001the award. All right, I am going to go ahead and call the meeting to order. Hate me. And we do have our quorum. I know the first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. So moved. So moved. Second. Uh moved by Beerbomb, seconded by was that Deart? Okay. Seconded by Deward. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Nay. passes 6. And the next item will be our public hearings starting with the 202425 proposed budget amendment. And if anyone is here to speak on the 202425 proposed budget amendment, you are welcome to come up to the microphone. Okay. Seeing none, I will close the proposed budget amendment hearing and we'll open the 25 202526 proposed certified budget uh hearing. So if you are here to speak on that item, you may come up
002to the microphone. Okay, seeing none, I will close our public hearings and we will move on to our celebrations and recognitions beginning with the Iowa School Public Relations Association awards and I will turn it over to Superintendent Grimes. Thank you. Um, awkward to have her send her own, but I would like to acknowledge our uh, awards from the Iowa School Public Relations Association. IPRA held its annual spring conference this month. The AMCSD entered five projects into the annual competition associated with the conference and were awarded two blue and gold awards as best in state and three awards of excellence. Uh the blue and gold awards uh won by photography selfie with a soup and excellence in writing as high dreams the story of Carter White awards of excellence photography playground excitement and video singular staff
003appreciation week letters from students as well as public engagement campaign parent university. The AS communication department includes director of communications Amy Dashmitt and communications specialist Matteline Ericson. Please stand. We congratulate them on their success of this year's Iceberg Conference and thank them for their dedication to inform and showcasing our students, families, and staff. And we appreciate your talents and what you do for telling the stories of Ames. A board member did want to acknowledge that it is the picture of the f photograph that made it and not the person or subject in the photograph. You cover that. Okay. Yep. Good to go. Okay. Thank you very much for your guys' work. And uh we have another celebration also. Yes. So we will have the Ames High musical and we will turn it over to Amy
004Dashman. All right, good evening. Tonight, we celebrate the incredible behind-the-scenes talent that brought Mary Poppins to life on the Ames High stage. From the directors who shaped the vision to the dedicated fly system operators who kept those actors and their magical flying moments safe, and student tech heads who executed each magical moment with precision through sets, painting, lights, sound, props, costumes, and marketing the show. This production quite literally soared because of their creativity, collaboration, and commitment. This work reminded everyone who got to see the show that the magic of theater isn't just on stage. It's built behind the scenes, Q by Q, lift by lift, light by light. Bravo to this outstanding team. If you'll please stand as I say your name. Um, congratulations to the directors, Melissa Kaufman, Joe Strong, and Madison Dashmitt. and
005our fly system operators, Alex Grab, Kate Engelkiss, and Miles Peterson. And our student tech leads, Miles, you can stand right back up. Miles Peterson is the tech head. Nora Clocky is stage management head. Marin Knight, sound head. Lily Clint, costume head. Kaylee Mccclure, publicity head. Jesse Hudson, construction head. Joel Meadows, paint head. CJ Powers, props head. And Gavin Prior, the light head. Uh, thank you so much. If you saw Mary Poppins, it was an amazing production. If you missed it, you you missed a really good production. So, congratulations, everyone. [Applause] Thank you all so much. It was an awesome show and thanks for taking time out of your evening to be here with us today. You are welcome to stay and enjoy our exciting board meeting. Um or if you'd like to leave at this
006point, that's fine as well. All right. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next item is our public forum. Um, so I will read our statement on public comments. Residents of the district, students attending the district, parents or guardians of students attending the district, and district staff members may address the board about any topic relevant to the district, whether on the current agenda or not. Those who wish to speak must sign up at the beginning of the meeting. Speaker participation is limited to three minutes once per item. The views and opinions of citizens addressing the board do not necessarily reflect those of the board, district administration, or staff. Speakers are to remember that Iowa law prohibits the board from discussing specific employees, students, or their performance. Student speakers will state their name in school. Others will
007state their name and address. And we have Chris Campbell. It's on. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, Chris Gamble, 3318 Ridgetop Road. I'm a resident and taxpayer of the Ames School District. Uh Ron Paul, libertarian said, quote, "We don't have free speech, so we can talk about the weather. We have free speech so we can talk about some very controversial things." I saw coming up uh on the agenda today was the public comment policy number 213. So it seems like from my perspective at some point school boards across the country started seeing themselves as sort of autonomous zones where state and federal laws don't apply. And as a result of that thinking they've implemented contentbased restrictions on speech during public comment. Uh policy 213 for example says quote speakers must refrain from making personal inflammatory comments
008about student staff or directors. That's highly subjective and seems to chill speech that might be critical of public officials. And then there's this statement. quote, "Deflammatory comments may be subject to legal action." So, the person who wrote that either has a profound ignorance of Supreme Court rulings on the First Amendment or is trying to chill speech unfavorable to the school district. In a 1964 case before the Supreme Court, New York Times v. Sullivan, the court established the actual malice standard of defamation tort claims by public officials. It's regarded as a very high bar. The district need not however successfully pursue a tor claim for defamation against a member of the public to chill speech. It just needs to create fear in the mind of the speaker that he might be sued for anything less than
009compliments. Back to the case, Brennan writing for the court said, 'We consider the case against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide open, and that it may well include vehement, costic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. Yes, the public has a right to come to a board meeting and make a comment that's less than flattering. So, how's this played out for school districts? Two recent cases are instructive. First, the lawsuit against the Pinsbury School District in Pennsylvania by Marshall Atall resulted in an injunction and then a $300,000 settlement by Pinsbury with changes to their speech policy. Another lawsuit in Florida, Kessie at all versus Breard public schools resulted in a ruling by the 11th Circuit that public
010comment policies that they were implementing were unconstitutional. So, the ACSD's public comment policy won't hold up in court if challenged. I think it's in the best interest of everyone that the policy be changed to recognize the First Amendment rights of Americans. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. And we do not have anyone else signed up to speak. And I don't have access to the um Zoom file. Dan, is there anybody on Zoom that signed up to speak? I don't have it up either. It's been so long since I've looked at it. Nobody. Okay. Oh, thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, we will go ahead and close our public forum then and we'll move on to our consent agenda and I will entertain a motion. I move the board appro approve the consent agenda as presented.
