001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Ah, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] The board must adopt Okay, I had it on. The board must adopt a roll call vote, an agenda that includes the time, date, place, and tentative agenda for the meeting. A copy of the notice
002for this meeting was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025 at the administration center located at 8855 Dun Road, Hazlewood, Missouri, as well as on the district website and emailed to the Ferguson Library and and all the admin all the municipalities on Thursday, I'm sorry, the administration center at 8855 Dun Road, Hazlewood, Missouri online and sent to local newspapers and all the municipalities and schools in the district. May I have a motion to adopt the the agenda as posted? >> So move. >> Second. >> Call for the vote. Uh Dr. Martin, >> yes. >> Miss Manser, >> yes. >> Uh Mr. Tyson, >> yes. >> Dr. Graves. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey. Yes. Dr. Thurman. >> Yes. >> Tonight, um, community, we are going to be having our tax rate hearing, and it's going to be
003presented by Mr. Tony Chance. So, at this time, we'll have him him come up and present. >> Go. All right. Good evening, Board of Education. Dr. for fields administration and community members. Tonight we're conducting the 2025 tax rate hearing for rates that will generate revenues for the district for the 202526 fiscal year. The district is required by law to set the tax rate each year by October 1st. Missouri statutes state that a taxing authority shall hold at least one public hearing on the proposed rates of taxes at which citizens shall be heard prior to their approval. The taxing authority shall determine the time and place of such hearing. The district uses the data from St. Louis County to calculate both the operating and the debt service levies. The calculations are submitted to Missouri state auditor's
004office for review. The operating levy is used for our operating budget including the general teachers and capital projects funds. The debt service levy is the tax rate that generates revenue to pay the principal and interest on our general obligation bonds. Per section 67.110.2 two of the Missouri state statutes. A notice stating the hour, date, and place of the hearing shall be published in at least one newspaper of such notice shall be posted at in at least three public places within the political subdivision. Such notice shall be published or posted at at least 7 days prior to the date of the hearing. The notice shall include the assessed value by category of real, personal, and other tangible property in the political subdivision for the fiscal year in which the tax levy taxes to be levied. For
005this year, the district emailed the notice of public hearing to the cities noted on this list, the Ferguson Library, all school locations within the Ferguson Florison School District, as well as posting on the district's website on September 10th, 2025. An updated notice was posted on September 17th and 19th as well after the uh board of ed equalization numbers were received. The required information that should be presented in the tax rate hearing are the assessed values for current and previous years in such on each of the four categories, revenues that would be generated by the proposed tax rate, proposed tax rates by fund and how much revenue is generated due to the new construction and reass reassessment. The process of levy of a tax rate involves these steps including submitting information to the state auditor's office
006as well as to the St. Louis County Clerk's office by October 1st. The new rate will be applied on the tax bills that are sent out in the coming months. St. Louis County typically makes all tax rate and tax billings data available on the county website during the first week of October. Tax bills are mailed out in November. Collections begin as early as October. Many taxpayers begin to pay online payments at the end of October. Any collections received by the county after December 31st are considered delinquent. The Hancock amendment protects taxpayers so that if there is a considerable increase in real estate and personal property values, then the district cannot increase the tax rate more than the consumer price index or 5% whichever is the lesser of the two. The CPI for this year was
0072.9%. Conversely, if assessed values decrease, districts may raise the tax rate to the maximum authorized rate ceiling. The maximum levy for Ferguson Florisonent School District is $5.24 across all property categories. Taxi incremental financing or TIFF is a mechanism for capturing the future tax benefits of real estate improvements in order to pay for the present cost of those improvements. TIFFs are generally used to channel funding toward improvements in distressed or underdeveloped areas where development would not otherwise occur. Taxing increment finance is a popular financial development tool generally used to address blight, promote neighborhood stability and inspire district oriented development. The district reduced its uh reduces its assessed value by the tiff values reported by St. Louis County. For the current year, tiff totals equal 57,211,000. So the district sets different tax rates for various classifications of
