Board of Education Business Meeting: May 2026

001Well, let's call the I'll call the meeting to order. It's 7:06 and let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance. >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I was afraid I was going to forget the words. >> I was It was echoing so if I messed it up, I'm sorry. Sorry. No, it might have been me. If if Am I echoing these headphones or is it okay? No, it wasn't echoing. I think it's just my my computer. Um All right. Well, let's start off with any citizens comments, Kate? I did not receive anything. Okay. Great. Thank you. That moves us to the spotlight on Brentwood. Tony? All right. Good

002evening everyone. Can you hear me okay? Sure can. All right. I'm going to try and share my screen. And hopefully this will go as planned. Can everyone see that all right? >> Yep. Yep. Okay. All right. So um for all of our our newbies on the board um each month that's not a in-person student recognition night, we do a spotlight on Brentwood. Um we like to highlight the all the great things that our students and staff and schools are doing um in between each board meeting. Um we break up our our highlights into try and try to break them up into our four strategic plan categories. So student success school culture diversity equity inclusion and accessibility and then unified community engagement. Um and since we didn't have or since we had an in-person one in

003April, I've got a lot of stuff for you guys this month. So please bear with me and I will stick to my script and and uh plow through this. So if you're ready, uh before we move forward, I have to move back in student success because because I told Dr. Johnson that I would. So this is a the shot of our student recognition from last board meeting of our high school recognition. And it was great to hear about all of these students and all of the amazing things that they did at Brentwood. Um but the next morning, Dr. Johnson came to me in a panic and said, "TD." He calls me TD. He said, "TD, I got so caught up in my last board meeting, my last student recognition, I forgot to pass the microphone

004to each of these kids to tell so they could tell everybody in the audience where they were going at for their post-secondary plans and what they were doing. And I said, "It's all right. Calm down. I understand." I said, "Here's what I can do." I said, "Why don't I have a picture of them? You tell me what what they're doing and where they're going and then we'll we'll do it um in the spotlight on Brentwood in May." And he was like, "Oh my gosh, thank you so much." And um so um before we go forward, we'll go back and let's talk about just these four students really quick and what their post-secondary plans are. So starting from the left, that's Alexander Tung and he will attend the University of Missouri-Kansas City to complete the School

005of Medicine's 6-year BA/MD program. Um so it's a 6-year fast-track year-round program where students can earn their um Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine. Um So um next to Alex, Rohan Dixit will attend [clears throat] Washington University in St. Louis to pursue a degree in chemical, biomedical, or financial engineering, um, which is very impressive. Um, next to Rohan, Camille Jefferson will attend Webster University to pursue a degree in animation. And just a little bit later, we'll talk about our fine arts night and, um, all of all of the great examples of of student artwork that were in that, and Camille was a big part of that. And then, Demetrius Thompson, uh, will attend Boston College and play Division 1 football for the Boston College Eagles. Um, so, that's the that's the post-secondary plans of

006these four students. Um, I just wanted to make sure that we we covered those. So, Dr. Johnson, I got you. No worries. Um, all right. So, on to our next one, and this is, um, luckily the weather, uh, was in our favor this year because last year's May board meeting, I didn't have this highlight, but it's always it should always be the highlight, the lead-off highlight in May. It's why we're all here and and the culmination of our PK-12 school is Brentwood High School graduation. So, Brentwood High School proudly celebrated the class of 2026 during the school's 98th commencement ceremony on May 16th, recognizing a graduating class that has made a lasting impact on the Brentwood community throughout its leadership, through its leadership, achievement, and school spirit. Um, our high school counseling team is still

007finalizing the totals for college applications and where kids are going, industry certifications, the amount of scholarship dollars. Um, but we do know that the class of 2026 included eight Missouri Seal of Biliteracy candidates. Um, for a graduating class of 33 to have eight of them, we've had this program just for a few years. This is the most we've had so far. I think we've gone from from two to five to three to eight now this year, eight out of 33. So, I'm not a math wiz, but that's a pretty good percentage of Missouri Seal of Biliteracy candidates, four Missouri Bright Flight Award winners, that's a 30 or higher in the ACT, and we followed Alex Tung all through being named a National Merit Semifinalist, a National Merit Finalist, and now he is a National Merit

008Scholar with a $2,500 National Merit Scholarship. So, as the class of 2026 begins its next chapter, everybody at Brentwood extends its heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for their continued success, happiness, and opportunity in the years ahead. So, congratulations to the class of 2026. All right, so uh these are some shots of Brentwood Middle School students in action. This is Brentwood Middle School has been recognized as a 2025-26 Project Lead the Way Distinguished School. This honor is awarded to a select number of middle schools across the country for their commitment to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in career-connected learning through the PLTW Gateway, which is their STEM curriculum for grades 6-8. Um the PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in their PLTW programs. Uh to be eligible,

009Brentwood Middle School met a variety of criteria including student participation in Project Lead the Way courses, opportunities to engage in multiple Project Lead the Way units, the number of courses offered, and efforts to ensure broad access to the program. And this is the second time that Brentwood Middle School has earned this distinction, previously receiving the honor during the 2019-2020 school year. So, shout out to our Project Lead the Way folks at Sarah Pfeiffer um for doing a great job with that program. All right. So, last or in in March we played a video. So, I'm not sure how this will work, but I could explain this, but hopefully this will work and we'll just let Channel 5 do it for me. Well, well, it's one thing to be a great high school athlete. >> Did

010you ever hear that? >> It's another to have everyone in the stadium know you were going to score that day before the game even happens. For one Brentwood athlete, scoring is truly second nature. There's good reason for Kensington Kerrd to smile these days. The Brentwood High School senior and her Eagles team are riding a 14-1 season into the Class 1 playoffs. Really proud of the way we've like grown the program like and the girls that have stuck with us. But once you take a look at the box scores, you see that name over and over and over again. That's because for her high school career, Kensington Kerrd has scored over 200 goals. I think it's a huge number. I mean, it took a lot of goals to get there and a lot of games, but

011I mean, it took a lot of support for my team and everything. So, it was a great experience. It's ridiculous cuz we don't play many games as well. We deliberately have a smaller schedule because we're a small school. We have a small squad. Um but yeah, like she's done it in maybe 50 games. She averages like four goals a game, which is it's silly, really. On top of her goal-scoring prowess and 1,500 points scored on the basketball court, Kerrd is also a state champion on the track and will be running for Lindenwood in college. And that track dominance shows up on the pitch. Yeah, like her athletic ability is like ridiculous. Like uh like she'll blow by girls. The Maplewood game yesterday, she she'd get the ball with like four girls in front of her

012and just blow by them cuz of her speed. Like and she doesn't get tired. She's like the Energizer Bunny. She just like just keeps going. As a two-sport athlete in the same season, it can create some schedule challenges come playoff time. We have our district playoff game if we make it that far on Saturday, which is actually my state track meet competition, too. So, we're trying to figure out a way to schedule around that so I can go to both. But while juggling two spring sports can be tough, one thing is very clear. Brentwood doesn't see athletes like Kurd come their way very often. I've coached a lot of like talented soccer players, but she's just like relentless. 200 goals, 1,500 points in basketball, and a state championship on track. >> four goals a game.

013That's insane. I only had to stay for like 10 minutes to get a couple goals. >> [laughter] >> Thanks, Corey. All right. So, just a a great example of um opportunities for students. So, you heard her mention that she she has to play a district soccer game and then go to a state championship uh track meet and work that in. You know, at a lot of schools, it would be you're going to play soccer or you're going to run track. At Brentwood, what else do you want to do? You can you can play soccer and run track and what else? Um all in the all at the same time and we're going to make it work for you. So, just a great example of um opportunities for students. >> a SUCO leader. I got to

014imagine she's also a SUCO the leader. Oh, yeah. One of my favorite things is during that game that they were videoing, we got up by so many, she actually got pulled out of the game, and she then um proceeded to uh run laps on the track to keep her body warm for uh the track meets that are coming up. So, again, just a a stellar all-around athlete and huge shout-out to her and I think a real representative of what makes Brentwood different and unique in a really cool way. All right, so here is a a photo collage of our districts uh fine arts night. So, Brentwood's fine arts night brought together students, staff, and families for an evening evening of creativity, talent, and self-expression across the district's K-12 community. From our youngest artists exploring color

015and form to our middle and high school students showcasing advanced techniques and performances, the evening highlighted the incredible growth and passion of our students. So, a special thanks to our amazing fine arts teachers um from our elementary schools all the way up through high school for bringing this event to life. So, just a very cool um showcase highlight of our fine arts programs. And then, our last student success one tonight, um these two students, two Brentwood High School seniors, um Manachi Kadengith and Brady Hanson, earned South Tech High School's annual Tops in Tech recognition for outstanding achievement in their respective career and technical education programs. So, Manachi was recognized in web and computer programming through South Tech's information technology and design pathway. And then, Brady was recognized in precision machining through South Tech's advanced manufacturing