011Second. Okay. Uh, moved by Deward, seconded by Beerbomb. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Nay. Passes 60. Um, next item will be our reports beginning with building level presentations and we will start this evening with facilities and Rob Addie. Thank you very much. So, I'd like to start by just extending my deepest appreciation for the um facilities planning and management team that I have um the from the office staff to the custodians to maintenance. a lot of their work is done behind the scenes. Um, but it's seen and felt every single day. Um, and I believe that they're an integral part of our foundation of our learning environment. So, I truly appreciate their dedication and hard work to keep our facilities running and operating smoothly. Um, just a recap of our facility uh committee
012meeting. So, we touched on the Ames Center um reaching final review and closeout. Um, Northwest Northwestern and 13th Street property. Um, no, you're good. RFP, um, Ames High Stadium project, Sawyer Mitchell and Fellows playground project, which I'll chat on in this presentation. Um, intercoms at the Ames Center. Um, so we're adding two intercoms to the homeschool assistance side of the AIM center um, and repurposing one um, at the district office here, which we do not currently have. Um, FMX maintenance management software agreement. Um, our maintenance management software agreement is up this year. So, uh, we're looking to switch to FMX. Um, middle school gym 2 emergency roof repair. So, we discussed that. We had, uh, some DAM on the gym 2 roof at the middle school um, dur during a high wind storm. So, um,
013we had to, uh, implement an emergency repair on that roof um, and subsequently a final repair on it. Um then finally the garden agreement with Story County Extension. So this is just a an extension of last year's agreement of $1 for the um garden at the Ames Center that they've used for the community garden. Um so moving on to the playground project. Uh we'll be working uh with summer school. So summer school is at Sawyer Elementary. It's being held there this year. Um along with YSS. Um, so we're going to be adding some additional sight fencing um so that the students there can use green space um as well as temporary construction access. So the line indicated in blue there is the construction fencing that we will use. Um the they will a they will
014be able to use part of the asphalt uh basketball courts there as well as some green space for their recess and keep them safely away from construction. Um and then indicated by the red circle, we will remove some fencing there temporarily um to allow construction access in to get to uh the two playgrounds um again to uh prevent um interactions with the bus traffic, dropping off and picking up students as well as keeping the students safe um while they're having recess there at the playgrounds or excuse me at at the uh school. We will also implement some fencing along the uh east side there to kind of block off that from public so they won't be able to access that playground as well. So we're looking at as far as timelines go uh the equipment
015will end or will arrive at the end of May. Construction will uh start June 2nd. Um site work and equipment installation will go through uh from June all the way through mid July followed by playground surfacing. Um substantial completion will be July 31st. Um and then closeouts will follow. Uh so the sequencing of the playgrounds will be uh starting at Sawyer moving to Fellows and then finally to Mitchell. Um there will be consecutive construction going on at each site at the same time. This is just how they're going to start the sequence. Um, moving on to the stadium project. So, the timelines for that, uh, delivery and site work. So, the site work fencing or excuse me, the sight fencing will arrive on May 5th. Um, we're currently re reviewing the, uh, color swatches for
016the front facade, the front metal facade and the bleachers. Um, powder coating has a different paint code than standard paint. So, we're trying to cross reference that as best we can. Uh, bleacher install. So, the 300 additional bleachers on the the track sits funny, but what I'm saying what I'm considering the west end um will start the second week of July. Um and then our next construction meeting uh for that is April 29th. Uh so, a few changes on that uh the diagram there, the lower section on the right hand uh corner, that's a small grass patch right now. It's currently difficult to mow. um our string trimmers could potentially cause damage to the track surface. So, it makes sense to just asphalt that then we don't have to worry about it in the future.
