001[music] Hey, [music] hey, hey. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, hey. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music]
002>> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, [music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. Heat. N. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] [music] Hey, Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Good evening everyone. United States nation. >> Thank you. Thank you.
003Thank you. Under the provisions of the public meeting law of the state of Missouri, the board must adopt a roll call vote, an agenda item that includes the time, um the date, place, and tenative agenda for the meeting. A copy of the notice and the agenda for the meeting was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at the administration center on Dun Road, Hazlewood, Missouri, and online and sent to local newspapers. May I have a recommendation to adopt the agenda as posted? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay, let's go. I'm sorry. >> Okay, we're going to go to our MSBA update. This portion of the meeting is allocated to show a short video from the Missouri School Board Association to provide a report of current activities and events that
004may be of interest to our board members and to the community. >> Welcome to the February edition of the Missouri School Boards Association's Board Report. In his 2026 state of the state to the Missouri General Assembly, Governor Kho proposed phasing out and eliminating Missouri's individual income tax. Separate from this income tax push, there is also Senate Bill 3, which requires many counties to place a question on the April 2026 municipal ballot asking whether to implement a property tax cap by county for taxing jurisdictions. For school districts, property taxes are a major piece of local funding. MSBA senior director of advocacy Caitlyn why and MSBA senior director of school finance Linda Quinley hosted a webinar recently to discuss the issues surrounding Senate Bill 3. >> The idea is to offer homeowners relief from property tax bills
005on their primary residents. So each county would be asked to vote on if they want to implement this cap. So it isn't just a cap that's implemented by the legislature. It's a county vote. Um, and so that brings us to when is it going to be voted on, which is a is in April in theory. [laughter] And I I will get to we'll talk more about that. >> I will get to the in theory part in a second, but in theory, it has to be voted on in the April election, which is this coming April, April of 2026, and then an implementation date implementation date in the fall of 2026. So basically they're just the question is going to be shall we allow this property tax credit which means you'll get the full normal bill
006and then you'll get a credit against that bill that will reduce the amount of money that goes to the school reduce the amount of money you pay. So it will serve as a credit versus an overall reduction of the rate that people pay. >> Linda Quinley says that the proposed changes to property taxes would have long-term financial implications. So, we have to always remind our taxing our taxpayers and our property owners in our community how important that local revenue is to us. So, think about trying to keep up with Senate Bill 727 and the new minimum wage bill on compensation to keep up with the rising cost of doing business with less new revenue each year. And that's really um kind of my mantra on all of these tax capping bills. And then long term,
007it's going to really make it difficult to keep that fund balance where it needs to be without you every year having to pinch pennies and make some changes. So potentially this has really long-term future implications that'll be hard on us. >> Setting aside the financial implications, the administrative side of this and asking districts to manage Yes. their day-to-day, their year-to-year financial health is going to be that much more challenging because it's going to become it's going to be less money and it's going to be more unpredictable. >> Absolutely. And that's on top of all the other um layers of, you know, financial unpredictability I think that we're we're seeing districts forced to navigate at present. >> Yeah, we're in the most unpredictable, unreliable revenue time that we've ever been in with mandated rising costs. For
008more information about Senate Bill 3, the financial implications of it, and how school districts can communicate these complicated concepts with their communities, visit the MSBA website, and watch Caitlyn and Linda's full webinar, Senate Bill 3 and beyond. Along with the webinar, you can also download ballot initiative guidelines and the property tax handouts from the webinar. As the legislative session progresses, we will keep you updated on all of the developments that matter to you again this year through our legislative voice newsletter sent to members via email each Friday during the session through critical issue alerts and MSBA's spring advocacy series. The spring advocacy series helps you connect the classroom to the capital and make an impact in shaping education policy. Log on to advocacy lunch and learns for the latest updates in the legislative session and
009plan to attend MSBA's advocacy day and student showcase with your school board to meet your legislators at the capital on March 10th. For more information about all of these events, visit the MSBA website. A new episode of MSBA's podcast, Always Bored, Never Boring, is out now as well. MSBA president Shelley Mantel joined Caitlyn why and MSBA executive director Melissa Randall for a candid discussion on the realities of local school board service. >> You have to understand in the big scheme of things that the responsibility is great. I mean there are seven of us and your administrative team that are setting the future for literally 900,000 students in the state of Missouri. >> Think about that for a minute. Think about the responsibility that a bunch of volunteers have taken on in order to move our
010communities forward. >> The most important school safety gathering ever held in Missouri is coming soon. Join us April 22nd through the 24th for the Missouri School Safety Conference in St. Louis. This statewide conference is hosted by MSBA Center for Education Safety. This event is built specifically for those at the forefront of school safety. Priority pricing has been extended for the entire registration period. So, don't miss out on this important event. And finally, MSBA is also pleased to sponsor school board recognition month in March. It's a great opportunity for school districts and communities to recognize the outstanding work of school board members and the important role local boards of education play as leaders of our public schools. Visit the MSBA website for ideas to celebrate and materials created to help recognize the vital role these public
011officials play in the education of Missou's children. That's it for this month's edition of the MSBA board report. Thanks for allowing us to have some time at your board meeting and we'll see you in March for the next MSBA board report. Okay, before we go into public comments, uh the board uh would like to um acknowledge with deep respect the passing of three valued employees during this school year. We honor their service, dedication, and the lasting impact they made on our students, colleagues, and school community. Our thoughts are with their families, friends, and all of those who were touched by their lives, and we extend our sincerest condolences during this difficult time. Uh we have had four people pass this year. First is Miss Al, Miss Al Jacques. She's a retired teacher and long-term sub
012from Head Start and she worked at Bur Bermuda. And then TJ Kusman who passed away last night, former PE teacher and Jonathan Wash and of Ferguson Middle Ferguson Middle School uh teacher and Gary Andrews who passed away about a week ago who was our security officer. Uh and then Todd Bernard who was a custodian. We also have a board member who lost her brother Ronald Bohana. And so we want to just say uh to everyone that we like I said we send our sincerest condolences. And at this time could we please stand for a moment of silence for each one. Thank you. Um, this is something a little different and the board has decided to to make these acknowledgements. So in the event that someone does and you know in the community um um if
013you know of a teacher or student please let us know and of course bu building principles anyone else who's working in the district let us know so that we do not miss anyone. We don't want to miss anyone and if we do this time we'll get them on the next time. So again, um to our to our families who are going through this, you have our prayers. So it's public comment time. Pursuant to policy B DDH1, public participation at a board meeting, the board allocates a portion of each meeting to allow stakeholders the opportunity to comment on agenda items. The board president will read aloud comments that have been submitted in advance. All written comments will be included in the board materials for for this evening and may be viewed under public comments. The board
014may limit the number of comments read aloud based on length or repetition. The total time allocated for in-person public comments shall not exceed 30 minutes. Before the public comment period begins, in-person participants are asked to complete a comment card, including their name, address, phone number, and email address, and topic to be addressed. Speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to present their remarks. Individuals wishing to address the board are asked to speak from the podium, identify themselves, and in keeping with policy BDDH1 and personnel law, refrain from making any personally identifiable or negative comments about individuals. While the board will not directly respond to speakers during the public comment period, the board president may provide a brief clarifying remarks at the end of the session and correct any misstatement of facts. Following the meeting,
015Dr. Fields will confer with the leadership team of the Ferguson Florison School District and privately assign a staff member to respond to public comments. If a response has not been received within five business days, please contact Dr. Fields directly. So, we're going to start. We had none that were sent in by email. No comments. Um, we're going to start with pays with Scott. John, you need to come up to the podium and just state your name and how you doing everyone. Good evening. Uh here to talk about the uh to pay steps uh transportation. All right. Yeah. Payment. Um, I've been with the transportation department for six years and um I've been uh I started off with uh the very minimal pay. Uh and they say that you supposed to work yourself up uh up