008property. The blended rate is used for budgeting purposes. In comparing assessments from the prior year, residential real estate incre Sorry. Oops. Yeah. Uh, in comparing assessments for the prior year, residential real estate increased 14.8%. Agricultural real estate increased 27.8%. Commercial real estate increased 12.2%. And personal property decreased 2.8%. The overall change in total assessed value was on average 9.2% higher. This graph shows the historical assessed values over the last 10 years. This chart shows the total tax revenue by assessed category based on the proposed tax rates for 2025 as compared to 2024. These increases are due mainly to an increase in assessed values and recruitment. The change in revenue to the operating fund is an increase of almost $3 million compared to the prior year. Of the 3 million of new revenue, $323,000 of that
009was generated from new construction. The majority is related to reassessment which is reported on the state auditor's tax rate calculation as the additional reassessment revenue permitted. Okay, these are the proposed rates for the tax year 2025. The chart shows the prior year tax rate and current year computed tax rates by category as well as by fund. The changes in rates from the prior year are also reflected. If you look at the right hand column up here, you can see the effect that the Hancock amendment had. As uh assessed values go up, the uh the rates, the tax rate levies have a tendency to go down. Okay, this is the pro proposed debt service tax rate for fiscal year 202526. It shows the authorized debt service rate the district can levy and the voluntary reduction the
010district will apply. The reason a taxing authority will voluntarily reduce its debt service tax levy is to obtain only the amount necessary for it to cover its bond obligations. Of note, the 2670 rate debt service levy is the lowest of all North County comparative schools. This slide shows the estimated current year revenues as calculated by the proposed tax rates by fund. As you can see, an estimated tax revenue is less than budgeted by about $2.5 million. This is the amount of the current tax projected for fiscal year 2025 when applying uh a rate or I'm sorry a collection rate of just under 86%. As compared to the history we've had over the last couple of years. So what is the impact on a homeowner? Each category of property has different percentage applied to its market
011value in order to determine its assessed value. You can see the applicable percentages here. Proposed taxes are paid per $100 of assessed value. This calculation helps convey the effect of the proposed tax rates on a homeowner. using the home value of $120,000. This estimate shows that the potential impact on the homeowner and how much they would pay in taxes to the school district. In this example of a home with a market value of $120,000, the residential percentage is 19%. And that is applied uh to determine its assessed value. That amount is then divided by 100 to get an amount per $100 of assessed value. Then the proposed tax rates are multiplied to determine the amount of taxes paid by the homeowner. For this scenario, the total taxes owed would be $1,324. So in summary, 2025
012is a reassessment year. Assessed values grew on average by 9.22%. Additional revenue for fiscal year 25 comes from reassessment, new construction, and recruitment. The administration recommends the Ferg Ferguson Florison School District tax levy be approved as follows. The operations fund at the blended rate of 4.2595. the debt service fund of.2670 for a total tax rate of 4.5265. >> May I have a motion to accept um the recommendation? >> So move. >> Second. >> Discussion. Are there any comments from the audience? I think I could speak for the team. Um, just Mr. Chance, thank you. It's been a pleasure working with you. I know this is a lot of the work that not only yourself but the finance department um speaking with state auditor's office looking at comparison um districts. So, we really appreciate um the
013work you're doing as you understand the severity of the financial status of the district and you take it extremely serious and so thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Are there any questions from the board? >> Hearing none, would you call for the vote, please? >> Yes, ma'am. Um Mr. Tyson, Dr. Graves, >> yes. >> Miss Dr. Martin. >> Yes, >> Miss Maseray. >> Yes, >> Mr. Bailey. Yes, Dr. Thurman. >> Yes. >> Thank you so much. We really appreciate your hard work. And at this time, we're going to adjourn to a special meeting. Under provisions of the public meetings law of the state of Missouri, the board must adopt by roll call vote an agenda that includes the time, date, place, and tentative agenda for the meeting. A copy of the notice and
014agenda for the meeting was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2025 in the administration center located located at 8855 Dunn Road in Hazlewood, Missouri. Also online and sent to local newspapers. May I have a motion to adopt the agenda as posted? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> uh consent agenda. >> May I have a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented? >> Some move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Good point. Okay, let's move on to board professional development and who is going to be I think oh this is we are going to approve the school's board professional development conferences and the recommendation is that the board shall approve the professional development for the conferences uh for professional development for the 2526 school