017Um the upper section will remain grass. It's easy enough to mow. Um go ahead and move to the next slide, Dan. Another place we've added asphalt is the top left corner. Um and that's just an additional six inches of asphalt to maintain the same um surfacing through the rest of the track prog or the track progress. Um soccer. So, we're going to interfere with uh a few soccer games. Um as far as them being able to use this field here in particular. Um so, starting May 5th, um they're going to be using both of the practice fields at the high school. Um and this is due to the fact that we don't have the lighting infrastructure there. So, this this will allow them to play um all of their games uh without without having to
018uh postpone any. Moving on to the RFP. Um so I want to emphasize that we are very happy with the work and the partnership that we've had with our current architect as well as our engineering firms. Um however for this particular project we decided to issue an RFP um basically to open the opportunity to a broader pool of firms. Um this approach allows allows us to explore fresh perspectives and ensure that we're aligning with the best fit and specific needs of this particular project. Um so I wanted to emphasize that at first. Um so the project overview go to the next slide Dan. So this is a site layout. Um some people might not be familiar with the site of the AIM center entirety. So uh the top left the green square there that's the
019community garden um that we have the um partnership with uh Story County Extension with. Um the top orange box is the gymnasium. Uh the left red box is the um garage. The uh right red box is the administration building and then the lower orange box is the Augland building with the main building there in the center being the AIM center. Um the north half of the AIM center is um basically rental space or PD space. Uh the left side is therapeutic classrooms. The right side is homechool assistance. And then the lower half is offices. Um, so the project overview, we're looking at the the Oddland building on the lower uh orange box and the gym on the upper right box. Um, doing a remodel on both of those to bring them up to current standards
020as well as making sure they're code compliant. Um, so repurposing um, uh, interior redoing interior finishes as well as bringing the fire system up to code. Um, making sure that the roofs are good. We're we're not going to have any issues with it. The Oddland building, we're looking at repurposing into building uh or into offices, meeting spaces, and potential rental spaces. Um the gymnasium, um we're looking at the addition of potential classrooms or office space or util utilizing it as a gym for the Ames Center. Uh demolition. So, we're looking at demol or demolition on two particular buildings. One would be the garage on the left in the red box and one would be on the right um which is the administration building in the red box there as well. They're not in the best
021shape. They're it doesn't make financial sense to rehab those particular buildings. Um so demo is the best best spot for them. Um new construction. So, we'd like to possibly build um a new building on that site that would house special education as well as general curriculum storage, um IT offices and storage, and then potentially facilities, equipment, and furniture storage as well. This site is pretty much centrally located within the district, so it makes a lot of sense to have those particular items there um so they don't have to come from one one end of the city all the way to the next. Um so site enhancements we're looking at uh new parking lot as far as and as well as drive layouts for improved student drop off and pickup. Um development of a walking and
022biking path potentially on the site. Construction of a traffic garden for educational use. Um upgrades to the existing community garden. And then the addition of new playground equipment or uh demolition u of current playground equipment. So the timeline for this is it would be issued on April 22nd. um pending board approval. Uh the deadline to receive proposals will be um May 9th. Interviews, if we deem necessary, will be May 16th. Selection will be made along with a recommendation to the board on May 19th. And then the contract would be awarded pending board approval on 519. Start of the project would be determined um after those. That's all I have tonight. So, is there any questions? All right. Appreciate your time. Thank you, Director Addie. Okay. And we have activities. Um, do we have a presentation
023or is this just Okay. So, that's what I thought. So, um, Mr. Feders is here to answer any questions that anyone might have uh, regarding the uh, recommendation to depart the Iowa Alliance Conference and join the Little Hawkeye conference. So board, does anyone have any additional questions? It was a followup from our presentation from last month. Just thank you so much for answering all of our questions last time. Yeah. And for being here again tonight. No problem. Thank you. Always good to see you. Thank you for all your work. Yeah, sure. I don't think you're gonna get off that easy, Dr. Hawkins. All right, we will have the associate superintendent reports. All right, good evening. Hello. Two topics that I'd like to talk with you about tonight. Uh the first is I'd like to just
024give the board a quick update as to uh review of the SIAK uh committee uh meeting that we held last week uh on Monday the 14th. It was our third and final SIAK meeting of the year. uh per code uh we uh spend our time examining bullying data um and uh share with you kind of some of the conclusions of that team and then uh as we typically do uh we ended that session asking them like what topics would you desire next year's SIAK to maybe look at and I can report out to you what what they had to say about that as well. So again, uh that team noted when they looked at bullying data that there was uh over over the years consistently more bullying cases reported in secondary schools than elementary. This
025last year, off the top of my head, I believe the data was there were 33 total cases that were reported and founded and 30 of those 33 came from secondary schools as opposed to elementary. Uh the team noted that there was a significant increase in the number of parents being uh notified. All 33 of those cases denoted an infinite campus that parents were notified. Uh that probably also correlates to a new law passed in the state of Iowa. I don't know, this is Jeff's personal opinion, this was not the conclusion of the team, that that means previously parents weren't notified, but it does mean we're doing a better job of documenting that in Infinite Campus. Um the team noted that uh bullying based upon the protected class of sexual orientation was the highest protected class