016pathway. So, Tops at Tech honors exceptional students who demonstrate professionalism, technical skill mastery, responsibility, and a commitment to supporting their classmates. So, um they're part of our graduating class. So, once again, um a small graduating class, but two out of those folks are Tops in Tech at South Tech High School for career and technical education. All right, so on to school culture, um there's been a lot of stuff that's happened between now and our last one. Um lots of field days and celebrations and music concerts and all that kind of So, this is by no means a a complete and total recap of everything. Just trying to pick out a handful of from each school. So, let's jump into it. Um, our first one sticking with the high school. Last Friday, our graduating seniors returned

017to their the halls where their Brentwood journey first began as they walked through each school one final time for the Brentwood High School Grad Walk. They were surrounded by cheers, smiles, hugs, and high fives from the students and staff who helped shape their path along the way. Um, and when we when we go to Mark Twain, I always have to make sure I have I'm like in the vicinity of Deb Stinson cuz I know she's going to like everybody hugs everybody and there's lots of hugs and stuff, but I know Deb is going to like give me that that photo moment, um, which she did right there front and center. But, I want to highlight just something. We posted these pictures on Facebook and um, it got a lot of good engagement, but I wanted

018to highlight just one comment that we got. Um, a Facebook user, I won't say it, but people could go and see who who said it, but Miss Stinson still hugs her students this way when she sees us even in our 30s. So, [clears throat] that just shows that like a a lot of schools, almost all schools do these grad walks now, right? And they're nothing about them is unique per se. There's lots of hugs and high fives and lots of, you know, all of that stuff, but um, I think that comment speaks to the connection and the relationships of um, a between our students and our staff and our teachers um, that it doesn't surprise me that Deb Stinson is is hugging students and remembering students in their 30s and 40s of when they were

019in the classroom, but I think that comment alone just speaks to um, what we do here at Brentwood. So, our next one, this was also last Friday, McGrath fifth graders celebrated the end of their elementary school journey with an afternoon filled with food, friendship, and fun. One of the highlights of the celebration was a giant foam cannon where students laughed, played, and made lasting memories together as they marked this special milestone. And I have to just shout out this student, her name's Joanna, real quick. Um, anytime I'm at McGrath, um, she always like sneaks up and tries to get me to take her picture or she makes like a silly face or or does something funny in the background. And I always tell her, I'm like, I I like smiley fun things, too, but a

020lot of my photos are like people doing stuff and they're like into the thing, they're not being silly. Um, so I I've always told her, I'm like, if you want me to use your picture, you got to focus on your work, right? Um, but I just happened to be at this moment at the right time, and she just like strutted over and stood right there, and I just go, "Do your thing." Cuz I know she was going to do this, and she did that, and it's just a perfect, you know, a visual encapsulation of that moment. The students in the background having a blast, um, but just a a cool school culture thing at McGrath and a celebration of those fifth graders getting ready to make that transition to to middle school. All right, our

021next one, um, Mark Twain's pop-up fundraiser. So, Mark Twain students recently hosted a student-led pop-up market fundraiser featuring handmade jewelry, baked goods, lemonade, popcorn, and snow cones. Organized by the school's cadet team, the event raised $481.15 for causes selected by the students while providing hands-on experience in leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving. Uh, this fundraiser are highlighted the growing spirit of service, responsibility, and community involvement among Mark Twain students. So, um a nice school culture thing. You can see that that one photo, there's a check to the St. Louis Herpetological, I think that's reptiles, right? For 192 bucks, but there was a couple other little um pictures of checks of different amounts and things like that, too. So, um the kids organized it, the kids put it on, and then they decided where they wanted the

022money to go to. So, just a great example of of school culture and student leadership. Um I like this one, too. Mention field days. Um so, Brentwood Middle School kicked off the month of May. Um this was May 1st. This seems like it wasn't very long ago. It's like 19 days ago, but it also feels like forever ago. Um but they kicked off the month of May with their annual field day. A fun end-of-the-year tradition that gives students an opportunity to get outside, connect with classmates, and celebrate a year of hard work through games and activities. But, adding to the excitement, this year's dunk tank featured a special raffle that gave families the chance to dunk their own middle school student. So, that brings us to this photo. Um this is Landon, a Brentwood Middle

023School sixth-grader, who was all smiles after his mom, Brooke, missed all four of her throwing attempts to send him into the tank. Um but, as you'll see, Brooke wasn't about to go home empty-handed. Uh she took matters into her own hands and gave the target a forceful push, sending Landings Landon splashing into the water to the delight of the students and staff and families in attendance. So, um I don't know what he thought, but mom wasn't going to take care of business, but um she wasn't going to let him go or like have the rest of field day or go home dry. So, uh he was soaked. And then a lot of parents uh or the the uh the families in the raffle that did this, a lot of them also followed suit with um

024um pushing the target if they didn't hit it right off the bat. So, just another cool example of and I think like uh if you have water activities, um you're you have a really good school culture cuz it seems like all of this stuff is kind of loosely based around water. But, on to our next one. Brentwood School District extends its gratitude and best wishes to this year's class of retirees. Together, these dedicated employees have served the district for a combined 84 years and their unwavering commitment to students, families, and the community is greatly appreciated. So, our 25 26 retirees from left to right, um Vicki Beck, uh Brentwood Early Childhood Center Custodian. That's uh Dr. Edward Johnson, Brentwood High School Principal. Uh Robin Ford, High School and Middle School Special Education Teacher Assistant. And

025Debbie Weltmer, High School Special Education Teacher. And then also not pictured, uh Roy Hughes, Brentwood High School Social Studies Teacher. So, thanks to these retirees for all that they've given to uh the students and their colleagues and the and families of at in Brentwood. And then one more school culture one and of course it's water related. So, uh the Brentwood Early Childhood Center playground recently transformed into a water wonderland during the school's highly anticipated water day celebration. Students enjoyed a variety of hands-on activities including sponge games, splash pools, and water squirting, uh all while cooling off and making memories with classmates. One of the biggest highlights was the popular rain wall, um where students eagerly ran through a curtain of chilly water with giant smiles and non-stop laughter. So, um like I said, if I

026guess if it's water like all you got to do is give kids some water and they'll have a blast, so uh I got to put that in my like in my memory for this summer with my own kids. Just go turn the hose on and we'll be all right. Um All right, so our last one, thanks for sticking with me. We're almost finished here. Unified Community Engagement. Um This is a some some photos from our spring tailgates teammates and school spirit event. So, student staff, families, and community members gathered at Eagle Stadium on May 8th for Brentwood spring tailgates teammates and school spirit event. An evening focused on school pride, community engagement, and celebration. The event featured free food and refreshments, opportunities to spend time with fellow Eagles, and a chance to cheer on the

027Brentwood girls soccer team during its senior night celebration against Roosevelt. So, thanks to everyone who joined us for another memorable evening of school spirit and Eagle pride. And shout out to Jimicia Tuiava um for really spearheading these um two community engagement events, one in the fall and one in the spring. And um we will be doing those these again, so um everyone out there that um will see this, make sure to check back with us in the fall. We'll be promoting a fall one again um when we get the dates set and the spring one as well, so. And I believe she already has the date set. She's going through and making sure all of the things that we've added this year don't get missed and her already on the calendar. So, good news for

028all of us that we'll make sure she has that before we leave. All right, and then just a couple more. Um this one was great. Um after 4 years of bringing comfort, connection, and plenty of tail wags to Brentwood schools, Kevin the duo dog is officially retiring. So, alongside his owner Rebecca Presson, Kevin became a beloved part of Brent the Brentwood community through his volunteer visits with duo dogs, offering support, smiles, and a calming presence to students and staff over the years. Many may also recognize Kevin from Brentwood High School's production of Annie where he charmed audiences in the role of Sandy the dog from Annie. Um Kevin's retirement celebration featured a special whipped cream cake, um a heartfelt banner filled with student and staff messages, and plenty of appreciation and pets for the joy

029he brought to our schools. So, thank you Kevin and Rebecca for sharing your time, kindness, and friendship with Brentwood. Um I think this could have gone in school culture as well, but just a great partnership to highlight a community engagement and a community connection with duo dogs and working with our family to to leverage that into and to connect those pieces and um we there's still other duo dogs that that come into our schools. So, this doesn't by any means end that connection. Um and then even when I took that photo in the library, Rebecca said, "We're trying to figure out if we're going to get two dogs. And so, if we if I start training another one." Um so, I have a feeling that we'll probably see them again fairly soon. And then our

030last one this evening, um Mark Twain students recently completed a student-led sharing shelf project designed to promote reading, creativity, and community connection. So, students helped paint, and install the shelf, which is stocked with free books and puzzles for families and neighbors to enjoy and share. So, this project reflects the power of student leadership, service learning, and community engagement. So, just a a great way to wrap it up and an ending you kind of see those little free libraries, um but this one is just a little a different little take and twist on it um with games and puzzles and books and toys and things like that, too. So, it's just another great example of of reaching out and connecting the community um at Mark Twain. So, um that's everything I have for this evening. I

031appreciate everybody um sticking with me and giving me time this month and every board meeting to share all the all the good highlights and all the um great things that are happening in our schools. So, I appreciate the time and and you you all listening. Thank you so much, Tony. That was great. Thanks. >> Yeah, Tony, that's very, very good. I love you have a natural talent for taking great pictures, too. Kudos to you, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Um that leads us into our board meeting. Um Kate, can we do roll call, please? Yes. Mark Cicero. Uh Katie Clark. >> Here. Ryan Flynn. >> Here. Claire O'Brien. Here. Michelle Ross. Here. Katie Spall. Here. Lindsey Spencer. Here. Okay, great. Thank you, Kate. And can I get a motion for to approve the

032consent agenda as outlined? I move we approve the consent agenda as outlined. I second. Uh roll call? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right, great. That leads us into our superintendent's report. Yes. Sorry. >> [laughter] >> I think we got everybody. Yes, yeah, I think we got everybody in there. Okay, uh superintendent's report. Uh our first one, um not not to I mean, all of these are wonderful presentations, but I think this may be the one we're most excited about. I will uh turn it over to our representatives from HTK to share a very high-level preliminary report on the track and field project that we have coming down the pike. Scott, can you do you want to share your screen or does Brent want to share his or Brent's more than it. Correct. Yeah, I'll

033share my screen. It's >> I was going to say, let me know if you can't There we go. Okay, perfect. You guys can all see that, right? Yep. >> And just as a heads-up for the board, this is just an information item. There was a request last board meeting that when we started sharing our five-year facilities plan that we bring HTK to just give a real high-level this is where we're at in the process. We have had one meeting with a group of coaches, community members to just get some of their initial feedback on the the process. We've got lots more meetings before anything is finalized, but wanted to at least get your feedback at this point in the process. So, Brent and Scott, I'll turn over to you. Perfect. Can everybody hear me? Perfect.