016the chain which I don't uh understand what is the pay steps to like even reach top top salary and so even though like now I'm almost close to top seniority there is areas of co-workers comes in under me making way more than me. And I thought when you go to a job, you're going to go through the chain of command of a pay scale. And so it's like when I ask for a pay scale um uh I just don't see one. But uh then it's like uh they say when people come in to get a job is not up to transportation to give everyone their pay scale. is coming from the high up above. So, I want to know what's my steps into moving up in pay or how long would it take for me
017to make top pay scale or the way I really feel is that it seemed like people can qu uh quit the job, get fired or whatever. you leave, you're making one pay, a lower pay. Then if you ever return back to transportation, you come in making a uh higher pay. So do do the ones that's still there faithfully, do we need to leave and uh reapply to try and make make some money or I'm just lost basically and I just don't know where I'm going with transit transportation or if I'm making this pay today. Is it going to take me 12 years just to make another dollar and someone else come in? [snorts] I'm like, "Wow." [bell] Thank you for your concern and thank you for coming up and and letting us know. Someone will
018definitely be in touch with you and hopefully you'll get your questions answered. Okay. seems to be transportation night. I was told that a group of you wanted to speak. We can have one person come up and speak for the group. Uh because so whoever wants to be the brave person to come up and speak for the group and just remember that we're not to call any names or any I Yeah. Good evening everyone. >> Speaking to the mic too because we want to keep a record of >> Okay, I'm speaking on behalf of >> and I need to know your name. >> I am sorry. >> That's okay. >> My name is Tamika Bet and I am a driver in transportation. >> Thank you. Nice to meet you. >> You as well. >> And who's
019with you? >> This is Go ahead. >> My name is Venita East and I'm a driver in transportation as well. >> Thank you. I'm speaking on behalf of the transportation department. We are taxpayers. We are parents. We are employees of this district. All of leadership has failed us. We are working in a department where we experiencing bullying, favoritism, retaliation, and sexism. Rules and regulations and guidelines are enforced in retaliation on the disliked few. Some of us joined the union to bring light into the department soon after our cries were unheard. We are overworked and underpaid. We are merely surviving in this economy today with only receiving pennies on the dollar for a raise. Bus monitors are working full-time hours and are not offered free insurance. There are only two mechanics that has to get an
020entire fleet of buses ready for inspections next week and they are driving with us. How long do we have to suffer? We work in a predominantly black school district and one department is ran like a plantation. Thank you so much and happy Black History Month. >> Thank you. We appreciate the board appreciates you coming in and stating your concerns and someone will be in touch with you. Um Dr. Doc Dr. Fields will make sure of that. Um [cough] and I do want to say this to you, the board on behalf of the board, we do respect the job that you do. That's a very difficult job and the safety of our kids is in your hands. And so I I do want you to walk away hearing from me and from the board as a
021whole. I'm speaking for them without even saying anything to them. We appreciate you. We really do. And and we want to do you do right by you. So um thank you all of you for transportation. Who's from transportation? Just stand up. >> [applause] >> Thank you for bringing this to our attention and thank you for coming and and expressing your concern. And before we even move on, uh I was going to acknowledge also Black History Month. Um, just want to uh make sure that um everyone knows and I'm pretty sure you do, this is Black History Month and there are quite a few activities that are going on in the schools and um we will continue to celebrate Black History Month and I'll leave that alone. Okay, at this time I'd like to introduce our
022student rep. We are so proud of Priana Bevon um for being here and this is kind of like your really first real meeting. So, and also introduce yourself and then make sure you introduce your mom. Hello everyone. My name is Priya Beanu and I am a junior at Mccclura High School and that over there is my mother Crystal Beanu. My transportation. I want to thank everybody for coming to this meeting and be able to make comments so all of me and the board ourselves can be able to do something about this because a lot of stuff gets swept under the rug and it doesn't need to be. I am here today to talk about the students their voices their opinions issues and everything and above a issue that I would like to state is building
023maintenance. So, when it comes to building maintenance, we definitely have a problem. Not just my school, but all over. A lot of schools have problems with bathrooms. At my school, for example, students can't students get suspended all for trying to go to the bathroom. Teachers, administrators won't let them explain. They'll just think they're skipping. But all of our bathrooms are shut down. The toilets don't work. We don't have privacy in the bathrooms, like stalls, for example. And we sorry we also do not have okay the boys bathroom sometimes might not even be maintained at all. So I'm hoping that we can definitely try to get this issue solved because we all as students staff everyone we live we basically live in this school. We start with this school and we'll end with it. So, I
024want everyone to be comfortable, staff, students. I want everyone to feel like school is another home. My next subject that I would like to bring up is feminine products in the girls bathroom around any school, not just Mccclure. I've went to many other schools like Mccclure North Bathroom. I went to steam bathroom and a bunch of other schools and one thing that they're missing is feminine products. There's nothing filled within the feminine products. We can't pay like with quarters like we used to be able to. We It's not even stocked anymore. And a lot of girls sometimes have to go around asking other girls. Some other girls might not have it or the walking to the nurse can also be a tedious job as well. So, I'm hoping that we can definitely bring that back
025into schools to help majority of our girls be able to get themselves get everything that they need in the bathroom be in the bathroom. My next topic is school policy on safety and security. I hope that we can revise through the policy about security and safety and security because a lot of students they'll fight at school to put other students in danger. They'll put themselves in danger and no one wants to be in that environment where they have to fear that one of their peers might hurt them or might do something to them outside of school. So an example that I would like to provide for this is let's say a student fights they get suspended 5 10 days they come right back no immediation no warning no deep talks no talking with the parents
026no talking with the student nothing they just come back and having another possibility to hurt somebody else or themselves and we just keep suspending these students keep suspending these students and they keep coming back and fighting. So, I'm hoping that we have other we have other rules to set down like maybe if students that bring in drugs such as weed pins or any other drugs is like that. I'm new to this. >> I don't have to hold it. Oh, okay. Sorry. Okay. >> I thought she was more comfortable holding it. >> You guys didn't tell me this. It's my first day. >> Okay. So, for example, I feel like we should set a rule or some type of policy that if students fight or get caught with drugs for excessively amount of time, like maybe
027one the time the first time they get suspended, they come back, they should have a a mediation with their principal, perhaps superintendent and their parents, hopefully be able to talk this through and see what's really wrong because a lot of this plays with students mental health as well. And that also can get pushed underneath the rug and they can seem like, oh, that's just a kid with behavior issues or that's just a kid that wants to hurt anybody or themselves, which is not true at all. So, I feel like we should bring back some limits, which is if a student fights, they have a mediation when they come back and if they decide to do like if they decide to fight again or if they decide to bring any type of drugs to school, I
028feel like they should get expelled from that school and go to Mark Twain or be placed somewhere else and be able to come back as um I wouldn't say a better person, but to be able to improve themselves and be able to help themsel and the people around them because we all deserve a chance at life and being able to relive another moment and not just be seen as one of those moments. We we all have our we all have our times. So I believe that us as students and teachers should work more together on protecting ourselves and everyone around us. My next sorry my next subject and this is my last one. Um everybody at board of education I would like to talk about the Chromebook login. I was hoping that maybe I can
029get an update because it is very is very like hard. It's definitely a hardship for all students because coming to school and then having to open your Chromebook, close your Chromebook and your stuff is not safe, work is not safe. you have to and we don't really have as much minutes in class like we used to since we have seven classes. So be able to come back our Chromebook our work is gone our assignments is not there and then we have to relog all the way back in it's very it's very it gets very annoying and it kind of can play in a role with our class time as well. So, I'm hoping maybe if we could just get some type of update from tech to see what solutions they have to maybe help help
030us students. And last but not least, I have notes. I go around and I went to different schools and I talked to their student council and I talked to their advisors as well. I went to Ferguson Middle School and I will not say names but at this school a student stated at my school the bathroom are really bad and the girls bathroom one of the stalls are out of order for one year and never fixed it. Another is a student de uh touched topic about the safety and security policy like I did and they stated some hardships about Ferguson Middle School is the safety and how students can't control their emotions and be ready to get out of control or quote unquote crash out as they would say. And I get that. I feel like