026noted and that there was um a a significant increase in the number of cases of founded bullying particularly in our secondary schools um around that protected class. The team also noted that they felt like the school is a safe place for autism awareness. Uh similarly, students are not being targeted uh for having a special education status. Um the parents on the committee reported they felt are more involved and open and they felt like the inclusive playgrounds were a great addition. Those were some of the comments of the team. So we have some areas of strength and certainly some areas of growth as well in that data when asked um what should we talk about next year. So just really quickly, maybe all of you have been to SCAK, but as you know, there's a few
027topics that are dictated by code uh that we need to talk about and we hold enough meetings that there's usually enough time for us to address additional topics as well. So we always like to solicit from the current year SIAK what are some of the topics that we should talk about the next year. Some of those topics were they asked for a strategic plan update. particularly they noted we want to know kind of what's going on with the curriculum framework and uh teaching and learning or teacher learning and engagement uh specific question asked of what's what is the impact on the district uh with changes to the AEA can you know can you talk with us about what's happening there and uh what are the next infrastructure steps those were three questions that uh were
028generated between the the groups that were there about additional topics for next year before I move on to the next topic Are there any questions uh from the team around our SCAK meeting? No. Great. All right. The other uh topic that I want to talk with you about tonight uh is just another step that we are taking as a district in order to promote growth and improvement in instruction. Uh it's called instructional rounds. And so instructional rounds are a non-evaluative uh process by which uh classroom observations are done around a self-identified quote unquote problem of practice. So buildings have the opportunity to uh identify an area that they would like feedback on and then a team of people come to that building. We do some learning together as a team around uh what good practice
029looks like in that problem of practice and then we do classroom observations ultimately culminating in giving that team uh feedback around what we see in those observations uh as well as uh suggestions for next steps grounded in professional development. Um so th this uh process was written about in 2008 uh by two professors from the Harvard uh school of education, Elizabeth City and Richard Elmore. It's what the process is modeled off of. Um and we are uh uh sticking to the process that they've described in their writings. Um so uh again what is it intended to improve? It's again it's designed to improve instruction to our students and specifically is designed to address um professional development needs to help staff you know kind of take that next step with their instruction. Uh of particular importance
030and I've already mentioned it is the idea that that improvement is grounded in uh what buildings self- select that focus to be. Uh we were at Ames Middle School today uh doing instructional rounds and uh we were focused in that building on uh mathematical best practice of facilitating mathematical discourse. How do how do we improve how students talk about math? That was what that building self- selected. So um who's involved in this process right now? Uh district and building administrators as well as teacher leaders like coordinators and instructional coaches. And today we were also joined by one of the trainers that we are contracting with for our math curriculum, an I Ready trainer. Uh in particular, that person today uh provided there's there's a portion of this process in which we ask um an expert
031if you will to offer professional development suggestions based upon the data collected and the suggestions of the team. And that was the role they they played today. Um how does this connect to either our strategic plan or our our district goals? Um quite well quite frankly uh right we have goals around um improving academics and specifically objective two of our strategic plan uh is directed at each student benefiting from a consistent and viable curriculum engaging instruction and connected programs. So the process that I've sort of described already really begins with prior to that round uh the the the building meets with uh our teaching and learning office in order to identify what problem of practice do we really want to study in that building. Um then the teaching and learning department works to prepare some
032literature around best practice in that area in order to make sure that we so we the process once we get there kind of begins with some reading and some grounding in what does best practice in this instructional practice look like. We collaborate on a tool that will be used in order to um collect that data. Sometimes buildings already have that tool that they're using. Sometimes we collaboratively put together a tool that we'll use for observation. Again, for today's uh at the middle school, we used a tool that came from our RI ready um curriculum materials. Uh then following the creation of the topic and the tools, uh we get together that day. We again we uh we're at the stage right now where we do a little bit of reading and orienting on what are
033instructional rounds and how are those a little bit different than typical classroom visits, right? just to make sure the team is all on the same page as far as what the process is. And then we look at that tool together. Um we start with one round of observation just to do some calibrating on the tool itself, making sure that we're as consistent as possible as a team on how we use that tool and in the observation process. And then we conduct as many rounds of observation as the building would like us to to collect data around again that in again in in the case today it was around how are students discussing math right. Um after that the data is synthesized and uh presented to the host building with a I notice or I wonder