034Okay, so I'm Brent Higgins. For those who haven't gotten to meet me yet, I'm the architect and project manager with HTK Architects. With me is With me tonight is Scott Haslitt. So, for those who remember Mark Franzen, he retired about a year and a half ago and Scott has kind of stepped up into his role really leading our kind of Missouri market. And we also have Charlie Sexton on the call with us tonight as well. And he's kind of our in-house, um, athletics designer, um. And then not with us tonight, but who you guys might see here over the next kind of kind of couple of years as we complete these projects for you guys is Charlie Vu, and he's kind of our job captain. So, he'll be doing a lot of kind of the

035day-to-day stuff, um, and assisting me with these projects as we, uh, move forward. Um, so real quick getting into the kind of athletics com- athletics complex as I've been calling it. Um, a quick schedule update. So, we just started a design on this here kind of at the end of, uh, April kind of early May. Um, the design process should take us out through kind of November of this year. Um, a lot of that's kind of depending on, um, MSD reviews, um, and all that. So, there might be a little bit There might be some chances to accelerate that. Um, but the big thing is we'll need to be out to kind of we'll need to be out to bid sometime in that kind of December timeframe, um, so we can begin the contracting or

036the contracting and procurement process kind of starting in January through April time. So, that way when it comes to kind of the prime, um, track and field construction timeline starting in May, we can hit really hit the ground running. Brent, can you I'm sorry to interrupt, but can you can you advance your slides to slide three? I think that's where the timeline is just for those who process better with the visual in there. I'm sorry. Yes, it's >> Yeah, I know it's showing up, but it's not, um, Yeah, we're seeing the cover slide. We're not moving to the next slide. It's just the cover slide, Brent. Is that working? Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. I went full screen now. >> I just thought that might help everyone there trying to process that timeline. Just also,

037sorry to interrupt you, but just for the board's uh, knowledge, I have checked with, um, uh, Clayton, and they are looking at a March 2027 to a March 2028. Their project is more significant than ours, so it's going to take them longer. Um so this would allow us we may have to work our schedule around when the home games will be, but it will allow there to we wouldn't miss a football season. Um they would be able to still play. We would just have to make sure our home games are scheduled for you know, maybe the October games instead of the early September games. Okay. >> So yeah, construction would start next May as soon as fall or the spring sports are complete for the season. Um and then getting wrapped up kind of sometime

038around that September time frame somewhere around um in there. Um so I believe Andy had previously shown you guys this. So these were kind of our initial concepts that we came up with. Um so these were just kind of high-level kind of desktop review kind of imagining what all could be done with your kind of your current facility. So the first option on the left was just more or less a one-to-one replacement with kind of our with new with artificial turf and doing a new kind of track replacement and then the one on the right would be trying to look to see um what we could possibly do to get a full-size 400 meter track um installed on the sides. But as you kind of begin to see here it's just it's not possible um

039without having to do some pretty crazy stuff which would require basically trying to obtain streets and whatnot from the city and it's just it's not really feasible at this point and then the cost would just really balloon and be I think way way way more than what it's what it's really worth. Um so kind of with that we rolled into our kickoff meeting. Um and our we had our kickoff meeting there kind of towards the end of April. I think we got a lot of really good feedback out of that. Um really the the big key takeaways that we got was really the primary use of kind of the track and field um would be primarily for soccer and then of course track and field. Um kind of other more higher priority items that kind

040of came up out of that meeting was increasing accessibility um for the complex both from White Avenue on the south but also um throughout the bleachers and then all that and then also just kind of um improving the spatial environment um kind of within the site. Um some of the major design components um that we've kind of begun begun to formulate um kind of analyzing the sites um with Andy back in April um was um turfing the field and sign light sidelines. Um so the kind of the colors and everything that you see right now, these are just purely representational representation right now. Um there's really been no kind of discussions on colors or anything like that. So these are just representational. Um so kind of all the areas that you see there in the

041purple, most of the gold um and then of course the the field the green field on the inside would all be um artificial turf. Um and then new synthetic track track surfacing um kind of overlaying the current location of that track. Um and then new bleachers both on well, primarily on the west side. Um we're looking at some possible options of um maybe eliminating the bleachers on the east and just doing them on the west depending on how some of those different track components um kind of layout um and trying to kind of improve the different spaces. So that's still prelim very preliminary on that portion um and we're still kind of analyzing that. Um associated with the bleacher replacement would be installing a retaining wall on the west side of the site. Um to

042kind of better support those bleachers or to better support the bleachers and provide a little bit more kind of space on that backside. Um, placing the lighting um, for the fields out there. Um, and then installing um, an accessible kind of um, ramp coming off of or coming up from White Avenue up to the field areas. Um, somewhere kind of on that southwest corner of the field. Um, and this here is just a very kind of conceptual three-dimensional view of kind of what that begins to look like. Um, this over here on the that southwest corner would be that switchback ramp kind of working working its way up the hillside there. I think we'll probably have a few more switchbacks on that um, than what we currently show just because of that overall grade differential.

043Um, but it looks something kind of like that just to promote better accessibility um, from the south side of the stadium there. Um, there along the west side um, we've got new bleachers going up through there. Um, again on that south side we've got an ramp that would bring you up to kind of uh, an elevated deck portion similar to what you guys have right now but it would be a continuous run the full length. Um, so I think a big problem that you guys have right now is all your bleachers are really segmented up into individual pieces. Um, and there's really no good way to kind of get accessible seating or anything um, up at that elevated um, level so you can kind of um, see out over the uh, students and everyone kind

044of on the sidelines. Um, with that you can see we've got the new sports lightings um, there'll be a total four so two on each side and then one one on each end of the bleachers. Um, that really helps free up and promote the ability to have one just continuous run of bleachers. Um, so it's not all segmented like what you guys currently um, have on your side right now. Um, and then on the very far north side um, there would be ramps that would take you back down from that elevated um um deck portion there. Uh some of the things we're still kind of um working out is some of the different locations of kind the long jump here. Um there's been some talks of possibly looking at um locating that over here kind

045of on the east side um if that makes sense um as we kind of um better or more evaluate the site and everything, that'll kind of begin to inform us if that's um something feasible or not. Um just to kind of free up the the sidelines here and kind of reduce some of those trip hazards um as uh kids are out there on those sidelines and everything with kind of the the pits and everything um for those long jumps. Um and then another big thing is we're actually extending the the straightaway on this side. Um this will allow you to have 100-m hurdles um and it'll give you a little bit more kind of free space um to do that without kind of getting down here on that turn right away. Um just give it

046a little bit more free space um to to do that. Um and then some of the things we're beginning to show on the track and field are at least on the track anyways, um we've got kind of a two-tone um concept that we're beginning to explore and look at. Um you'd have kind of your primary color here just currently represented as red um but then having a kind of a hashed out color in a secondary color that would be your transition transition zones for your like 4x4 um relays. Um with that um since we are looking at going to artificial turf, um one big thing with that is you don't want to have host your kind of your throwing events um on the track and on the track because that'll um damage your um field

047over time. Um so something we've begun to evaluate kind of in the background is um where these throwing events could take place. Um so I think we've got two different options. Um the first option would be having um shot put and discus um take place at McGrath. Um so you can see up here on the upper field, um we've laid out a kind of a small area for the shot put. Um and then down on that larger um middle field um that would be a spot for discus. Um and then with the overall space that javelin takes up, there's just not quite enough room to um locate everything here at McGrath. Um but there is fortunately enough space over at uh Mark Twain at their field um to fit in a a javelin javelin throwing

048area. So that's kind of option one. Um and it's also not uncommon to have your throwing events um located kind of at a site that's separate. Um especially once you get into kind of smaller communities um such as yours, it's it's pretty common to have these hosted kind of elsewhere. Close by, but uh offsite from your main um track. So And Andrew Gordon was also on the call, the original group, too. So he, you know, as our track and field coach, was aware of this and and said these, you know, kind of were where his mind was thinking of options as well. So it wasn't like shocking to him, either. Sorry, Brett. You go on. No, no, of course. Um so kind of the second option was um as we started to kind of lay