031when it comes to our safety, our education, anything, I want all of us as students and staff to be able to work together and be able to communicate because communication is definitely the big key to change. And I definitely want that for our next meeting and the one after and us to keep improving as a whole. I want to bring the district, all the schools, the whole district. I want to unify us all together and be one and just to help each other out when we all need to lend a hand. All righty. This concludes my little comments. >> Oh my gosh. [applause] Thank you. Do you understand why she is this the rep? >> She did an excellent job. Thank you so much. and someone will be talking to you uh through Dr. Fields
032who will answer some of your questions. Uh we do have policies in place about you know behavior and u misbehavior. So we'll talk to you a little bit more about that so you can get an understanding about about how that works in in the district. Um is there anything that the board would like to to say to Priana or >> We enjoyed you. Thank you. Great job. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. I did see a mic come on. >> I would just say thank you because you have taken the time out to go visit the schools to talk to other students. You know, we appreciate you bringing that information to us and you will be heard and things will happen. Okay. Okay. Great. Great job. Great job. I'm just so proud of her. Okay.
033So, FFNA, is it your turn? All right. Good evening. Tomorrow is February the 12th and the FFNA will begin professional negotiations with the Ferguson Florison Administrative Team. This year, negotiations will focus solely on salary under our collective bargaining agreement. While that focus is important, it must be acknowledged that many unresolved issues continue to impact our district. These include the constant changes in administration at both the building and district levels, the absence of consistent systems within departments, limited professional development opportunities for educational support professionals, inadequate maintenance of school buildings, disruptive student behaviors, and salaries that have not kept pace with the rising cost of living. To put this into perspective, in 2015 the starting salary for certified staff was $38,63. Today it is $43,000, an increase of $4,937 over nearly a decade. For technology specialists, the
034starting salary increased from $32,425 in 2015 to $34,764 today. a difference of just $2,339. And you have also heard from the members of transportation in regarding their salaries as well. These modest increases fail to reflect inflation, increased responsibilities, or the realities of today's workforce. As a result, morale across the district has declined and Ferguson Florison has become less competitive in attracting and retaining qualified educators and educational support personnel. Without consistent and meaningful support from the board of education and the superintendent, employee morale continues to suffer. When employees do not feel valued, our students ultimately pay the price because highly qualified staff seek opportunities in other districts or they are approached from members from other districts themselves. The FFNA looks forward to engaging in good faith negotiations that result in salaries and proposals addressing these concerns.
035We remain committed to pursuing fair fair, excuse me, meaningful solutions that support our staff and help move the Ferguson Flores and School District forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. At this time, we will have the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Madam President. Good evening, community colleagues as well as Miss Beavenu. I'm going to turn it over first to An Holleman for the Ferguson Florison celebrations and recognitions. Good evening board, Superintendent Dr. Fields and members of our community. Thank you for giving us a few moments to share some of the district's celebrations and recognitions. First, we would like to congratulate Mr. Jamal Bailey on successfully completing all requirements for advanced board member certification through the Missouri School Boards Association. This achievement recognizes the completion of additional professional development hours and ongoing training reflecting his strong commitment
036to the community and to his board leadership. So congratulations to Mr. Bailey. Next, we would like to highlight and recognize our partnership with the Little Bit Foundation. Ferguson Florison School District is grateful for our continued partnership with the Little Bit Foundation. Through support from Boeing and Little Bit, more than 200 students participated in the Verse Dual Transferable Skills Seminar, which is life after graduation. Their part partnership also provides lunch and learn opportunities for high school students. the what's next fair at St. Louis Community College, on-site fu food distribution events, and ongoing support for our district career fairs. And so, we just wanted to take some time to thank our community partner with the Little Bit Foundation. Next, we want to recognize and congratulate the Mccclure North girls swim team on a strong performance at the
037conference championship meet competing against Hazlewood West, Hazlewood East, Hazwood Central, Mccclure Steam High, University City High School, and Rittner High School. The team earned an impressive fourth place finish with a total of 88 points, edging Hazwood Hazlewood Central by just one point. Several swimmers also brought home medals, closing out the season with outstanding performances. So, we want to congratulate the Mccclure North girls swim team. Congratulations to Lisa Thomas, special education coordinator, on being named a Starfish Award recipient through the special education foundation. This honor recognizes individuals who make a meaningful difference through support and service to students and families. Her work reflects the positive impact she has across both Ferguson Florescent and Special School District of St. Louis County. Congratulations to Lisa Thomas. And last, but certainly not least, congratulations to our very own Priana
038Bevanu, who has been selected as the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce Student of the Month for February. This recognition, which is sponsored by St. Louis Community College in Florescent Valley, honors her achievements and hard work both in and out of the classroom. Priana will be celebrated at the Chamers's membership lunchon on February 18th. Congratulations again to Miss Priana. Thank you. This concludes our celebrations and recognitions of the great things happening in our district. Good evening, community, colleagues, um students, parents, etc. Today, I'm going to continue with the third floor forward update um as I have the last few months. For those that are just joining us for the first time, third floor forward is a commitment to immediate strategic steps that I will lead to help our district overcome current as well as existing
039challenges while simultaneously making sure that all learners graduate being able to um do anything that is possible as well as prepared to realize those possibilities. The three primary goal areas for third floor forward, one create a new future together. two, expand community partnerships with intentionality and three, maximize every resource for student learning. As we are started with the first area, create a new future together. A few areas that I would like to highlight, I want to establish the two-way communication that empowers all voices to contribute to our level of improvement. And this is continuous with the subsequent point which is to use advisory feedback to guide immediate long-term vision strategic process. And so I had an opportunity to meet with our staff as well as community through advisory groups um last month and we'll continue
040to do so this month as well. Uh we will continue to meet with our student, staff, and community, and that will continue on the 26th, I believe, um to go over options as well as feedback for the preliminary budget, which the community will hear momentarily. We will also begin to operationalize our strategic um strategy for Prop S. And we will continue all of these efforts hopefully together as a community. One of the areas that I want to highlight today, I was over at um Cross Keys Middle School and there was a lot of feedback with regards to things that are going well, things that we would like to get better with, but also what are some areas that um have not previously been in the budget that we would like to see. When you combine
041that with last week, I was over at Mccclure and having continuous conversations, summer school did continue to bubble as an immediate piece as well as maintenance um for our buildings as as well as the conditions. And so we would love for everyone to join us at the next advisory meeting which will happen here. Um and again we are looking forward to expanded partnerships. Speaking of uh expanded partnerships for third floor area 2. Um the area that I want to highlight today is to engage with partners in addressing our involving community as well as student needs. Um, I'm excited um to announce that BJC Healthcare has uh provided us with a grant in the amount of approximately $192,000 for enhancing student wellness and athletic safety. If we have any athletic directors andor u Mr. John Compass,
042can you please stand at this time? I do want to thank Mr. Compass for his role as we are working um to do a few things. Number one, we are This grant will allow us to fund three full-time athletic trainers, ensuring one dedicated professional is stationed at each of the district's high schools. We will be able to utilize this grant to transition from a third-party event coverage model to internal district staff as required by the grant stipulations. And we will also be in a situation where approximately $64,000 per school will be released as each trainer is hired. So, can you all help thank um help me thank u Mr. Thomas and his work for making this happen? And last but certainly not least, as we look at goal area number three, which is to maximize
043every resource for learning, um I will highlight a few areas today, but it's all within the context of Prop S, as well as looking at enrollment, projected enrollment moving forward. Um you all are going to be hearing a lot about Prop S. We are super excited. This may be the first time we're seeing the actual logo. I want to thank those folks that have been on the advisory committees, the student feedback, um the communications office, and all of the work that they are doing because many of the challenges that we currently face, it does come down to budgetary budgetary components. And so, this will put us in a situation where we believe all of our challenges are certainly in a space where we can overcome them, but we are going to need some community support.