034type of statements and then that's followed up with some professional development suggestions and then the day concludes by the building saying you know not not committing but saying you know based upon the data we've seen and what we've heard uh from the teams we're considering the following as the next steps that we would take for the growth of our staff around this problem of practice. So, um, it's a it's a well, uh, implemented researched practice to improve instruction and I'm I'm really excited that we're engaged in it and so I thought I would share that with you. Any questions about instructional rounds? Yeah. So, how does this fit together with the Danielstone framework with the the visits that you guys are doing through that? Yeah, that's a great question. So um an instructional round may
035be around practices that are within the Danielson framework or it may be around um uh I've done instructional rounds when I was a principal around PBIS which could be a strategy that we use for some behavior stuff in domain 2 or maybe not right and so um a principal might say oh I really want to do instructional rounds around questioning which would relate really well to uh component 3B in the Danielson framework. And in that case, um we probably would look at that Danielson component as part of the process or they might say they want to look at something else. And so because we have an instructional framework that guides what quality instruction looks like. There are definitely times where that's going to be tied to that um education piece, if you will, of the
036instructional round. There be there may be other times where that's less pulled in. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I guess my question was also not just about what the specific items within the Danielson framework, but also there are you guys are also doing rounds or or visits through the Danielson framework, right? Um so I was curious about how those two different approaches fit together. Great. Yeah. So um if I'm if I if I'm not getting at what you're asking, let me know. It's possible that I don't understand what's happening either that my question. So, one of the things that we'll work through with staff in this process is to try to help delineate the difference between a classroom visit and rounds. Right. So, you're correct. We are going in and visiting classrooms and um figuring out kind
037of how do we give feedback um using the Danielson framework, right? We've worked with principles all year on how do you give high quality feedback using the Danielson framework. I wouldn't consider that instructional rounds until we've done a little bit of the work of educating the team on the problem of practice, synthesizing data, offering professional development suggestions. Right? So, the the thing that makes instructional rounds slightly different than simply um structured classroom observations are some of the other pieces that go around that instructional rounds process. Okay. I had a super quick question that was actually kind of related to that. I mean on the strategic plan, we want to attract and retain high quality educators. Um do the the teachers and the staff seem to be engaging well with it. Do they do they really
038like this? Yeah. Yeah. Um we got lots of good feedback from staff today when we were in classrooms. Um lots of conversation about um again this particular the um principal had done a good job of letting the staff know what we were coming in to watch for. So most of our conversations are around the instructional practice, but certainly I think as uh we get people into classrooms and collect data, we're getting positive feedback and certainly the participants in the process had lots of um uh we we left with lots of pragmatic ideas about where to go and that's always appreciated as well as uh engaging in a process that's clearly designed to improve instruction. So yeah, I think a side note on that is I was not aware that instructional rounds were happening here and
039I'm going to go hear me out on this. So I'm going to go back 18 years when I was a principal at Lewise Musketine Elementary and I was tasked with being an instructional leader of the district because I did not even start my superintendency or lure and had no indication of wanting to be a superintendent at that point. So, I went to a meeting in Iowa City at the University of Iowa with a bunch of superintendents over in eastern Iowa. And this guy was there called Dr. Elmore. And he was going to talk to us about the implications of instructional rounds and the power it has so that superintendents can be instructional leaders. It was through that meeting that I met with him afterwards, the late Dr. Elmore. It was the first superintendent group in
040the state of Iowa that had heard him from Connecticut and he convinced me that there is a larger impact than being a building level principal and to move into the superintendency and if there's an individual that had a biggest impact on me moving from a principal and having an impact on a major district of which I wasn't even aware this district was doing it is Dr. Elmore in eastern Iowa 18 years ago was probably the most influential meeting I had to move me from a principal to a superintendent and to let me know the impact I could have on public education. So I'm a believer of it if you couldn't tell. Um but I've uh been through a number of rounds and there was out of Harvard and I have I say the late Dr.
041Elmore, but it is being followed through with Liz City and others within the state of Iowa. But I like to think I was the initial group to get to bring this to the whole state. So awesome. So don't forget kids, there are times in places that you meet someone 18 years later, they will have directed where you're going and how to change your life. Because I didn't go to high school to become a superintendent. I went to high school to learn my leadership skills and then people influence your your decisions and change and your life goes on from there on out. So, I'm sorry I got emotional on Dr. Elmore, but anyway, good stuff. Yeah, great. Any other questions for Dr. Hawkins? Thank you. All right. Thank you. We'll turn it over to Superintendent Grimes
042for the superintendent report. Uh, first thing I have is uh gifts to the district. Uh, we have two gifts to the district. We have gaming supplies, $125 value from Bernie Atkinson, Ames High Esports Club is the recipient. We have an iPad stylus pen at $20 value from anonymous to the Ames CSD technology department. Thank those for those donations and gifts to the district. I'm always honored each month to be able to read those and we'll take action on them in a new business. Next I have is enrollment. Um when looking at the enrollment for elementary and secondary uh we have the new numbers in uh really not much change from month to month. Uh nothing is still at a point where we would need to look at staffing changes. Um numbers look the same. We're