015year. May I have a motion to >> to accept? Second >> discussion. All in favor? >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Motion carries. Uh, new position at an hour hourly rate for a substitute administrator and Dr. Chambers is up. >> Good evening board community and those watching tonight. Um, I am here to present for board action a recommendation that the administration asks the board of education to approve the position title of substitute administrator to be paid at the rate of $50 per hour to be posted for hire with the intention of developing a pool of substitutes who could be called upon to work as needed for the efficient operations of school buildings. So to um to give some context uh for for the ask of of the administration uh currently we have a number of
016um substitute pool groups. So our teachers we have teacher substitutes that come in and and sub when we have teachers that are out on approved leave um so the efficient instruction can carry on in the classroom. Same with secretary. Do we have an approved rate for secretary substitutes to carry on the efficient operations of an office if we have office professionals that are out on approved leave? Um we do not have an approved rate or a title for an administrator substitute. Um the thinking behind this is that there are times that our administrators much like all other uh positions are in need of uh using approved leave time and we would like to have a board approved rate and a position and a pool of individuals who are interested in stepping in in the absence
017of our administrators to um ensure the safety and effective operations of the school buildings um as needed. So the plan would be that it would be an as needed as recommended by the executive directors uh planned absences. It would work through our HR office to request a substitute. There would be a pool of administrators who have been um put into the pool through a a hiring process. We would look at credentials interview. Those individuals would be in a pool to be called upon when needed. Oh, sorry. In the recommendation, the administration asks the board of education to approve the position title of a substitute administrator to be paid at the rate of $50 per hour to be posted for hire with the intention of developing a pool of substitutes who can be called upon to
018work as needed for the efficient operations of the school buildings. >> May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Um what I didn't hear is just uh where's this coming out of in the budget? >> Yeah. So, so it would be out of the salary um salaries for administrators, which is all certified staff. So, there's one salary um budget item for staff. Um and so much like the uh substitutes for teachers and um the substitute for secretaries comes from that staffing budget that's already allocated. Haven't we in the past when we had sub substitute principles coming in, they were paid differently and it was quite a bit. >> I would have to I would have to look in um to the full research of that in doing preparation
019for this and in looking for a consistent rate so that we had no matter who we are asking to come that there was consistency. Um I I could not find a title for substitute administrator that had been approved. Um so I that's why >> yeah the practice had been that uh some of the principles were paid their rate of their last contract. >> Got it. Understood. >> So this to your point uh Dr. Graves this would be a better for us financially this would be a better plan and it's only as needed. >> As needed. >> Right. Also wanted to thank Dr. Chambers because although we're talking about the monies from a straight process standpoint, however, to your um example, Madame President, if we are not saying we did, but if we arbitrarily picked some
020administrators and not others, and if we had five administrators who retired and we only picked three, that can get into some type of disperate impact. And so with this particular process that Dr. Chambers and her team um is creating everyone would have the opportunity to apply for those um positions for a sub standpoint and then we would have a process in place to alleviate um any type of claim of discrimination or disperate impact. And so again, thank you u Dr. Chambers for your work and your vision on this. >> Absolutely. >> One quick question um kind of Dr. Graves and so I know we'll probably be doing a budget amendment at some point in the near future. Um, I see on here it's going to be coming out of administrator substitute. I know last year
021one of the things we ran out of was substitute pay. So I think it' just be nice if the board when we do a budget amendment between you and Mr. Chance if we could just get a clear what is the total amount you're allocating to this line item so we can kind of get an idea and monitor and say okay this is what we're giving you to play with right now. And then from there, if you need more, then you can come back and because obviously when people go on maternity leave or paternity leave or FMLA leave, we want to make sure schools are still able to operate efficiently. Just because someone needs to access leave does not mean we should not have a principal or administrator operating in their place because we've already are