044and you'll be hearing more about that soon. Lastly, before I yield over to Madame President for any questions, I do want to go over the enrollment projections related to the Ferguson Florison School District. As you all may or may not know, the district did engage with a demographer. And the reason why a demographer is needed is because we want objective enrollment projections to plan staffing programs as well as budgets with confidence. We would like to have a clear picture of enrollment decline and its drivers including birth rates to guide the right sizing of decisions made in the district. Speaking of decisions, we would like for decisions to support building utilization as well as long range recommendations align with third floor forward goal area three. We would like to have transparent datadriven foundation for community-f facing
045recommendations both in the immediacy as well as the long term. Just a little bit more on the demographic um demographer data um that we had an opportunity that the district will see at least the initial results here tonight. Um the board approved a contract engaging demographer Dr. Charles Coffron um to complete an enrollment projection projection study for the Ferguson Florison School District, including GIS mapping of feeder areas, annual DESIE reporting, geocoding, student and birth records, as well as producing enrollment projections with tables and graphs, maps, etc. on the final report. The final report will provide a cohort-based K12 again K12 projection model built for cohort survival ratios and district defined attendance/feeder geography with results summarized at district and feeder area levels. The purpose of today is to provide a very high-level overview of the total
046K12 again not preK but K12 projections including both resident as well as non-resident enrollment trends. Um in the report um once it is posted for those of us who've never engaged with a demographer there are essentially four different projection series that they look at. Um, three of the projection series which are the high, middle, and low are generated from weighted averages of the cohort survival ratios over the last five school years. The fourth projection, which is called a snapshot series, utilizes only the last two years of enrollments and assumes those recent trends continue over the next five years. It is pretty useful as a recent trend check. The low and the high series are generally used to create the outer bounds around the expected range and then the mid series which you'll be hearing a
047lot about. Again, the mid series is the most commonly used series for planning purposes. Now, what the community as well as the board of education will see is that for K12 enrollment and draft projections, what I tend to do is look at the current school year for the 202526 school year. And again, this is looking at for the second row, it has resident enrollment. And you'll see the 8,191. And then as you look over to the right, so 26 27 27 28 28 29 2930 as well as the 3031 school year, you will see the projections for the district for resident enrollment. As we go down to the third column, you will see the nonresident enrollment and you will see those areas. I do want to make it clear, non-resident is not synonymous with McKenna
048Vento all the time. Sometimes you do have McKenna Vento where a address is being used and it is a residential it is a resident address so that will show up in residential enrollment. However, if there's a McKenna Vento address that is outside of the area or for students that are coming to the district um because parents work in the district that would show up with non residential. And so you will see for 2526 you will see that number again K12 and you will see about half of that is projected for the 30 31 school year. And so with Dr. Koffin's projections we are looking at roughly about 350 student decline between now and the 2030 2031 school year. And you'll see the asterits that are there. And so as we continue to make um decisions
049and and certainly put our students and community in the best situation moving forward, we do have to take into account not only the decline. We've been hearing global birth rates are down and that is true, but how does a decline in global birth rates impact the Ferguson Florison School District? Well, now we do have a level of science as well as a demographer to help show that it will impact the Ferguson Florison School District and the decline of about 350 students between now and the 2030 2031 school year. Next up, um what you can anticipate is that at the next board meeting, I will share projections organized by the current attendance area school boundary/feeder patterns to support school level planning and facility utilization discussion. So just like we have this particular table that is shown
050here um you can expect something similar for each of the current boundaries that we have within our school district and subsequently we will continue to have conversations about next steps andor decisions given the news. So with that I will yield over to madam president to see if there are any questions with the third floor forward update. We'll start on this end if you have any questions. >> No, I don't have any questions at this time. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you so much for your report. >> Thank you. >> It's very eye opening. >> It is. At this time we'll look at our consent agenda. These items listed under under the consent agenda has undergone board subcommittee review. Documentation concerning these items have been provided to all board members and the public in
051advance to assure a thorough review. The consent agenda is voted upon in its entirety. Any board member may ask to have any item on the consent agenda removed and to be voted on separately. At this time, I'd like to ask for recommendation to accept the um the consent agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? We have nothing pulled from consent. And at this time, uh Mr. Chase, if you will come up. Chance. I'm sorry. I said chase chance um for dispersements. >> Sure. [clears throat] Okay. Good evening, Board of Education, Dr. Fields, administration, and community members. Tonight, I will be presenting the dispersements report for the month of December 2025. The mission of the Ferguson Florescent School District is to provide highquality instruction to every
052student in every neighborhood while prioritizing equity and compassionate relationships. The vision of the Fergus Florescent School District is for all learners to graduate believing that anything is possible and prepared to realize those possibilities. So, the monthly dispersements for December 2025, payroll is $8,373,959. Operational dispersements 2,39,876. Total monthly expense is $10,413. Uh $413,835. These are the descriptions of the four funds used in the budgetary process. Revenue totals for the month of December 2025. 54,251,585 which represents a total collected amount of 35% of the budget. So this is graph shows the actual revenue to date compared with budget by fund. Expenditure totals for December 2025. Uh expenditures to date 66,746,515. Available budget 90,597,678 which represents 42.4% of the overall budget. This graph shows the actual expenditures today compared with the budget by fund. And these are the
053descriptions of the six object categories used in the budgetary process. Okay. Salaries for December 2025 36,920,500. The available budget is 52,494,851 which represents 41% of the overall budget used. benefits. It's 11,93,671 here to date with an available budget of $18,681,726 representing 39% of the budget. purchase services. To date, 7,131,8989 has been expended with an available budget of $8,735,522. This represents 45% of the budget. supplies. Year to date, $4,326,02 has been expended with an available budget of $4,430,28 which represents 49% of the budget. Capital outlay to date 1,396,224. Available budget is 3,674,276 with a percent of budget used 28. So long and short-term debt as of December 2025, 5,68,128 has been used. The available budget is $2,581,277 which represents 66% of the budget used. So the January tax dispersement for St. Louis County more than made
054up for any variance from December. Through January, tax dispersements are running ahead of last year by almost 11.7 million. And that's all for dispersements. Any questions? >> So, okay, this is for board action. So, may I have a >> some [snorts] Okay. Um, we get that. Okay. discussion. >> Real quick question. Sorry I did not send in ahead of time. I just noticed. Do you know I know last month we talked about the substitute teacher >> coding wrong. I still see it's coded wrong in here. So I'm just curious when >> that will be updated. >> Which part? >> The 50page report one. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh it still shows the one under the 11 account. Uh where 100 what? I just saw it. Sorry. I don't know. The one says we're like 1,800%
055over and the one says we haven't spent any dollars. It's the same thing as last time. So, just curious when we'll see it updated correctly in the >> Yeah, I'll make sure that that's taken care of right away. >> All right. Thank you. Are there any other questions? >> Um, can you tell us where you are with reconciliations? >> Uh, reconciliations are up to date. Uh we have had uh a our bookkeeper has been out on medical leave, so we've fallen behind just a little bit, but um we have been keeping up. We've also been using a a third party um associated with our auditors to help with that process as well. >> You just quoted a number 11 million above where we were last. Can you speak a little bit more so the community
056understands what that what those >> Sure. So dispersements from the county are not always they don't always come in at the same time as they do in prior years. So first you have dispersements well you have collections that come in which vary from year to year because of the timeliness of payments by the taxpayers. And then you have the dispersements by St. Louis County which don't always come in equal to what they were in the the prior year. So eventually it all ends up working itself out but you'll see some months that are much higher than others, some that are lower. And as you saw the report um you saw that we were not getting full collections uh through the month of December but then we got a large dispersement in the month of January.