043still waiting for registration to get farther along until we have more indication on our elementary numbers for kindergarten. So they're still in red at this time. Um so not a whole lot of change on this just uh monthly documents so you can at least compare from month to month. And same thing with secondary. Uh not much change between last month. Um but we are you know using this document to plan staffing class sizes um and enrollment for next year. Any questions on enrollment? So when you get this is just a I'm going to try to put this in the most abstract and general way possible. when you get a a CL a school that one particular cohort in the class is bumping up against right at the edge of there are too many kids in
044this cohort. What are the strategies the superintendent has to like at the system level to deal with that? So you're um we have one example this year that was a second grade um at Mitchell, right? Had 27 per class now. Um so we have um your options at that point you you can cap that building, right? You can have the students attend another center, which we do have that at times happen. You can look to keep the students within that center and provide other resources or supports for those teachers. And that's what we were able to provide for this year for those two those two classrooms. Um those are the two options. You either cap the grade um or you provide um EA support or other supports within the building and then if you have
045a large enough uh jump then you would add a section, right? Uh the challenge if you were to add a section into and I talked about this a while ago with um the Mitchell if you were to add a section of 54 to three teachers that would move their numbers down to right 17 16 and so that's part of that support piece. Yeah. So I mean if we had one extra student in that age group move into that school district then we would be above our limit what we've said as as our target. we would cap them and have that student attend another okay building right so yeah even if somebody's living across the street from the school they'll just have to get bus to fellows or whatever yes okay sorry follow-up question so like
046let's say one of those kids moves out of Mitchell for next year I know I mean we're going to have that same size next year uh if we had more move in in place would we try to bring that down I don't know if I'm asking questions Well, what we always want to do in in what I've done in previous districts with the same scenario, I think this is not a new concept for Ames, it's within all districts. Any student that has moved out due to size or not able to attend their um neighborhood center, we would go back once we have an opening and they would be able to come back. Um we typically do not try to make those changes mid year. we'd wait till the end of the year and have conversations
047with the um families that we do have an opening if they would like to come back or that they can come back um within those conversations. But throughout the summer, we'll still um take a look at numbers and keep track. Uh that's is where sometimes you may have a late uh staffing hire in August when you have a a jump um in a classroom or a building that is substantial enough that you would need to make a change. We are still holding off on some hires if I were to get into the enrollment page, but we are still holding off on uh a kindergarten position that we currently have. uh still waiting for numbers to come in uh in case we needed to shift a kindergarten teacher or not hire a kindergarten teacher depending on
048the numbers and that's the that's the risk you take with elementary um kindergarten is sometimes those numbers may come in lower than you want and now you've hired the teacher to fill a position we're unable to release the teacher and now we have I would put it as I've explained over staff for that situation So there's good and bad to uh the process. Um we're just trying to make the uh best interest for the students as well as the staff when it comes in class sizes. Did that answer Oh yeah, thank you. Any other questions on enrollment? Uh looking at the certified uh staffing page, um similar from the top down. I'm not going to go through everyone. Uh we will start having staff name replacements. So once you see an approval by the board,
049then the column G will start getting filled in. Uh so we are in the process or have actually offered positions to individuals that names will start going in. Um we haven't just not hired anybody yet. They're through the process of background checks and then board approval. Uh some changes towards the bottom. um mentioned last month we have uh I'm on line 22 or teacher staff 22 line 23 um counselor maker resignation Spanish teacher from last year that we still need to fill um and we are in the process of filling that uh school nurse at MER um we've had um applications go out special ed resignation at the middle school now this is where we've made some changes with supports for administration within the buildings. Uh so I've had conversations as I mentioned to the
050board as well as um the staff that I would like to make sure that we have more uh AP supports in all of our buildings, assistant principles uh supports. Uh we're finding a lot of the changes within the state level as well as federal and then also changes with the A.E.A. is a lot of those changes are uh causing more um need for administrative conversations with families with policies. Uh these are position these are jobs now that typically or we were able to use for counselors or social workers or SFAS but is really now moving to an administrative level due to the changes uh with our state and federal and policies that were being mandated and required to follow through. So we'll be looking at sharing APS amongst the elementarymentaries. Uh we will be hiring
051a assistant spe assistant principal specialled focused that'll be paid out of Aea dollars. um because the AA changes, we have uh now AA services are less um being able to provided and so we need to support that internally now with the changes with the cuts for AEA um at the state level. So we'll be increasing our administrative uh to help support those changes as well. And then also the high school need of of moving into three assistant principles. They did have three at one point. That was moved to two. Uh increase to the middle school. And it's really just leveling out what our needs are from what I've reviewed this year in conversations with administrators. So the high school will be moving to three um back to three assistant principles. Middle school will maintain two