022fairly lean in some places and just to have one principal or one person be someone else on leave. I think it's important to have administrator subs. I just ask like when we do a budget amendment if we can kind of to Dr. Graves point really kind of get down to that uh since you did identify the budget line item looks like a new line item potentially administrator subs which comes out of the big pot of money. But if we could just kind of delineate between certified, non-certified and administrator substitute pay just so we can get a better tracking of where we're kind of at on budget purposes so we can do a better job planning for the future just because again if we're not tracking it that way then it gets very messy of where
023money's coming from and >> Sure. >> and I know you uh Dr. Fields updated us in his weekly update that there's several staffing positions that we don't have to fill because of enrollments and all that. So, I know there's pots of money that will probably be moved once we do the budget amendment to other places and it just if you're good doing it then. Thank you. >> Perfect. Noted. Thank you. >> Are there any other comments or questions? >> If not, let's call for the vote on this one. >> Yes, ma'am. Miss Manser. >> Yes. Dr. Graves, >> yes. >> Mr. Tyson, >> Dr. Martin, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, yes. >> Dr. Thurman, >> yes. Thank you. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Thank you for your hard work. Uh, we have nothing pulled from
024consent. So, let's move on to policy update with Mr. Charlie Moore. >> Thank you. Good evening, board members, Dr. Fields, and members of our community. Tonight, I'm presenting two items. The first of which is policy JGR1, student discipline. As currently written, the regulation allows acknowledges the student expectation code and clarifies that no code can list every possible offense that may result in disciplinary action. This policy however highlights 26 28 offenses which if committed carry specific consequences. The challenge with the current language is that it narrows the range of disciplinary options available. In practice, this leaves administrators um with a limit to only parent teacher conference, in school suspension, and out of school suspension for many of those 28 items. This restricts the ability to use interventions that may be more effective in addressing student behaviors,
025particularly when considering what is grade level appropriate. So, i.e. for our elementary students. For example, under the category of disrespectful conduct, administration is recommending added options such as lunch detention, after school detention, or loss of privileges for those uh grade level appropriate consequences. These approaches, this approach still holds students accountable, but avoids defaulting to inschool suspension or out of school suspension as currently written. This item is for first read only and I'm standing by for any questions the board may have. >> Are there any questions are because this for information only. >> I just appreciate you taking the work to figure out how to merge the two and have the policy be the driving force instead of other documents. So I appreciate that. Thank you, >> sir. Thank you for the feedback. >> And I
026also appreciate you um Dr. and Martin from the standpoint of having that um conversation and and seeing some of the dynamics that could have been um contradictory to one another and so that feedback was certainly taken and I appreciate um you Mr. Moore for acting on that. >> Okay. Um now it's a final reading for an or an updated >> Yes ma'am. The second recommendation concerns policy P B DDH1 public participation in board meetings. The proposed changes apply exclusively to the public comment section of the policy and provide additional clarity. One notable change is the addition of a provision that states that the total time allocated for in-person public comments shall not exceed 30 minutes. However, the board may wave that provision whenever they feel. At this time, I will refer to board directors Miss
027Mansery and Mr. Bailey for any additional comments. And following their remarks, administration recommends that the board approve the policy as written. >> I have no additional comments. >> Thank you. >> I don't have any additional comments either. >> Thank you. >> Okay. May I have a recommendation to accept this policy as as written? >> Some move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you, Mr. Mo. >> Thank you. >> All opposed. All opposed. Well, everybody said I. So, you know, I'm looking at them and everybody's saying I. So, okay. Is there any new business? Seeing none, may I have a motion to adjourn? >> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Thank you all so much. Thank you to the community and thank you for our administrative staff.
028Maybe you all don't get to see them very much, but we appreciate you and the work that you do. It's the power behind the man. Right. Okay. So, thank thank you so much. We appreciate you. Thank you too, Dr. Fields, for the work that you're doing.