057So sometimes uh we are kind of beholden to how St. Louis County actually uh disperses their money from tax collections to >> right there. >> Long shortterm. Sure. >> Yeah. Um it looks like when you're doing your report that we are pretty we're doing pretty good with spending. >> Yes. >> Some 35. >> Through December that's essentially halfway. So if we're under 50% in most of these categories we're doing pretty well. Um with this particular one, long and short ter short-term debt, uh we have certain periods two times a year where we pay on our bonds and our uh capital uh loans. So that's why you see something that's not quite in step with the other uh categories. So those are those are mandatorily in uh let's say I believe it's September and March. >>
058Okay. So, we have we did one for March or I mean we're we have one for March coming up. >> Another >> it will be. Yes. Okay. So, that will um also affect this particular um category about that time. >> All right. Thank you so much. And again uh to the community, we want to just make sure that you understand that we are being as transparent as we can about our financial situation, our where we are. And um I'm really thank thankful to uh you, Mr. Chance, and also to um Dr. Fields for being so on top of this. And so we want to just uh continue to do this and I think we're going to be just fine. So any other questions or comments? If not, um all in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion
059carries. Thank you. Uh Mr. Chance, you are up again. >> All right. Go. All right. So, tonight uh we'll be presenting the preliminary budget for 27 fiscal year. and we've talked about the mission mission and vision of the school district. So, first of all, I'd like to say that this is a preliminary budget. Uh the revenues and expenditures presented represent early estimates for the 2026 27 budget. Dr. Chambers and I have begun building level meetings with principles to assess staffing and budgetary needs. These meetings will be ongoing through the month of February. Work for a final preliminary budget will be ongoing over the next few months. So I would like to draw your attention to the far right column showing the variances between the amended budget and the preliminary budget. So you'll see that [clears
060throat] our local funding uh those increases are due to projected tax revenue and interest revenue an increase. Uh county revenue remains um very flat. State revenue you'll see that there's a modest increase there. Um the federal funding you'll see that represents the back in um back earlier this year there was a final one-time payment regarding SR3 that was a little over $2 million that is represented in the amended budget for this year but since that was onetime funds we will not have that recurring next year. So you'll see that that is the budget difference in our federal funding and other revenues are staying the same. So overall there will be uh potentially a $1.3 million increase over the prior year considering $158 uh million. That's a modest increase overall. As far as um expenditures are
061concerned, um you will see the salaries of roughly 2.9 million. Those are overall projections that increase salaries by roughly 2.78% across the district. Um this is in line with prior years. uh benefits. Those are uh increases that correspond with the salary increases and projected medical premium increases for next year. Purchase services that received a modest increase in several budget categories including property insurance, utilities, and pupil transportation. So the uh general supplies and capital outlay remain relatively the same. Uh in the other category uh you'll remember that um back in I believe it was the November board meeting we had a $4.1 million partial redemption of the series 2020 bonds. um that payment is reflected in this year's budget which will not be included in the 2026 budget. So therefore you see the variance of that
062uh $4 million there. Okay. So, as far as uh some of the categories that represent our local revenue, see a current real estate property taxes of 64.3 million, delinquent real estate property taxes of 2.5 million, Prop C sales tax 14.3 million, Eminem sir tax 12.7 million, and interest and other a few other categories within re uh local revenues is about $3 million. Our county revenues about $1.5 million in total. Our preliminary revenues for state um about $45.3 million. And you can see the categories there. basic formula, transportation, early childhood, um, career ed, food service, public placement, state revenue. For our federal funding, you can see the different uh, federal funding categories that we have there. Uh, in total, it would be about 14.6 million in the preliminary budget. And the other category about $200,000 for
063transportation fees to other districts. On the expenditure side, these are a few of the categories within salaries. you'll see the uh corresponding uh amounts with those particular uh salary categories and all the um the salaries are approximately let's see uh about $92.6 million in all categories. So, benefits um about $31.8 million. Uh this represents PRS, peers, Medicare, Social Security, and uh insurance for purchase services. That's about 16.2 $2 million overall. And there's some of the categories within purchase services. There's approximately 33 line items within the overall uh purchase services category. Those are just they represent some but not all. Those are the major major players within uh purchase services. General supplies about eight 8 6 million. There's a modest increase in um general supplies in the preliminary budget. Capital outlay, which covers buildings, HVAC, fire
064systems, lighting, grounds, equipment of about $5.3 million. And then the preliminary budget for the other category which includes our debt service. So you know long-term loans and bonds. The principal is two $2 million. The interest on those is about $971,000 and then a projected tax anticipation note uh interest that would be about $120,000. So overall the fund balance for the projected budget would end at 11.18% and under unrestricted for the general fund and special revenue or special revenue fund. Uh debt service will be at 184%. The uh capital projects will have no uh ending fund balance. we will spend all that's in capital projects. So the overall fund balance for all uh funds will be around 14%. So I did didn't really touch on before um that the uh the budget will include um a
065potential of $10 million $10 million for a tax anticipation note. We are not at the point yet where we will be able to uh sustain um our expenditures through the end of the year with our ending fund balance as in its current uh state. Um, also in the budget there was um the inclusion of summer school for next year and essentially that I think that about covers it for the preliminary budget. >> Okay. Thank you so much. I have um recommendation to accept the report. >> Is it for action? Sorry, >> it's for says for board action. I think it's just for information though. >> Okay. It should be for information, but it does say for board action. >> Question. >> So, um, are there any questions? >> Thank you. I just had a two
066quick questions. Um, if you want to go to slide two, it just so we're looking at the same slide three. I'm sorry. >> The summary. >> Yep. Okay. >> So, I'm just trying to understand. It looks like a I appreciate getting to uh not deficit spend, but I don't understand if we start at 17.7 million in reserves and we're adding 600,000, how are we having less reserves than the previous year? >> Well, this is what you see here is expenditures for all funds. The the ending fund balance actually only takes into account funds one and funds two. So you have debt service in here, you have capital projects in here. >> So what's then our what is our fund balance for July 1 and June 30th of just the percentages, not just the general operating
067budget then? Because it's just confusing when you see it on here that it looks like it's you're increasing the fund balance by $612,585, but then when you look at the beginning July 1 and June 30th, it decreased, which doesn't show why it' be a decrease unless it's including other things. >> Yes. So debt service is in here. Capital projects is in this as a total for the district. Therefore the the um ending fund balance percentage is calculated just on um the teachers fund and the general fund. >> Got it. So I guess for when we get our actual it would be helpful if the slide only showed the general because it looks like we decrease but actually we're increasing and I don't know where we're increasing. The numbers don't match up then. Sure. >> Um,
068and then the other thing is I know uh our student rep mentioned it today and I know when you do the final budget and I know I think Shield Pal Walker is one that comes to mind when when we look at capital outlay there's a lot of basic projects that our district needs done >> updating bathrooms simple things painting those things. Um I'm just curious when we do get the actual budget that 5.2 million getting some specifics about it. I know we're doing a tax levy potentially later on. A bond issue might have to be passed in order to update more facilities, but certainly I think there's we heard quite a bit from our student rep today of just some basic things that are not happening in our schools in terms of appearance and all