052assistant principles. The elementary will have three assistant principles that will be supporting uh all elementaryaries. And one of those assistant principles will maintain in the area of special ed. So we'll be supporting all of our special ed in the elementary along with our um our director of special ed and working with our special ed coordinator. It's that administrative level that is able to make decisions evaluate evaluate and also have conversations around IEPs with parents. So it's kind of the situation we're in and public education. We are having to now do management level costs to maintain and handle policy changes from the fa federal and state level as well as the reduced dollars going to our AEAs. So, we need to maintain and support um our students. Um and this is the way we're going to
053need to start using our dollars and prioritizing it that way. And in a sense, this will benefit our teachers who I believe have picked up some of these duties um in a sense through parents questioning classroom work and basing off of policies from the state. Uh now is being implemented into the teacher level and teachers should not have to worry about implementation of policies at the bill at the classroom level. And we need to as a board and administration protect that from the teachers so they can do their jobs and that we can handle the policy changes within our state and federal government. That's as easy as I can say that without becoming political in the end. Wait, thank you. Oh, is there there's probably a few more down there. um assistant AD. Uh so
054we did lose um our assistant to the AD which was more of a a secretarial level uh to a salary position at a other district. And through our studies with a staffing and um really reviewing the um the job description, this was a salary position. it was moved to an hourly position due to probably dollars. Um, when you look at the hourly position plus the overtime we are paying the individual in this position, it is actually a salary position and the work they are doing is a salary position. So, we will be looking at hiring that position back as a salary. Unfortunately, this does not keep the individual within the position. um just due to um just the pay schedule that our district has versus other districts. I did want to make that attention to
055you as well. Any questions for Superintendent Grimes? All right, we will turn it over to our CFO, Sher Rick. So, the um district did receive the um FY2324 annual audit report and I've provided each um board member with a hard copy and then there's also um a copy online for everyone's viewing. And I did write up just kind of a quick summary. I don't know if you ever received kind of a quick summary. Um, but I I just went down through every section and just pointed out, you know, a few things that I thought were important and just kind of explain explained what the difference was between the basic financial statements and the governmentwide financial statements and so on. So, you know, read it at your le at your leisure if you want to learn
056anything or maybe you already know it. I don't know, but most people don't. Um but pretty much when um probably board members or our community looks at our audit, they're like, "Oh, well, what are the findings?" You know, which it's probably intentional that they're on the last page. Um and so we we only had um basically one finding at our district and we have worked to um resolve this finding and it was just that our um board president's signature needed to be on all official contracts. So, so like if you're officiating at a basketball game, that's actually they state views that as a contract and wants our board president signature on there. So, we've corrected that and are moving forward and hopefully we won't have any new comments next year. Did Did you at all
057have a opportunity to read the audit or Yeah, a little bit. So, um I do not have it on the agenda for approval tonight. We'll I'll have it on for approval at the next meeting to give you um a chance to look anything over. Feel free to email me with your questions if you have any. I'll let you know if I can answer them. Thank you very much. Welcome. Moving on to our student representatives. Do we have items from our student representatives this evening? Yeah. So, uh, recently we've heard some concerns from parents and students about wanting to have, um, some standardized testing opportunities on site here at Ames High for like the SAT and ACT. So, in response, we decided to put together a survey and it was sent out to, um, the National
058Honor Society at Ames High School. And, uh, we're still waiting for some more responses, but we have some initial results. So, uh, of the students who were planning on taking standardized tests, they would prefer to take them, 100% prefer to take them at Ames High School. And then of the students who said that they were not planning on taking the exams, 100% said that if on-site options were available, they would change their mind and actually take standardized tests. So, um, just something to think about that, um, supporting this on-site exam might be something beneficial for students. Uh, another question that was asked was whether students would be willing to pay a fee to help support on-site testing, and over 70% of students said that they would. So, great. Thank you so much. Items from board
059members. Okay. Then we will move on to old business beginning with the 2024-25 proposed budget amendment. And I will entertain a motion. I move the board adopt the budget amendment as presented. Second. Moved by SW uh Smith, seconded by Deward. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Nay. Passes 6. and the 202526 proposed certified budget. I move the board approve the 202526 certified budget as presented. Second. Okay. Moved by the word, seconded by by Smith. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed? Nay. Passes 60. And moving on to new business. We'll begin with gifts to the district. I move the board approve the gifts as presented. Second. Moved by Deward, seconded by Smith. Any discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Nay. Okay. Passes 6. And our
060policies for discussion. Um, so this is I'm sorry. Yeah, this is our first look at our policies. So, we will not vote on this tonight. Um there are a number of policies here that uh we discussed. These are all in alignment with um state law and with the Iowa Association of School Boards recommended policies. Are there any questions or comments on the policies for discussion? So I have I've been looking over um unfortunately our our commenter because I was going to ask him if he could provide his written comments later. Um I I am a little concerned that our uh that the the that this policy public participation at board meetings policy as written even though it hasn't been challenged in court would not stand up to challenge in court related to first amendment issues.