049the stuff out, um there's actually a possibility of hosting or relocating or hosting all these things at Mark Twain. Um there's just enough space to fit both javelin, shot put, and discus. Um kind of the only issues with having everything all at this one spot is if you're doing it it it begins to become a challenge to do all three events all at the same time just because of the overlapping uh throwing areas, so. So yeah, that's kind of the two different options. Um so we're still very early on in in the design. Um I think we've got some more kind of design meetings here coming up in June. Um that we need to get scheduled here soon. Um and we're just still kind of continuing with progressing the the design. And that's uh all

050the update I had for you guys tonight. Um do you guys have any questions I can uh answer for you? Hey Brett. Um could you kind of clarify a little bit on the um go up to uh the yeah, perfect. Where the uh the lighting is. Kind of explain a few things about like light pollution and how far we've come with the new technology with LED. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You you read my mind, Andrew. I was going to say we needed to to talk about that as well. So, um the poles are higher. Um so, that is potentially an issue with neighbors in that they'll see the source of the lighting from farther away. But, from the cut off of the new LED light fixtures, the immediate neighbors will see a quite a reduction

051in the light that's spilling off onto their property. Um I'm not sure how planning and zoning might handle taller light fixtures, but that's what's required to reduce the number of poles and also free up the space in between the bleachers. So, that's kind of something we're going to have to continue to talk about. >> [snorts] >> Can I ask a question about the lights as well? I know right now today we've got um wires overhanging going between the light poles. Is the vision to have all the wires um uh buried? Um so, all of that would actually go away. Um a lot of all, so all that kind of overhead, power, and stuff, that's specifically for those existing lights. Um, so with replacing all that, all that would go away. I think there's also some

052speakers that are still there and some wiring associated with that. Um, that's actually all old and kind of abandoned in place. Um, your current sound system all comes from the scoreboard um, back there on the the northeast corner of the side, so um, that'll really begin to clean up and um, free up the site with that. Yeah. Oh, that's great. There's been huge improvements in lighting. Any other questions for the group? We are just Go ahead, Scott. Sorry. No, that that was pretty much it. We are we are just very excited. We had the community members we had on the the call were very excited. They wanted to jump into the colors and I promise you there will be many a conversation before we determine colors and we will actually see what it looks like

053in in, you know, real life versus in these pictures, but um, we know this is a really uh, a big deal for our community, uh, big deal for um, you know, for our kids. A lot of excitement around this and we wanted to to get a visual out there that, you know, people can see and know that that we are progressing and and it, you know, I'd love to do it tomorrow, but we will uh, this is a a good process. We the timeline is in the near future and um, a lot of decisions to make in the next year, but all exciting work. Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you. Any other questions for any of our reps from HTK? Yeah, can I just ask a quick question because I guess I don't know anything about

054um, track and field throwing sports, but um, so when these throwing sports would get set up at either McGrath or Mark Twain, would it just be like paint on the field or is there going to be anything permanent that would be added to those fields to set them up for the throwing events? Um yes, so typically a lot of the throw Well, yeah. As far as shot put and discus go, um yes, they would have a small I believe it's like an 8 by 8 concrete pad with a I think it's like a 6-ft diameter ring. Um kind of within that area. Um and we've kind of located those on these plans as kind of as far out um kind of on the edge of the field as possible. So, there'd really be that portion

055there. Um there would be some striping [snorts] um that could either be permanent or temporary um as far as how that gets laid out. Um and we've got Charlie Sexton on the call. Yeah, the Please correct me if I'm I'm wrong. Well, the the shot put is probably the the biggest intrusion to this areas because it'll have a chat or a a rock landing throwing sector. Um that's that's how you measure where it lands. It leaves a dent and that's how you you measure how far out you've thrown. So, wherever the shot put ends up being, you'll end up having that that throwing sector will be a gravel with a a wood barrier around it or concrete barrier around it. Um the discus um I'm showing a pad a little bit oversized. That's just so

056the discus cage has um it makes it easier to clean mow around it and stuff like that. It doesn't need to be as large as it is, but um >> [clears throat] >> the rest of it is all just paint. It's just a painted line that'll go out there for the throwing sector. It lands in the grass. So, just the throwing discus cage, that's the only thing that would be um permanent and you could actually remove the discus cage posts and netting um off season if you want to. The concrete pad would stay there, but you could remove the netting and the and the the posts, if you want to. Um, javelin it you can Most people just paint the stripes for the javelin runway on the grass. Um, and the kids will when they

057know that, they'll you send out a notice and all the kids just wear like uh soccer football cleats and that's what they wear to throw the javelin when you have grass runway. >> [snorts] >> So, I think as we look at our options, we're going to want to look at that just cuz of the other usages of these fields and where it's the least invasive to be able to use the spaces for as much of the things that it's currently being used for. Um, so we'll need to keep that in mind when we're making kind of the decisions as to where things go. Thank you. And we will show that we obviously Gordon will be a part of these, um, as well as, you know, new track and field coaches as well. As well as,

058you know, obviously myself and everyone who runs these fields, um, regularly, currently. Is there Is there any other place in the city that we could, besides our our fields that we have that we could potentially look at? I know Mount Calvary, uh, behind there, the city owns that park and I think they're going to be doing some renovations there for a walk path. Um, that Yeah, so >> I'm throwing that idea out there. I don't know how much the city would typically be involved in a project like this. Well, I It's funny you say that cuz that was my original thought, too. You know, at Brentwood Park there's a lot of open green space. I've actually talked to the mayor about other things, like when we were talking about tennis courts, I was like, "What

059are you guys doing at Mount Calvary?" cuz if you want to throw in some tennis courts, that'd be a solid for the district. Um, but we've had conversations around these kinds of things and I think something that's I would say less intrusive as and yet nearly as expensive, um, I could see us partnering with the city uh, very possibly. So I think that's going to be an important part. And when I say the people who rent it, it is the city and it's the YMCA who rent Mark Twain and McGrath the most and use it for for our kids to to play sports. So I think they're going to need to be a part of the conversation anyway, but I I'm putting that making that note on my list to make sure we're involving the

060city. Obviously they'll be involved for like permits and things, but involving them from this conversation as well cuz I think it would be a great opportunity for us to partner and like I said, if it's just stripes and some unobtrusive things like this, they have more space than we do cuz those concrete pads will really interfere. I'm just thinking of the hundreds of soccer games that we have for the Y and the Brentwood Right. >> parks. And one of the things is we have these reciprocal agreements and um the city gets to use a lot of our resources, which is great and I'm super open to that, but we don't it's not as um reciprocal right now and this would be a great way to to maybe even that um request a little bit. So

061yeah. Any other questions? Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here tonight. I really appreciate this. It it's you know, I think it's day one um and I'm really excited to get this ball rolling and we have lots of meetings in our near future, but thank you for being here and just uh sharing some timeline information and some more visuals with our board. And looking forward to it. Thank you. Thank you. It's a good way to complete for your current soccer star. >> [laughter] >> Exactly, I know. I've got some parents that have already asked me. They're like planning out like will it be my child's senior year? Will they get to play on it? So uh the timeline will help. >> [laughter] >> Give them at least a ballpark. So thank you very much.

062All right. Uh next up on superintendent report, uh we got the Matt Norwich show. We've got a few different things for for Matt to share. We'll start with our budget revision. All right, can you hear me okay? Yep. Yes. Great. I think that's going to be the common thing this evening is just making sure everybody can hear us. >> [laughter] >> Um thank you all for the opportunity to speak. I know everybody's excited to hear the finance show. Um got quite a few items on the agenda this evening, so we're going to keep everything moving, but I do want to make sure that everybody gets the the questions answered that we're looking for. Um the first item that we have that is an action item is a request for approval of budget revision number two.