069that. So, I would just be curious when we get the actual budget. Kind of getting more specific on that 5.2 million for the board to understand what we're spending that capital outlay on and how do we upkeep basic painting, making sure bathrooms are open, those basic functions at the minimum. Um, I know 5.2 million doesn't go far when you're talking about a lot of buildings, but certainly, um, I think everyone, including you, probably want basic facilities to look decent, to have bathrooms, updated paint, those at least, >> uh, aesthetic pieces first before we can maybe ask taxpayers for additional money later on. So, just want to get the final budget, some more clarity around what that 5.2 is. Um, I know we would all love on the board a long range plan of what facilities
070looks like and scheduled maintenance and all that, but at a minimum I think of what could are things we could do with that 5.2 to make sure that we're addressing some of the things our student rep heard and we hear from students and community of basic things. Um, because in the past I don't think we've always got the details that we've been looking for and I think it would be helpful as you guys are diving into the budget for us to get that. Certainly. >> So, thank you. >> Okay. >> I just want to kind of piggyback I'm sorry, Madam President. That's okay. I just want to piggyback exactly on what Kevin just said. I mean, before we even go into this next budget season, I think we need a report from the facilities department
071just to really talk about some of those things that have been addressed tonight by the NEA as well as with our student rep. Um, we have to place a priority somewhere on that. Um, my other question, um, you can you go back to the slide where you talked about the vendors and how much, uh, we're paying everything. Mhm. >> Now, I just had a question about um AR Aramark and what all cover what is that all covered under that? >> Oh, Aramark is our food service. >> I mean, I know that part, but I'm saying what what does all cover? Is it the food? Is it the food? Is it staffing? >> What what is all cover services? No, it's the the services for them. So, there are some supplies in there. Um and um
072basically they they uh s provide the food as well. So we're paying uh a fee to them to uh supply pretty much everything except for salaries and benefits for employees. >> Okay. So my question I'm sorry my question has to do with so I know we're part of the uh National School Lunch Program. How much of that reimbursement is given back that's out of this 3.4 million? >> Well, um >> or is that not the same fund or >> Yeah, it's not. Yeah. Um expenditures and and revenue are kind of they're they're kind of separate. They don't really correspond per se, but um they do they do turn um they do have revenues that are u higher than expenditures every year. So they do do well with their um with their program. >> So in
073our food service are we're actually I mean I guess I'm trying to figure out what are we actually spending with our with our mark and then what are we reimbursing back because it just seems like 3.4 4 million is a lot and then we also supposed to get free and reduced lunch and things like that. To me that would it seems like that should be a little bit lower. Yeah. Maybe I'm just missing something. >> Sure. No, there there is revenue that comes in that's in the federal category that should offset this. This >> they essentially are separate. So you'll see an expenditure, but then within the federal funds is the revenue that comes in uh for the food service program as well. >> But the revenue isn't enough. What they give us from the
074federal government isn't enough to cover what we actually spend, right? Is that what you're saying? >> Um no, not necessarily. I I'd have to look at the the actual revenue numbers. >> Okay. to see how it compares to this for you. But >> I think I want to try to restate what I think that Dr. Graves is asking uh because I know you're doing your best and we're doing our best. So I want to try to say it differently. I think what we're wondering about is when we think when we take arrow mark out of it and we just know we have children to feed. There's a certain amount of money that we receive from the federal government to assist with that. >> Correct. So, what we wonder about is what are we spending on
075top of what they're giving us? That's what we're trying to figure out. >> Correct. I I'm going to have to go and look at exactly what the uh reimbursement is for uh federal food. Well, >> do you suspect though that it would be >> I mean, I guess what I I'm wondering is is the situation that the 3.4 4 million that we pay arrow mark. Is that inclusive of any of those funds or is that just money we're paying out? >> It's on one of the slides by the way. How much we get for lunch is 4.5 million from revenue, 2.3 million for breakfast on one of the slides. I guess the question comes down to if we could get also an update maybe Dr. feels at the next meeting of how much do we
076bring in for food service and how much are we spending salaries, supplies, food and administrative costs and I mean administrative costs and I'm hearing people say is airmark. So if we're paying 3.4 from airark is all that just for salaries because I know some of them are our employees. I think that's what we are interested on top of facilities just a quick couple slide nothing long update on that. Any other comments or questions? Okay. >> Yeah, I would like to kind of add to like our federal programs kind of what I know we have a lot of federal programs and I want to kind of understand kind of what federal programs that we are part of and kind of that breakdown that everybody keeps saying and then what are we like spending and what are
077we what are the schools kind of needing kind of assessing that based off the federal programs that we have kind of taking a deeper dive in that as well. >> Okay. to make sure because I'm sure might be missing. >> Dr. Pew Walker can help with th those specifics as well. >> And real quick, Mr. How Dr. Howard, um when we get the report from facilities, could we also include um staff that's carpenters, plumbers, and how much work is being contracted out to how much is actually being done in house? Yeah. Maintenance on their vans and cars and >> anything else. >> Oh, that's right. >> Um, Mr. Chance, I I want to take an opportunity to um thank you and your team. Um, I've spoke to this not only um at this at a
078meeting before in a board meeting for him, but also in a community forum when I said in order for us to get where we need to go for the district, we have to do three things. We have to stop deficit spending, [clears throat] excuse me, we have to balance the budget and we have to ultimately get to a healthy fund balance. Um in June of 2025, um the budget that was adopted was supposed to be in the red of $5.4 million. However, the amended budget that you shared um before spoke to us deficit spending now only $133,000 and so we may in fact be able to get to stopping what would have been three years of deficit spending. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> In this particular rough rough rough rough preliminary budget that we
079have. It appears as if we would have a balanced budget right off the bat. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. And so, um, I I think the board did bring up some some spectacular questions and points that we'll move forward. Um, but also true truly appreciate you balancing the budget because two out of the last three years there was a adopting of a budget that wasn't balanced. And so we still have a lot of work to do, but I really do appreciate just that positive nugget I want to make sure we take from the conversation. >> Certainly. >> Can I do you mind if I say something? I wanted to also say to uh to Mr. Chance and to Dr. Fields, um the information that we are asking for now, these are not new
080requests. These are things that the board has been curious about for probably the last four to five years. And so I didn't want it to come across like, you know, we're just like, we need this, we need this, we need this. Um, we've been curious about the breakdown for some of these things for quite a while. And, um, just, so I just want to make sure you didn't take that as like, you know, so, so I just want to give you that background. This was existing before you guys came and we're just kind of wanting to get more information. >> Sure. Thank you. >> You'll jump on it right away. Needless to say, >> and the board is ecstatic about the fact that we are we have a balanced budget. Um, yes. And of course,
081you know, we'll continue to ask questions so that our community understands where we are with our with our budgets. But thank you so much for the work that that you do and I know that Dr. Fields and you >> and and as well as Dr. chambers and everyone is just really working to make sure that we have a balanced bud budget and we're not deficit spending. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, up next is Mr. Moore and this is a first read on a policy update. >> Hi, Mr. Moore. >> Hello. >> Good evening board, good evening Dr. Fields and good evening community. I'm Charlie Mon, the chief of staff. I'm here with uh my colleague Dr. Chambers who's the chief human resource officer. Um in a moment we will