061Um the I've been like skimming it trying to understand it. Um, also looking at first amendment, um, like what does jurist prudence say? I am, while this was put out by the Iowa Association of School Boards, which in general I trust, I don't actually I'm not sure that say a First Amendment lawyer would say that this would pass a court challenge. Um, I think that we need to take a look at it and I I mean, I'm I'm concerned enough about it. I don't I like the First Amendment a lot. Um I'm a big First amendment person and um I want to make sure that we have a policy that is in line with our best understanding of the first amendment uh juristp prudence. We can get some comments from ISB. The thing I would
062point out kind of towards the commenter that the things he was commenting about are not the things this is meant to protect is my understanding. Um I mean people could come and talk about things about us or the district office as much as they want. It's meant to protect some cases that come up in other ways of if we have staff for example and HR things come up and having somebody come and make accusations about that type of thing. That's where it more kicks in. And I'm sure IB could provide some clarity there on what these things are meant to protect. But I mean, if we want to have this get that type of comment or, you know, have the superintendent comment on that and some updates to us, I'd be supportive of that. But
063I believe to the to the question the commenter asked about it's more about that type of thing. I I I understand. I mean, there are there are absolutely forms of speech that I don't want to happen here at the board table, such as, say, slurs against specific staff members. There are things that I don't want that I want us to be able to limit to the extent possible. Uh while also for instance the prohibition on on profanity, I'm not actually sure that that would stand up to litigation. I think the only as far as I can tell the I I I don't want to speak out of turn and I would have to do a lot more reading about first amendment juristp prudence but I think that we would I think that prohibiting it around
064children I'm not unfortunately while I assume that we have minors in the room I'm not sure that any of the minors in this room are young enough that they would be protected by say the Supreme Court Sorry, people can probably say the f- word around all of you who are in the room. Um, so, so I think that I mean the prohibition on profanity, for instance, I'm not sure if that would stand up to a first amendment challenge. So, this policy has been challenged in the state of Iowa, okay? And due to public comments that have been happening in the last few years, I'm more than happy to take this to Allers's law firm and have them review it again, but this has been challenged. Um there's actually other ways to do it that is
065not as public in the sense where they have actually shut the cameras off and not publish publicized it. They've had the comments just to the board only without an audience. Uh there's ways around it, but I believe that is actually um a different inst. Um, so if you want to open it up to that direction, then the board would be recommended to actually not them have them speak in public. They'd actually speak to the board only and directly. Therefore, they could say whatever they wanted and it would not be in the ears and of anybody else in the room or the country at that point. Um, so I will review it again with ers. I'll move it to our own personal um court and our court, our legal Um, but there are aspects of this.
066It is really built to protect the board and others and the public speech aspect of it has been questioned. Um, and I can get more information on Yeah. Yeah. Superintendent Graves, can you confirm for me that the part about not speaking about students that's regarding Furpa and and other legal issues, correct? Yeah. There's certain rights that individuals have that uh are supposed to have the opportunity to request a closed session if those things move into an evaluative type setting or a defamatory or a defamatory type behavior. Um those are the p pieces of public speech that um the board can address and stop. Yeah. Well, okay. So, I do just want to address one thing that Angie said, the question about Furpa. While I really really really don't want anybody, you know, using slurs or
067or insults against anybody who who is a part of our larger community here at the board meeting, furpa actually applies to us to people who are employees and affiliates of the district and not to public commenters. So a public commenter could under furpa come in here and say Angie Deard is an so or whatever, right? But they can't say that about students if we would have a responsibility to shut that down because it is a meeting of the board and we have to protect the rights of the students. We have to protect the rights of the students under furpa. So if someone came in saying something about a student, the board president would shut that down. We do not have comments about students made um to the board. Right. Yeah. So but yes, I agree.
068Um just to just to be certain we can take definitely take it back to allers um and depending on their recommendation either take it to the policy committee again um for changes or we can bring it back and um address the concerns before we vote on it next time. Yeah. Yeah. The one thing that I am really not sure about here so far based on what I've been trying to skim and figure out is profanity. But there are pro there are probably other parts. I mean looking in detail through it I think that there are various ways you know time place and manner restrictions I like what does it say about profanity and I'm not sure yeah yeah we can definitely take it to take it to allers okay are there comments or questions on
069any other policies all right we will move to the athletic conference realignment and I'll entertain A motion. I move the board direct the superintendent and other members of the administration to take all necessary steps to withdraw the district from the Iowa Alliance Conference and align with the Little Hawkeye conference beginning in the 2627 school year. Second. Moved by Deward, seconded by Beerbomb. Any discussion? Just wanted to reiterate we had a great discussion about it two weeks ago. Um at four weeks ago, I don't know, some number of weeks ago. It's really worth watching. Yeah, two meetings ago. All right. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. Passes 60 and the Northwestern and 13th Street property redevelopment request for proposals. I move the board approve the issuance of the proposed RFP for the redevelopment of
070the property at Northwestern Avenue and 13th Street. Second. Moved by Smith, seconded by Rodriguez. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Nay. Passes 6. The 2025 elementary playground improvements project bid package number two, change order number one. I move the board to approve bid package number two, change order number one for the 2025 elementary playground improvements project as presented. Second. Moved by Deward, seconded by Beerbone. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I oppose. Nay. Passes 6. Um request for the superintendent. So we will have superintendent Grimes take that policy to our legal team um to get any feedback on potential changes um to make sure that we are acting in accordance with um law and best practices for uh for the district. I did not have any other requests for the
071superintendent unless I missed anything. Okay. All right. In the board planning calendar, we will have a regular meeting on May 5th at 5:30. That will be followed by a close session immediately upon the closure of that uh of that that part of the meeting. Any questions or comments on the board planning calendar? I move we adjourn. Second. Okay. Moved by Beerbum, seconded by Deart. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Nay. passes 6 and we are adjourned. Sherry, can we take these home? You stay around. Oh, yeah. Y some things stay here and I wanted to make