063Just as a reminder, uh Brentwood Public School District works through a process of very working or working in a fiscally responsible manner. So, we typically are pretty conservative with our asks or our recognition of revenues. And we're also conservative with how we ask for our expenditures. So, we try to run those as close to what our actual costs and estimates are when we ask for the initial budget. But, there are times where we have to adjust or we ask for adjustment accordingly. A big portion of that this year we had um we are asking for a revenue adjustment of approximately $260,000 and an expenditure adjustment of an additional $130,000. The revenues are primarily made up of the grant and the award of our electrified school bus. So, we have already received half of the total

064cost of that project, which is $205,000. The other amounts are primarily made up of federal adjustments and federal revenues for ESEA, which is our title programs. Interest income that is beating our initial expectations, but then I also want to draw special attention to you'll see a reduction in revenue for $69,000. What that is is an amount that we would have typically or historically received through financial institution tax through the state of Missouri. This year, uh we received a significantly less amount even though we've been anticipating lesser amounts every year. This year that amount was considerably less. So, we budgeted approximately $130,000. We received the funds that we were going to receive in January, and they were significantly less. So, the total ask uh for an adjustment of revenue is $260,000. But, again, there is that

065reduction in revenue for foundation formula, which is financial institution tax, which is the money we get from banks that pay taxes. The ask for uh expenditure increases are throughout the year. We've had several things that have been approved by the Board of Education. This is the cost in the adjustments. So, as we work throughout the year for our revisions, we make several adjustments that are on the direction of the building leadership to make several adjustments, and you'll see that in the budget revision as you see multiple line items that are positive and negative transactions. This is the These amounts are the total addition of expenditures. So, we had asked for the addition of a paraprofessional at McGrath to support the student environment both in the student population needs and the number of kiddos at that

066program. We asked for the addition of $500 for the feminine hygiene grant, which you'll see the revenue offsetting that above. Contracted support services, so this is additional contracted substitutes for um supporting administrative and our new guidance staff over at McGrath. Um general maintenance ca- costs, $45,000. A big portion of this is for the last two or three years, we didn't have a lot of grass to cut. We've added our soccer fields, we've added the maintenance, and so this is a big recognition of tree service, lawn care, and then some other, um, additional costs that were related to, uh, unanticipated costs to support buildings. Then we also, again, we asked for the approval and the final formal recognition of those reallocations that our buildings have performed throughout the year. Our initial fund balance anticipation for the

067end of this year was 67%. These changes will move our budget adjustment to 63.6%. Um, the 67% was based upon projections. We do have certain figures that we believe will still work closer to that, but this is the total percentage of fund balance if all of our expenditures were spent and all of our revenues were received as currently proposed. This is an action item and I'm open for any questions. Can we get a motion? Sure, I will make a motion to approve the bu- budget revision number two for the 25-26 school year. Second. Discussion. Okay. Great update, Matt. Yeah, thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. All right, let's do roll call. Or you can just do all in favor for this. >> Oh, all all in favor. Thank you. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye.

068Aye. Opposed? All right, that passes. Approved. Thank you. Thank you. The next item that we have is an information item, which is the first reading of our budget adjustment for the 26-27 school year. Um, we provided the full document to the Board of Education, uh, just to kind of give a little bit of an idea of where our calendar is. We budget all year long. So, we just we discuss our future projects now. We go through that process of budgeting. We're talking about future projects for next year and the year after. This is, you know, Andy Harnett provides us a five-year facility plan and these the document that we have presented is reflected of the most recent long-term facility plan that's provided. We work with funding our union agreements. So, if those are multi-year agreements,

069those are included in this and our current agreement is included both for our support staff and for our certified staff. Our any kind of current revenue present projections, we stay actively involved in legislation and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to stay aware of any kind of changes in revenue and or reductions in revenue depending on the environment that we're in at that moment. Our budget process with our buildings typically begins in January. We ask for recommendations from the buildings to be presented to the business department at the beginning of April. And then now is the time that we provide our first draft of that document. If we have any changes that are represented between our May document and our June document, that will be the one that we ask for final approval. We outline

070those changes as a separate column. So, we call out those items and why it is we made those modifications. That could just be more information that was better available. Could be staffing changes because we're this time of year we're continuously going through the hiring process through our human resource department. We're also looking at the all those things that add or reduce staff. So, and then also this is the time of year that we would typically know our benefit costs. So, this year those benefit costs are already aware to us or we're already aware of those benefit costs and we're able to present those so we don't anticipate any kind of budget revisions associated with that. So, the main change that I'm expecting between the document that I've presented and the one that you'll see in

071June is updated pictures. So, if you have there will be a new picture of our superintendent, there will be new pictures of our students, and hopefully we'll have some different pictures in here of some of the projects that we're working on. So, I will probably ask Brent to send me the diagram of the football field so that I can put it in the budget document. So, one of our big priorities with this budget doc document was making it approachable to staff. So, we did that last year putting those diagrams into this document. So, part of the reason why I'm not presenting a slide deck this evening is because we really do want you to look at this document. Uh there's there's a significant amount of breakdown of how we spend our dollars and how we

072generate our dollars. And that's what we're about to walk through. So, this year our assumptions that are based on our budget are we're assuming a consumer price index increase of 2.7%. Specifically, food service we're looking at a 4.1% increase. What this does is it shows in if we were in a reassessment year, which we're not, we would we could capture up to a 2.7% increase in revenue. This year we're assuming level funding in our in our assessed valuation because it's a non-reassessment year. We're also assuming a half a percent increase in revenue from local taxes. As we've said before, approximately 97% of our total revenue comes from local sources. So, that could be local taxes, Prop C money, and also interest income. When we look at our uh our projections and our obligations and our

073communication to our staff and our unions and our Board of Education, we've talked about historically moving dollars out of capital projects and into operations. Next year we are showing that we're moving 10 cents out of capital projects and moving that into operations. Our intention is is that that will further support the operations in the long-term viability of our fund balances. So, continuing to meet those long-term promises to our community that we're going to stretch their tax approval as long as we possibly can. So, we are looking at an operating levy next year of 3.34, which is just 10 cents higher than what it was this year. 7 cents would be remaining in capital projects and then a debt service levy maintained at 89.9 cents. We do include a Prop C rollback, so part of my

074conversation earlier today Katie was that we talk about how we continue to have a Prop C rollback. So, that's part of how our sales taxes that are generated locally we get those back to the school district through Prop C money. We We return typically between the upper around 9 cents and 10 cents back to our community. What that generates is a reduction in local taxes of $231,000. So, every year we return half of our Prop C revenue back to our community. We anticipate the total revenue of our operating tax to be $16.5 million this year in the 2026-2027 year and a debt service revenue of four 4.3 million dollars. We don't anticipate any increase in uh the foundation formula. So, if you hear me talk, that's basic funding. That's our state aid. We are hold

075harmless district, so if you hear about reductions in in state revenue next year under the current formula, we do not anticipate that to impact Brentwood Public School District. Prop C funding next year we do anticipate to increase slightly. Um but we're assuming that to be relatively stable for the purposes of budgeting. Um We are assuming so we have our federal aid right now and I'm working up a reply to a board member so I'll put that in the weekend update. The costs the revenue that we receive in federal aid is is extremely minimal but we still have the obligations to report. So we are assuming continued reduction. So our revenues for the ESEA or the title programs are all based on poverty rates. Our poverty rate is continuing to decline which decline which decreases our

076amount of eligibility for our ESEA program. The amount in budget revision number two was important. This is the reason why we asked for it first. That will be reflected as our beginning fund balance for the amount that's reported this evening for um the initial 26-27 budget. The expenditures of the budget are based to meet the obligations of our union agreements again for ESP and our certified staff members. We are continuing our commitment to provide a high level of health insurance to our employees. Currently we're assuming a 3% increase in our benefits. Part of that is because our insurance plan that is taking effect in October still has three months of our existing health insurance plan. We are continuing our obligation to long-term building repairs and the funding of the athletic facility and the Mark Twain

077playground ground in our five-year plan. We're assuming our continued refresh cycle for technology program. We're continuing our investment in meeting our obligations for our debt. And we are assuming uh a continued transfer of funding to pay for our teacher salaries. A transfer of a di- of an addition to our typical revenues of proxy of $9.7 million. That is the summary. We encourage people to reach out about any kind of questions. We'll open the conversation to questions. If there's anything that requires additional, we can provide that either through our weekend updates or in one-on-one conversations. I know it's a significant document, but any kind of questions that you may have, we'd be happy to provide answers in writing or uh through communication or, you know, we use our our our business uh Sorry, our Board of

078Education Finance Committee. Um we don't have any committee meetings for the remainder of the year, but there's no reason why we can't have one. Thank you. Any questions for Matt? I know this is a lot of work, so I just I want to give kudos to Matt for getting this prepped and ready and and this time of year is is no joke for him and with the benefits added on top of it and the change of benefit um plus all of the other transitions that are going on. Just want to give him a huge shout-out. Um document's excellent. Um makes it very easy to understand and just very grateful for his work. Yeah, thank you, Matt. Yeah, I was going to say, Matt, this format is great. I mean, you you gave this to us

079last year and it's much It's pretty It's informative yet easy to digest, so I I appreciate the updates and the fact that you feel like you only need to update the pictures the next time around is Pie chart change. I always love the pictures. Everybody loves pictures. Yes, so thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Matt. So we will ask for approval right up at the Board Retreat, so that's that'll be when we have our small little short business session on the 23rd will be basically to just approve approve this officially with all the final numbers. This is solely our our information item and again, I appreciate your time. And if there's especially our new you know, our new board members, if there's I know that we go through a lot of information

080extremely fast. If you'd like to schedule meetings, be more than happy to do those. We can do those virtually, we can do them in person. Um you know, sharing my screen is just as easy to do it virtually as it is to do it. And and if you guys want to be in the same meeting, we don't need a quorum, so Um anyway, Yes, and we will be continuing to work our way through the onboarding. We started a meeting with me and doing some tours and Tony and I think Matt are up next. So as soon as school's out and we all get a to take a breath, um we will get those scheduled too. Um so you can ask any questions you may have. All right, next up uh Matt is uh purchase card,

081P-cards. So each year we ask for a recommendation to approve and authorize the amounts of P-cards. So a P-card is just a purchasing card, which is basically a credit card in a school district. So we have approximately $250,000 of revolving credit per month for the school district. A significant amount of that credit is held by the CFO. So I just, you know, $140,000 of revolving credit pops out on the credit on the approvals, so let's not dance around it. The so you'll see the CFO's uh credit limits for myself for the remainder of the year would be $140,000. We're asking to approve especially uh Ms. Becktold's credit line in order to start transitioning some of those accounts into her approval. Our Amazon purchasing account and our Amazon business systems are all connected to that credit