082be presenting three new policies that relate to the human resources department. But before I get started I just want to say thank you for adopting or yes adopting the three statutory policies during consent from last um board session. Here we have three policies that administration is recommending. The the the four policies that you adopted this time during consent was MSBAled um recommendations. These are administrative recommendations that we believe will help us um attract and retain highly qualified staff. So I'm going to pass this over to Dr. Chambers, our chief human resource officer, just so she could give a little bit more detailed on these three policies. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Um good evening board. Good evening, Dr. Fields community. Thanks for being here. Um Katie Chambers, chief human resource officer. Um so the
083reason we are bringing these to you now is we as you've been hearing um with the meetings that we've been having with principles. Um just really looking at our staffing, looking at our uh allocated resources as as we think about moving into the next year. Um we're really gearing up with our continued seeking of high quality professionals both for our certified and for our support staff positions. Um and so in working with um the human resources team on looking at what some of the barriers have been um with filling these positions within the first half of the years, we did a deep dive as to what what is preventing us from filling these positions rapidly and and moving forward. And so we did identify that um by looking at our processes um that many of
084our processes are outlined specifically to policy. And um so we identified a few areas where we are asking for consideration of um evaluating these policies to make some adjustments so we can remove some barriers um that that seem to be coming. So all of them are are specific in in regard to um hiring. Uh the specific to the processes of hiring individuals um after they go through um following the board processes of interviewing, applying, interviewing, being offered a position. Um so getting to the point of offering a position and then over that um next hurdle of getting to the board report um accepting the offer and getting to the board report. So these come stem from that part of this process. Um so first I'm going to speak to um policy GBE uh staff health
085and safety. What we did identify which is unique um to Ferguson Florison School District um not common amongst um area um school districts across St. Louis County is the requirement of each new employee to complete a physical examination including the um the uh TB test in a very specific way. Um what the barrier that we have found for that for many employee groups is what that requires in order to obtain a physical and a TB test is a uh appointment with the doctor, visit to the doctor's office, paying that visit to the doctor's office when you can get into the doctor and then paying for that TB test if it's not included. for individuals who do not have um comprehensive health insurance coverage, there is a cost factor that is added to um the barrier
086of that. Um and so we our internal team has been doing a lot of conversation around we have these amazing benefits that we offer to our employees. We have a free health clinic right down the street. Our insurance benefits start day one from employee um obtaining a job. the requirements um for all employees to have the TB test is not a Missouri statutory requirement. Um there are certain employee groups so our early childhood food services that it is critical that we ensure that these these requirements are done. However, um as part of our hiring and onboarding process for those required groups, um we are confident that that could be a part where we are offering the service um as as a benefit ad to our new employees um so we can get them working sooner
087and and and working with kids and and filling some of these vacancies. So that's the that's the uh rationale behind uh GBE. The other two are um the the rational is very uh similar. both support staff pay as well as our certified um professional staff compensation. So, uh referring to policies G, GDBAA and GCBA. Um both specifically speaking to our hard to fill positions. Hard to fill being defined as um positions that are remaining vacant uh for extended amount of time. Um us not finding highly qualified candidates. um the these hard to fill positions as we continue to go through an extensive process of bringing um interview teams together. Um recommending going through all of that process and then getting to the end where we then offer a job um offer that may be significantly
088lower than a candidate is already making as they're stepping into. We have now gone all the way back to the beginning of the process um because a candidate cannot accept a position that um that is currently outlined as a required um that we we are limited by that um by the offer that we can give to an individual. So we are talking about very unique circumstances um in which we cannot fill positions and being able to um provide the leverage for um the board to authorize a superintendent to make adjustments as recommended and needed so that we can fill these very hard to fill positions so we can get great um staff support staff and and certified in front of our kids and in front of our youth. >> I just want to add one
089other piece. These are not subjective. This is not how Dr. Chambers feels or how Charlie feels. We put a definition in in the uh policy as to what a hardto-ill position may mean. It is one where more than 10% of the positions were left vacant or were filled with a staff member who was not fully qualified for the prior year. So again, this is not uh subjective. This would be an objective criteria for us to use for a hard to field position. This is just our first read, so we're going to take questions. >> Real quick, two questions. One, uh, can we just get highlighted on the one policy? JCBA. It's only one purple line and it sounds like you added more sections. I just want to make sure. >> Which one, sir? >> JBCA,
090the salary schedule, hard to staff, and hard to staff subject areas. It's It's not clear what got added. It's only one sentence that's in purple and I assume you added more than just one sentence. >> Yes. What I did was highlight it. So the the terminology is >> I don't know how far it goes down. That's new. >> Okay. >> And then the other question is my only other concern you certainly understand. How do we ensure staff who are currently in a hard to staff school as by definition or hard to staff subject area not having someone new to the district make more money than someone else because they there's been years that we haven't steps and things like that. So, how do we either make it equitable or equal? I guess first, if I'm
091a staff member, been in the district 15 years and I've gone two steps without and then I have a new staff member come in and gets all 15 steps because they're now defined harder staff. How do we make that equal for both employees in both those definitions? >> Yeah. So, what you're speaking of is is um salary compression. So when we have individuals coming in um so when we are very um aware that not only is this a recruitment strategy but if we use this as a recruitment strategy absent of a retention strategy our employees that that is not going to be good for morale that's not going to be good for climate and so being being that when these circumstances which again would be unique come to um come forward what would need to
092happen is a comprehensive comprehensive review internally of all um employees that are currently in position. Comprehensive review where the salary scales, how long have they been in the in the district, all of that becomes a part of prior to a decision being made of any salary offer that would be made. So, it's looking at the internal and the external um factors to be able to make a decision around an offer that would hire a highly qualified staff. And I Oh, you want >> Yeah. The only other thing I I want to delineate between the support staff roles um which is different than certified roles. From a support staff standpoint, um Dr. Chambers and her team have done a um great job as as we're looking at particular job categories for support staff that are impacting
093some of the things that we're hearing tonight. um we know what the average pay is for our district as well as what the lowest person being paid is. And so what we will do is make sure that Katie um Dr. Chambers, excuse me, spoke a little bit about salary compression, we will look at that. So that's one piece. What's different but still similar is if we're in a situation for a certified position and let's just say it's chemistry and we don't have chemistry or anything like that and normally we would not authorize anything over let's just say 10 years although many of our competitors have unlimited that may be a situation where we need to move forward with this person grant all of their years and ask the board for um moving this person at
