be around his artifacts that he provides you know underneath all of them and just kind of judging those and yeah so we could do that in the close session is what you're saying I'll try to get you those artifacts or that document that's connected to those priority standards ahead of time so it's so you don't before the 21st so you have
067access to them okay SS good so I think the work session is I don't think we yeah sounds like we'll move on without it and we'll just have our committee session uh committee meetings um okay let's see let's start with highlights over here Christie sure feel like I have a lot this week um obviously hiring our new uh principal at Washington is super exciting um Heather you know I grew up with her and getting her back to our district is I think really exciting for everybody in our community so um that was definitely a highlight um I also got to go sit in on Mr Clem's class and watch a couple of presentations um there and I was really impressed by the kids and just you know how much work they put into it and
068really it was really thoughtful and um they also asked some questions of me as a board member um and just just seemed really you know interested in what we do and you know how it all ties in to to them and you know they asked some questions about you know whether or not we were going to try to get their new Middle School built again and things like that and so um it was just it was a really good experience so um yeah if you guys get the chance or whatever to sit in on a class I would highly recommend it thanks Mark I think my highight will be uh the insurance St I said one of the presentations and just the work that EV and Zach have both put into knowing and learning and
069being able to answer questions and then also presenting the unknowns I think that was a good job both you of knowing what teachers are going to ask and staff are going to ask so just thanks for all the work on putting together for that so I think that'll be a huge step for us to finally wrap some of that up and show some changes and some savings and yeah so think that's a good step in the right direction great Ty um it's early but I'm already want to say ditto to both of the people that already said stuff um yeah I'm very excited I could go on for half an hour about how excited I am about having Mrs Buckley in our district it's going to be awesome um and then yeah the insurance stuff
070that's a huge thing that you guys have done and it's it's going to be a big overhaul and I love that you spent so much time on it so much thought on it there's been a lot of really thoughtful discussion around that's great um but since Tristan put this in front of me and it's music and our schools month I'm going to uh actually talk about a couple weeks ago there was like a band and a choir uh thing that we went to and I spend most of my time with sports with my kids and so like when we actually go to the band uh the band concert and the choir stuff um it just really blows me away how um you know how much work goes into that how much you can tell the
071kids are really enjoying it um and I really love our our music and our choir um programs I think that uh you know the kids have a great time and uh they're so it's super important and you know while Sports may give you like kind of discipline and routine type of uh skills um you can tell the Arts are given them you know creativity and freeth thinking and kind of playfulness um and it really helps our kids be very well-rounded and I see that in my own kids so so I I just want to give a shout out to our music programs it's great I thought you were going to sing that highlight when actually when he set it up there everybody would M see that move to a Tristen um I know Town said
072isn't here anymore but I really liked her presentation and especially how it highlighted that I think she said first grade Reading had improved and I also like to see that all the kids felt safe in the school and that they had precautions for stuff like that that I think is really important to have in a school district so I'm glad that she had those and that was honestly my main highlight of the meeting cool thanks Mark I would definitely Echo everything that everyone else has said so far but you know first and foremost I'd like to bring up you Tina Townson I think she was in the district for four years you know and I've really enjoyed getting to know her the last several years she's done a great job at Washington and I think
073she's brought a wealth of experience to our district so I really would like to say thank you to her for that and then the other thing is you know guys you guys talked about having all the teaching positions filled there's been times I've been on this board and we've been still scrambling with that in June and July so the fact that that's taken care of really puts our district in a good place so I really appreciate all the work that all our administration's done with that to get us in a good place there and then the hous with grow airold you know that's a really big step uh for the community in the right direction so we've been talking about for three years how we need to start getting houses built in this town I'm
074glad that you know we can do our small part to help you know Assist on that you know and hopefully they make good progress with that because that'll be a good great move for the community so I'm looking forward to all that so great thank you Mr E um well first of all to Echo what Christie said on February 26th I went to Lissa Tyler's class and did mock interviews with the students and uh had a wonderful time uh they are they were very motivated they were well prepared very dedicated willing to learn and it was it was it was a very enjoy enjoyable experience and if you ever get a chance to do those things you really really should it's it's it's a lot of fun so that echoing what she said um once
075again uh very good job in in for the hiring team and uh I'm very excited to have Heather this Buckley in the in the in the district and uh I think she's going it's going to be a a really good uh thing for our kids and our district going forward um tomorrow morning we have our finance committee we're going to uh talk about the nutrition program the preschool Enterprise fund and title program so we're going to drill down into the budget a little bit see see about the health of those programs and finally one question policy committee that's on Friday at 8 or is it because something about the over the noon hour facilities facilities okay I misre so Friday Friday okay very thank you thanks Deborah agree with everything said but I also want
076to highlight um Tristan's amazing report about what's going on at the high school as you were listing it on and on and on I'm thinking is this a small town is this this honestly a town of just 10,000 people cuz it sounded like you were describing a much larger District it was very very exciting and very gratifying to hear all that's going on I would love to have a high schooler right now just yeah I agree I was it's on my notes Here I really appreciated hearing from Tristan with the updates so looking forward to that next month as well um I think one thing that I really appreciated that Tina shared was the collaboration between um the high school science and their kids and I feel like we're seeing that a little bit more
077um and again with the choir and band concerts I I just love that the buildings are kind of reaching out to each other and connecting the kids and connecting the programs and I think that that really will help you know create a really nice you know unity and cohesion and and you know just kind of shows the kids like they you know they always look up to the older kids so it gives them something to look forward to and I think it's just such a great thing that we are you know it's just happening um one other saying uh oh you know just in the consent agenda there's always the donations and they just kind of they get ped but I just wanted to note you know just our appreciation for all of those donations
078all the time on this month we had very generous donations um from Chuck and jenb for the milk fund um so thank you to them and to Dean and Deb Foster for the negative lunch balance fund and it's just great that we have that support from the community always coming through I think that's it um so up next we can adjourn all in favor do I have a motion to adjourn thank I move what would we do without EV so move second thank you all in favor thank you sorry