082line as as well as our new Enterprise Rent-A-Car program and our um utilities. So roughly out of that, there's about $40,000 every month that is on that credit line specifically. And that varies based on the volume of purchasing. We can always discuss them the protocols and the procedures. The only item that we are asking for an increase that is on this list is our shop teacher. Um Mr. Reader, we do we are asking for an approval to move his credit line from $300 to $1,000. We made a modification where previously he had uh that position held a Home Depot card. We removed that credit line, so we are asking to replace that with a P-card. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve? Yeah, I make a motion to approve the P-cards for the following

083employees for the 2026-27 school year. Second. Discussion. Okay. Uh okay. Um all those in favor, say aye. Aye. >> Aye. Aye. Aye. Great, that passes. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. All right, Matt's got one more before he leaves us here. Uh meal price equity tool equity tool, sorry. So, this is an action item. Each year we bring we are required by the state of Missouri to evaluate the cost of our meals that we serve to our staff our students. In August, we'll typically bring forward the staff pricing. So, currently we are asking for an increase of 16 cents for our students. Um you'll see that there is pricing for elementary, secondary, and early childhood education. The early childhood rates we did this year uh qualify to expand our food service program to the early childhood program.

084The we are also asking for a small increase of 5 cents to our milk costs. And then um again, we we go through the the price equity tool that is attached for your reference. If you have any questions, um we're more than happy to discuss them. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the meal? I make a motion to approve the student meal prices for the 2026-2027 school year. Second. All right. Discussion? I'm sure you told me last year, but can you just remind me, Matt, why the ECC price for lunch is higher? I just don't remember. So, historically, we have added the ECC prices at what the actual cost of the meal is. Okay. We know we can remove this line item because it's realistically the price of the elementary meal price is

085what we pass on to those students now. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Any other comments? No. Okay. All those in favor, say I. I. I. Opposed? All right. That passes. Thank you. Thank you. >> Marvelous. Next up, we have Dr. Zagora. Thanks, Matt, for all your work on all of those. Uh Ronnie's up with the assessment plan and the PD plan. All right. I'm going I'm going to try to screen share here if I can. Um These are two documents that we bring to the board annually that are required under board policy that we share. Okay. So, you should be able to view the assessment plan here. Okay. All right. Let me scroll to the top. Um so, our district assessment plan is really just a summary of all of our um assessments that

086fall under the category of a state-mandated assessment, a district-wide assessment, or some other kind of universal assessment that we use for maybe a particular grade span, group of students. And so each year we bring this to you to just share what the assessment plan is for the coming school year. Um for those of you who are new to the board, last spring when I gave this presentation, I went a little more in-depth about kind of our assessment philosophy. Um and I I can kind of quickly summarize that here for you, but also um when we have our our one-on-one meetings in the near future, I'm happy to talk about assessments um and professional development as much as you would like. But essentially, our assessment philosophy in Brentwood is that we um want to assess our

087students as infrequently as often but as meaningful as possible. So, our goal is not to overtest students. Um we want to give them assessments at the right time for the right learning that has happened. So, while there are some things that we cannot control like our state-mandated assessments, the assessments that we can control like our benchmark assessments, for example, our i-Ready and our NWEA, uh we select those and time those so that they are meaningful and can actually inform our instruction. So, assessments basically fall into one of two camps, or a lot of assessments actually fill both needs, and that is to either inform our instruction, so give us real-time data on student learning so that we can adjust our instruction and personalize it to meet the needs of the students, or and/or to evaluate

088our programs, our curriculum, our instructional methods, our pedagogy. And so a lot of these assessments can do both of those things for us. Um and some of them just meet one need or the other. So, there are no major changes for next year's assessment plan um beyond a couple of minor adjustments. So, as I had informed the board um earlier this year, we did swap out one of our gifted screening tools for an updated version of one we had been using for many years. Um and so that is the NNAT as one of our leap screening tools instead of the NNAT what we used to use. Um and then also just some slight calendar adjustments. So, one thing that we um did differently, we actually changed course mid school year this year with our practice

089ACT for our juniors. We had historically given that in the fall. We decided this year to give that in January, which we will do again next year. And the reason for that was that we provide all of our juniors tutoring at no cost to them on either the ACT or the ACT work keys, whichever those assessments the student chooses to take. And so we wanted to know is our tutoring impactful? Is it effective? We've been doing it for many years. Um and didn't really have solid data to tell us whether that tutoring was actually helping students increase their scores. So we gave our practice ACT in January, then we did our tutoring in February, March, and then we gave our school-wide ACT and ACT work keys in April. So once all those scores come in

090and we have some time to review that practice test and that their first real ACT, um then we'll have, you know, we'll get some some good information about how scores changed or didn't in the interim with the use of that that tutoring. Um so otherwise the assessment plan is again pretty much what it was last year. Um we try to keep it as balanced as possible. We were very happy with I-Ready this year. That was the new benchmark assessment that we selected for kindergarten through grade five for math and reading. We gave that fall, winter, and spring. Our teachers really liked it. Um anecdotal feedback from parents is that they felt like it was more informative than what they had received before from the NWEA. So we are um keeping that going into next year

091um and looking to continue to grow uh our our skills in analyzing that data, using it to inform our instruction, and so on. Any questions about the assessment plan? Okay. I was going to say I just always like your explanation of timing the assessments in a way that is most beneficial for you gathering data, but also for our students because I I think all of us with kids know that the assessments can be a lot. I I mean, this year with some snacks and things like that, that always goes a long long way. >> [laughter] >> So, that helps make it a little bit easier. Um but I I know you guys are doing your best to get the great data at a minimal impact to the student, which is Yeah, so refreshing to hear

092every year, even though you say it every year. >> [laughter] >> Well, thank you. I It does It does certainly feel like a lot, and I'm sure teachers and counselors would tell you, you know, late April and May um get very challenging from the management side, and I know for our students it does It just feels like um there is a lot of testing and data collection that happens. The nice thing about the the new i-Ready assessment is that even though we did give it again in May, when students had already taken their MAP tests and so on, um is that it's it's quick, it's in the classroom, they just log into it on their iPad. It doesn't feel like a formal assessment, it doesn't feel like it has that stress or anxiety that goes

093with a formal assessment. Well, I hope that it doesn't. The goal is that it doesn't. Um and so it And because it's so very closely tied to our our learning targets, it does give us some really good information about how effective was our instruction. Great. So, this is an action item, so we will need a uh motion. Okay. Um I make a motion to Hold on, I'm looking for it here now. Assessment two, approve the assessment plan for the '26-'27 school year. Second. Uh discussion. No? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. >> I. I. All right, that passes. Great. Thank you. All right, last but not least under the superintendent agenda is the PD plan. All right, so I am going to share again here just to give you a quick view of

094our professional development plan for the year. Scroll up to the top there. Okay. Uh so this is our professional development plan for the coming school year and um again those of you who who were on the board last spring when I presented this, one of the big changes that we made from previous iterations of this is that we organized it according to the pillars of our strategic plan. And so those that have the most impact when it comes to our teachers working with students, we organized it under student success, school culture, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. And one thing that is important um I think from the perspective of our district professional development committee and just what PD is in general is to think of PD as a means to an end, not an

095end itself. And so as we are setting our professional development goals, it's really what learning needs to happen in order to get us to those outcomes that are called out in the district strategic plan. So often times these are going to be things that are are really just constantly evolving and never leave the PD plan because it's, you know, very rare in our profession that we can do some learning and then say, "Okay, we're done and everybody's perfect and everyone learned everything." So we're always evolving with these and so some of them are that well actually all of them this time you're going to see that they're marked either in progress or continuous. So last year as our committee was working on this plan we thought, "Okay, well let's give some status updates to where

096we are on these goals." And we created these great little color-coded drop-down choices where we could choose that we'd not yet started, it was in progress, it was completed, or it was continuous, which means it will never go away. Um and you'll see that none of these are marked as complete because these are big broad goals that are going to carry over into the next school year. So the actual PD, the professional development that we do to meet these goals is going to change year to year. It may even change building to building, Um um but those are in progress because again, our work is never done. Um and so, we didn't really feel like it was appropriate to mark any of them as complete cuz we we did the work this year. Like we

097we had the PD and we had a lot of great learning and so that piece of it was complete, but really we we couldn't say that we fully reached the outcomes that are put forth in in a 5-year strategic plan. Um So, just a couple of highlights that I will point out for you. So, we're continuing our work work with the instructional framework that was developed last year. We did some learning walks with that this year, um which were really helpful. And we'll continue to do those learning walks and we'll those will be a little more targeted in the coming year so that they align with what the specific schools' goals are for their staff. Um so, each of the principals is there developing their school improvement plan for the year. We will go in