094a year let's just say 16 or 17 for the purposes of putting our students in the best possible position to be successful But one of the things that I didn't hit home and u Miss Bevanu was part of that conversation when we're talking about ensuring that we have high quality staff and even staff in general in all of these positions. One of the things that we're finding from a certified staff standpoint is that you know there may be some folks that are able to come over but if we're looking if you're looking in North County or what have you and you really want to be in third floor but we're butdding up against the 10 years for very hard to fill positions. I want to continue to put the emphasis out there. Then we have
095to at least try to do something to get highquality folks in our spaces. And again, back to the hard to feel the definition is there for a reason. And this would be something that will be used on a limited basis. >> And I appreciate I think for me also one of the things is we don't all of our policies don't come with a financial amount attached to them. This policy would clearly have some financial impact of some kind, right? And so I think as we approve a final one, I guess my two wonderings are what is the financial impact? You would wonder uh because I think it's important the board makes decisions that has financial impact. Certainly want to have that. The other thing was if you could identify hard to staff schools and hard
096to staff subject areas. Thinking about that from this year, let's say you identify secondary math, for example, is extremely hard to fill. How many teachers in the district currently, let's use step 15 for an example, I'm just throwing out some scenario, are not where they were supposed to be in the last 15 years because they lost two steps in 2009 and lost another step in 2020. I don't throwing random numbers. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how many employees we're talking about because I do think we have to figure out a way to address compression as well as that because otherwise you're you're going to kill morale as we kind of heard from the bus drivers today a little bit. And so I'm just curious without having you spend too much time or
097work on it. Just some general how many employees are we really talking about that maybe I don't know the last time we have not given a step um that we would now be giving to someone new that is coming in. I know other districts eliminated steps when they took it. So, I think I got my point across from what you what I'm curious about, but I think the financial impact and how do we kind of identify potentially how many teachers that could be that maybe we have to address or figure out some type of way with as well. >> Just the other Thank you for that. The only other uh piece I want to hit home is um frankly this shows up more with support staff positions. If you recall, there was something that happened
098at the beginning of the year and we were looking at HVAC and um you know um Dan has been doing an absolutely spectacular job at advocating for his folks. However, there was no way whatsoever for us to be able to almost stop the bleeding, so to speak, of losing people. We were just hemorrhaging folks. So, in this particular regard, what we've learned is that we're really focused on that starting pay. And so most of our folks both on an average capacity as well as those who are in the district and I'm talking about support staff most of them are well beyond the starting pay. It's as we move forward with the retention and people leave X person may have been making on average 19 $20 an hour. However, our starting pay is 15. So for
099those four or five positions in this example, how do we move those folks up to not surpass someone who's been here and been doing that level of work, but it may not be as much variance of what was previously there. So >> I just want to make more of a statement. I think that personally this is a I'm speaking for myself. This is a great move to kind of get us to where we need to be at because I mean we are losing qualified staff based on those steps when they come in the district. That's something that we keep on constantly hearing. But to that same degree, and I want to make this clear too, is that it is that compression as well. We have to kind of keep our staff to keep that morale
100high because if you do bring people in and pay them a higher raise. That's the catch 22 about how how things move from the perspective I have is that you want high quality staff, you go after, you get it. It costs to have high quality people, but you have people that's been in these you have people that's been in this fight with us for a long time that you have to lift up as well. Um, so I I just want to just make that clear like I I like the direction that we're moving, but also keeping in mind that the people that been in the fight with us deserve to be uplifted as well. >> And we certainly agree. >> You're not. And just to add um just as a as a as a thought
101even the conversation with a potential new employee um that we are cognizant that we are giving you you know some opportunity for for growth and we are also we can't go beyond a point because we understand I I explain here's where our internal staff is and and we are really building a team. Um so that conversation comes very different um and is received very different than we cannot um this is our step we c we can't go beyond this so it's a very different conversation around recruitment when we're looking at both pieces and candidates know that yeah so thank you for that >> one last question sorry do we know in the last 15 years how many steps we've not given and I don't need the answer today but I'm just curious in the last
10215 years how many steps we have not given a step in a We'll get that information. >> Are there any more questions? >> Well, if there's no questions, I do have a recommendation. I know Kevin has some concerns on two of these policies, but on policy GBE, can we move past first second read and vote on it? Well, can we >> motion? >> Yeah, that's the motion. That was the ask. >> What is your >> Oh, the motion is to wave the second read, right? First >> read >> what he said. Wave the first read and put into effect policy because we're still doing work on the other two. Policy GB >> G DB >> GB D GB That's a GB. >> Oh, GBE. Okay. So, move >> or second discussion hearing. None. All in
103favor? >> Any oppose? >> Priana, how would you have voted on that? And if you have any questions about what it is, you can do that because you know I know this is all new to you. >> May I please have a short breakdown so I may give you a response. >> So let me start with one part and I'll let Dr. Chambers hop in where I missed that. So when somebody's hired and they don't have a job, they already don't have money and we have a lot of steps um before they're get their first paycheck um to even get their first paycheck. So part of that is they have to pay for their fingerprinting and their background checks. They have to pay for this TB test. They have to pay for a doctor's appointment.
104So one of the things that we're trying to do is eliminate some of those barriers. And then for those employees who do have to get this skin test, what we would like to do is to move from this requirement on the front end to you're starting work, you received the paycheck and within this 30 days that we received the paycheck, hey, you must go and get this TB test for those employee groups that are required. So, we're trying our best to eliminate barriers so that we can get some uh highly qualified staff within these vacancies that we do have. If I miss something, Dr. Chambers, please hop in. >> Nail it. Excellent. >> I say yes. >> Thank you. Okay. So, we are are you >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Any other questions? If
105if not, let's move on to new business. And I did have I wanted to ask Mr. Bailey to tell us about his training uh with AI. It's going to be really short because I know we need to or we can do it another time. We can do it at the next board meeting. >> Very very short. Okay. >> Recently I got a certification into from a national schoolboard association in the AI. Uh one of the things that I want to make sure and ensure is that as a board member and as we look for um education in the in the next century AI will be a huge component of helping us make policy decisions and different things like that. So that certification encompasses making decisions based off policy uh usage of AI and also creating
106different platforms and different things to increase AI and productivity in our schools. Um that's the gist of the certification. Thank you so much and thank you for taking the time to do that and for sharing with us you know the um the importance of us accept well using AI and how it's how it's used in in the district or how it can be used in the district. So so thank you. Any other new business? Seeing none we will may I have a motion to adjourn to close? Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> We have to do a roll call for close. >> That's right. I was going to say, but we're >> But we we have to. >> Okay. Roll call. Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Miss Mansery? >> Yes. >>
107Dr. Martin? >> Yes. >> Dr. Graves? >> Yes. >> Secretary Votes? Yes, Madame President. >> yes. Yes, Mr. Tyson, I'm sorry I forgot you. You are important as well.