098with that lens into those buildings and do learning walks and our admin team will be doing those together. Um continuing with our standards-based learning goals of just really clarifying and really that is is about direction and clarity in learning. And so, making sure our teachers are very clear on what the learning outcomes are, seeing student ownership grow with those and we've seen that a lot especially at the elementary level with their new ELA um scales and standards that they were working with this year. So, we we got to walk into a lot of classrooms and we saw students with kind of their own little personal goals of I mastered this, but I'm still working on this and their own little checklist. Um so, it's pretty fun to see. And then, um always want to make

099sure that in planning our PD that we're not leaving anybody out who doesn't fit the typical teaching role of being either a gen ed classroom teacher or, you know, a core content area. And so, a goal that we set last year, um that I'm I'm honestly very proud this year of the of the work we did and we're excited to continue it is that we developed some PD in collaboration with other districts to give opportunities for some of our specials areas to come together. So, whether that's art, music, or PE, or at the secondary levels, especially our family consumer science teacher, our engineering teacher. Teachers who who probably feel a little isolated in Brentwood as the only teacher who does what they do, or maybe one of two. Creating those opportunities for them to go

100learn with others from other districts, and it was very well received, and we're excited. We're already doing the planning for that to happen again. Next year. Our school culture goals. The main one I want to highlight here, behavior management was a goal that showed up in needs assessments at the end of the last school year, and so we made it as a clear target this year. Next year we'll be continuing with this going even further because we have done a lot of work with our administrative this team team this year to rebuild our multi-tiered systems of support for social, emotional, and behavioral support and intervention. And so, we've got a new toolkit that we developed with the help of our coach from SSD who is coming over and meeting with our admin team. And so,

101this summer with our principals, we'll be talking about how do we want to integrate that into the work that's already happening in each of our schools, and continue to make sure that that our teachers are very well versed on like, what are universal practices that we all should be doing every day for every student. So, starting with that tier one level, then that will be a some fun and exciting work to do. And then, I'll just jump down to our diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility goal. We're continuing with our support for our multilingual Thanks to the board, we were able to have a a second full-time multilingual teacher this year to work with our ML students, which has been hugely successful, and we want to continue next year to really tap into their expertise so

102that instead of those two teachers just pulling resource groups or working with students on specific skills to acquire English, that they're able to push into classrooms more and and do some co-teaching with our teachers or some on-the-spot support um and making sure also that for when they can't push into the classroom, that any classroom teacher can reach out to them and say, "Hey, I've got this new student who just arrived in the country last week. I'm really struggling to to engage and connect. Can you help me?" Um and so and and our ML teachers have been wonderful and really want to lend that support um and so just building the the knowledge and capacity of all of our teachers to know that they have access to these experts um and providing them with the tools

103that to use in their own classroom. Is my summary of the plan for this year. Any questions about our PD plan? Again, this is an action item, so we'll need to call for a motion. Great. I um make a motion to approve professional development plan for 2026-2027. Discussion. Second. Just for my curiosity, where are most >> a quick question. our multilingual learners, are they in the in the building or grade level? So this year we had a higher concentration at Mark Twain, which is why Kristen Poole, our our newest full-time ML teacher, was dedicated full-time to Mark Twain. So at the start of the school year, about half of our students are our language learners were at Mark Twain. So Kristen was there all year, which was great. She was so supportive and they really,

104you know, welcomed her with open arms. Um we are seeing certainly a concentrated elementary. Our numbers are fewer as we get into middle and high school, but we I what we we started and ended the year with about the same number of students on the multilingual caseload, but they weren't necessarily all the same kids. So we did have some that left, many that returned to their home country, but we also continue to get more families that are are here with us. So, we saw um a large influx of Japanese speakers this year, which has been really awesome because they were able to kind of group some of those students together for some of their their interventions and supports. And how often do they generally need supports before they integrate? So, um it depends on their

105level of proficiency upon arrival. So, when students first come, they're given a test to assess their language ability. So, for students that score within certain ranges, they may be seen every day, they may be seen three times a week. Um for students that have maybe been here a couple of years and they need less support, it might be a once-a-week check-in with the the teacher, maybe the ML teacher pushing into that classroom at certain times of day to help with different things. Um and then once students formally exit um from needing support, they stay on a list of monitored students, and so our ML teachers will check in with them. Again, it could be weekly, it could be monthly, keep contact with parents just to make sure that they don't need any ongoing supports. Thank

106you. Impressive. Can you hear me? Yes. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. Mhm. Okay. In the plan research-based twice for behavior management and research-based I think it's for standards of practice. So, is is the research through Is it DESI or where what research do we rely on to pace kind of the standard of practice for behavior management? Kind of is is there I guess a Yeah, the the the pacesetter, what research do we rely on? I guess is my question. Yeah, that's that's a great question cuz there's not like a golden book of the official research. Um and so we um I will say like in my career overall, there are handful of of research institutions and books that I've relied on. I we've I have worked a lot with resources from like Marzano um,

107Institute. There are Solution Tree, RTI. There are a lot of institutions that that their primary purpose is to do either conduct or analyze or summarize and synthesize education research. Uh, and so a lot of times it's it's going back to some of those like very reliable handbooks that have been around for a long, long time and constantly updated on what best practices are. Uh, and then, you know, any of the the tools that our buildings are using that are more of like a kind of like a packaged like Leader in Me for example, um, is a great one. Leader in Me does a lot of their own research uh, and and pulls from other organizations as well. So, there's not necessarily a single source. Um, but typically it's it's institutions that exist kind of in

108the private or non-profit sector that are are pumping out a lot of this for us to use. Um, And our counselors who are also a wealth of knowledge when it comes to things like social, emotional, behavioral um, interventions and support. Thanks. All right, any other questions for Ronnie? I just had a question on the multilingual learners teachers. Um, are they also available to support or coach the teachers at the ECC? I know I think there was a pretty large influx of of kids whose English um, is English is new to them. And so I didn't know if they were available for that as well. >> Right. Yeah, so so they're not formally assigned to push in or pull out as resource teachers at the Early Childhood Center. I will say both of them are always

109able and willing to support as needed and I know there have been times they've been called upon just to a lot of our families at the elementary level there are younger siblings at at BECC, and so just that touch point with the families has been really helpful. Um generally speaking, the instructional practice at the early childhood level has so many universal best practices for learning language because they're our youngest learners that you even if they're born into native English-speaking families, they don't necessarily come in with a lot of language ability, and so a lot of times the the practices that our early childhood teachers are so well versed in are the same practices that would be recommended for for learners who are learning English as their second or third or fourth language. So, in fact,

110a lot of I was just meeting with our ML teachers last week, and they were saying they'd been kind of tracking some of our early childhood students who had come in this year, and that their language assessment scores are so high that they may not need any support when they get to kindergarten because they just picked up language so quickly at the early childhood center. That's awesome. Thanks, Ronnie. Mhm. Yeah. All right, any other questions? All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? I. All right, great. Thank you. That passes. Thanks, Ronnie. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, that wraps up the superintendent's report, and now we're moving into the Board of Education with our first one is the MSBA policy KK A civility. Amy, did you want to give us

111a Yeah, just as we discussed last in our policy meeting a couple weeks ago, I took feedback from everyone and kind of made some tweaks and refinement, and then did have it go through um our attorneys, and they made a couple other minor just tweaks in language, and um I've had it in the weekend update for the last couple weeks, so it it uh hopefully is encompasses all of the feedback that we've had. So, we just ask that you approve that today and we can get it officially on the books. Okay. I really love the wording of this one. Okay. Can we get a motion to approve? I make a motion we approve the MSBA policy KKA on civility. Second. Discussion. Okay. I would >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I had to jump in there. I

112am very glad to hear [laughter] that. A big shout out. Claire did some research for us and shared a couple extra ones with me. So, I just I pulled pieces I liked and based on feedback that she had shared as well as the conversation we had at the policy meeting. So, glad that it it was captured well and I think this will be a great thing to just really state as a district what we believe is important and how we treat one another. Yeah, I like it's so succinct, which I think is one of its best qualities and I would love that it's like shared in handbooks and with parents and however we can get it out there to the rest of our community in multiple ways. I think it's really great. Absolutely. Yeah, I

113I agree and I had a chance to at least talk to Mark Sizer as well and he's very supportive of it and really appreciates everybody's time that went into getting this pulled together so quickly. So, thank you. Any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? I. All right, that passes. Thank you so much. All right, that moves on to the MSBA delegate report. Lindsay, did you have anything? Yeah, there's I I we are going to be getting a summary it looks like from MSBA this Friday, their legislative summary and I'm sure Amy and maybe well Amy, I'm hoping you're able to give us another summary at our retreat in June on things that will affect us. Um but I think this Friday's wrap-up will be really important. Um I believe Matt

114is able or Mark [clears throat] is going to the summer symposium for MSVMA. Yeah, and um I'm going to be joining him as well. There's also a a new president's training session on Tuesday, which I thought would be pretty good for me to attend >> [laughter] >> I'm still learning. Oh, that's awesome. Um yeah, so I would say at our board retreat it would be great to hear um from both of you on how that goes. So. Yeah, the good news is just just as a teaser, uh not a whole lot got passed. So, >> [laughter] >> it's a it's actually um it should be a short update, which is a great thing. Um but we will talk about some of the things that that may continue to come up in the future to keep

115an eye on, but it it it's a pretty good report for public education. I mean, it's a good report for Brentwood. There's there's a lack of funding, um but that's kind of statewide and we'll talk about that a little bit more, but it is on the agenda for our uh board retreat. Great. All right. Thank you, Lindsay. Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Um SSD Governing Council report, Katie. Okay, so bear with me for a few minutes. I'm not going to make you guys sit through the entire presentation from last night. >> [laughter] >> Uh but we did have our SSD Governing Council budget and Board of Education budget um retreat last night. So, I just wanted to go over some things. Um I think I've shared in the past I've had a lot of concerns

116about the budget figures, which I don't think it's surprising to anyone. So, um basically right now what they're looking at ending up the year fiscal year uh 2026 out of a $56 million deficit >> [clears throat] >> and a 33% fund balance. Um and then the budget that they prepared and showed to us last night, they're showing an 82.5 million dollar deficit for fiscal year ending with a fund balance a little over 20%. They are talking about doing tax anticipation notes [music] this fall because the funds that they have will not get them to collection time for local taxes. Um they've had so the headwinds that they're facing is they've had some increased student needs including students that require one-to-one nursing support. So that has increased expenses. They also are dealing with a lot of

117things with the state advocacy um uh target that we don't have to deal with in Brentwood that is causing them we spent a lot of time looking at what they thought they were going to get versus what they are getting versus what they're hoping that they're going to get while trying to be realistic. Um And so obviously when I heard the tax anticipation note um that's just not good. Um and so >> [clears throat] >> based on um Ryan and I submitted a lot of questions um prior to this meeting. I felt that my the answers that I received were not satisfactory to continue to support the budget as it is. So my feeling right now is that we probably need to ask more questions and we were supposed to get the budget document today

118and we did not. So now we're supposed to get it tomorrow and then we vote on June 1st. So I'm trying to get all the work on it done this week. So basically I'm asking if anybody has any additional questions or feedback um to give me on that, please do, but they are in quite a serious situation um and it is looking not great. Um so, I will be submitting more questions. So, just to piggyback on that, they they did present their I think pretty much the same presentation that they gave to the Governing Council to the superintendents last week. Um things that we have been very blessed in Brentwood to not like the state adequacy target was underfunded because the minute of the gambling money did not come in that they expected. Um so,

119public education was underfunded this year by about 100 and don't quote me on these numbers, like 130 million dollars, and it will continue to be underfunded next year for those that are on the formula. We are not on the formula as Matt alluded to, so as a hold harmless district, it doesn't impact us, but it really impacts SSD when they are already in hardships, so it just made it worse. Um and then also the senior tax freeze um you know, they encompass the entire county, so where we were able to not get such a big hit, they they did take uh you know, in an anticipation of other >> [snorts] >> taxes that they had expected, you know, kind of as they were doing their projections, um they took a several million dollar hit on

120that where we took like 43 million. So, none of those were the sole problem. The problem started years ago, but they didn't help an already challenging problem. Um and they you know, they were pretty honest. They're looking at things like recruitment, but they they point-blank said that they're going to have to look at a tax increase. Um and they had not said that this time last year. So, um they had said that they wanted to do to try to do more. I think when you have a combination of things out of their control, such as funding not coming in or or laws that are impacting their funding. When you have that which is out of your control, even the things that are in your control, um it's just too big of a deficit. And so,

121uh you know, to Katie's point, you know, questions that you may have, um you know, we we talked a lot about like what other decisions that they could be making, um I I that an $80 million budget is not just you know, rerouting bus routes. Like that's a that's a huge deficit. That's not just, you know, not filling vacancies or attrition or even freezing salaries. There's There's just going to be a lot of really, really, really hard decisions that they're going to have to make or go or hope that they will pass a tax increase. Yeah, and I would I would just share as well my feeling and this is just my own personal feeling, but is I worry about being able to that them being able to pass a tax levy. I think the

122figure is their salaries went up like $100 million dollars. >> $100 million dollars in the last 3 years. And so, to go back to the taxpayers and say, "Okay, we've increased salaries by $100 million dollars and now we're running out of money." Um I think that's going to be a really hard ask. And so, that's where I I can be proven wrong. If somebody has data saying that they think taxpayers will um or voters St. Louis County voters will vote for that, I'm just extremely skeptical. And there's a lot of concern when you have something like this that would be a tax on the entire county. And what that would do for individual school districts that perhaps maybe need to do an ask in the next year or two. Um And there's there's just a

123lot of like the PR part of it. So, I you know, I know I have said this, you know, to you all many a time. Like I I I think the leadership of SSD is is um they're not the ones that kind of got them into this spot and they're trying to fix it but there's just I just I too have some concerns about their ability to to bounce out of that and I know they're trying to help the governing council kind of understand what their plan is but the numbers are not looking good. No, so just to be clearer um I am planning on probably voting no on this budget um for Brentwood unless anyone has other reasons that they think we should support it. I think that's a reasonable position Katie. Yeah, Katie

124I really appreciate everything that you've been doing with the SSD and and following it along like going through that packet. It was a there was a lot of information in there and I really appreciate your diligence so I'm I'm supportive of what you think is the right thing to do for Brentwood. Thank you. Yeah, I think between Ryan and me I think our district support supplied about a third of the questions of the whole [laughter] governing council so I am trying to be very very engaged. I appreciate that. Yeah, now I wanted yeah echo the same thing Katie you have been on top of this like taking this so seriously as our representative on the SS for SSD I and continuing to do it this year is fantastic because you do have that knowledge going

125into these hard conversations. And I think that's the important thing too like to be engaged and to ask questions and to be supportive but to be realistic too and so I think that's the important part is to know all of the I mean it's just a hard it's a really hard spot for that district and and we want them to know that we support them but also you know, that part of the job is looking at their budgets and their sustainability just like if we had to have those hard conversations here in Brentwood. Um Yeah. It's a difficult space for them to be in right now. Yes. All right, great. Thank you again, Katie. Appreciate it. Um board committee updates. Has anybody had any It's been a very busy month of May. I don't know

126if we've had any committee updates this last month. I feel bad. I did not end up re- rescheduling mine based on life. And I had one of my my students who loves the committee and hasn't missed a meeting asked me about it. And I I apologized to him. I was like, "I'm sorry, buddy. We're I don't think we're going to be able to pull this off before the end of the school year, but I promise we'll have one as we get started." So I love him so much. Yes, he's [laughter] he's a great kid, so I feel bad, but um I think we're okay. Okay. Very good. Anybody else? Other meetings? Okay. Uh nothing on the Brentwood 353 redevelopment plan as well. Still waiting for a meeting to drop on my calendar, so we'll keep

127everybody updated if anything pops up. Moving on to our upcoming events. Uh we have tentatively have a board workshop or a policy meeting on June 2nd. That will be canceled. We do not need to have that. We've not gotten any updated and the ones we have from before are not urgent, so we'll do those in August. And once the lit anything from the legislature comes in, we'll have those in August. So we'll we don't need to have that meeting on June 2nd. Okay. Fantastic. Uh we spoke about the MSBA summer summit on June 14th through the 16th. Um and then we have our business meeting and retreat on June 23rd. Um and that is an all day meeting starts at 8:00 to 4:00. Do we know where we're going to have that? >> Yeah, it'll

128be in the same room as last year at McGrath in the steam room. So we can have some windows and we can go outside and it's got a nice uh place to serve lunch and we will have breakfast and lunch for you. Um looking forward to a good conversation that day. Yep, sounds good. Thank you. And then that leads us all the way into August. We don't have anything in July. That's typically a month that we take off as a a board and everybody needs some time away. Um so we'll reconvene then. Potentially our policy meeting August 4th and then our business meeting on the 18th of August. So Ooh, ooh, actually while we're on here, I just saw Andrew's face pop up on my screen. >> Oh. We may need to ask for a

129quick closed session zoom that first week of June just to get some last hires, that kindergarten teacher at McGrath and the high school history teacher. So um I will shoot out uh some possible dates once we know firmly when we'll be ready. I don't want to get it scheduled if um we don't know, but I'll I'll shoot out some tentative dates and it doesn't need to be in the evening. It can be a whatever works for everybody's schedule. So we'll send out some possible date and time and it won't be you know, about a 15-minute, hopefully 20-minute closed. Be real quick one. Five minutes. Yeah, it was like five minutes. Which yeah, I mean hopefully it will be easy no-brainers, but um we we hope to have that done sometime next week. So if we

130could uh if we do the first week of June, that'll give us a little bit of breathing [snorts] room to get everything done. That's great. All right, that's all we've got for tonight. Uh can I get a motion to adjourn? I will make a motion to adjourn. Second. Discussion? All right. Nope. Roll call. Mark Cicerol. Katie Clark. Here. Ryan Flynn. Yep, here. Yes. Clare O'Brien. Here. Michelle Ross. Here. Katie Spall. Here. Lindsay Spencer. Yes. Um I do want to just thank everyone before we jump off. Thank you for for being flexible with me tonight and and doing this virtually. I I greatly appreciate it. I vastly underestimated my ability to walk and um so I would not have it would not have been pretty if you saw me in person. So thank you, thank you,

131thank you uh for working with me. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a speedy recovery and you're walking around in no time. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. All right. Well, have a wonderful last week of the school year, everyone. Hope all your kids, everybody uh enjoys themselves and we will see you soon.