001[Music] The Ferguson Florison School District located in suburban St. Louis serves more than 10,000 students from preschool through 12th grade with an excellent comprehensive educational program fully accredited by the state of Missouri. The Ferguson Florison School District operates seven pre kindergarten through 2 grade schools, six intermediate schools, two sixth grade centers, three middle schools, including a cutting edge steam middle school, which was ranked the number two school in Missouri this year, two A+ and NCA SI accredited high schools, the Innovation High School, a big picture learning school, and Esteem High School focused on preparing students in fields including science, technology, and engineering. In August, US News and World Report named Steam Academy at Mccclure South Berkeley High School as one of the best high schools in America, placing the school in the top 12% of
002high schools in Missouri and in the top 35% of high schools nationally. As a district leading the charge in high school transformation, there are a lot of pathways to success. All of our high schools are Project Lead the Way schools. We offer many programs and opportunities such as dual enrollment, dual credit, international balorate, AVID, and elevate St. Louis. Our red tail cadet program has also secured private pilots licenses for students before they even graduate. The number of FFSD students enrolled in advanced placement courses has also dramatically increased. The district has intentionally focused on college and career readiness and has increased the 4-year graduation rate to 93%. Besides the secondary school coursework, the district ensured opportunities for each population of students in an effort to support the goal of college readiness. In addition, the district includes
003a nationally recognized early education program, the award-winning Challenger Learning Center space education facility, and the Little Creek Nature Area, a 97 acre nature preserve that offers experiential learning opportunities for students in science, biology, ecology, and related areas of study. Through our partnership with Varsity Tutors, all students and teachers will have access to live tutors on demand. The district has also transformed alternative education with the restoration and wellness center. Recognizing that well-being is vital for academic success, the district prioritizes the health and social emotional well-being of its students and staff. The district has a partnership with Hazel Health that offers comprehensive health care and teleaotherapy services, ensuring that students have access to medical care and mental health support during the school day. Additionally, Ferglo Care Health Clinic provides free health care services to district employees, demonstrating
004the district's commitment to the well-being of its faculty and staff. The board of education has made equity a priority in the Ferguson Florison School District. In 2018, the board adopted an equity resolution. And between 2020 and 2022, the district examined inequities and racism in policies and practices, culminating in the board's adoption of the Ferguson Florison School District's anti-racist standards for social justice and anti-racist schools. From early childhood education to advanced scientific exploration, from personalized learning opportunities to comprehensive healthcare services, the Ferguson Florison School District continues to lead the way in providing an exceptional educational experience that truly is providing equity and access for all. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hello Ferguson Flores. My name is Dr. Howard Eye Fields III and I am truly honored and excited to serve as your next
005superintendent. [Music] When I think about Ferguson Florison, I think about strength. I think about creativity, innovation, and above all, I think about community. This district has a profound history of resilience and a commitment to equity and success and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. I know that we have some challenges ahead, but I want you to know we are more than capable of facing them, and we'll do it together with transparency, trust, and a deep belief and what's possible for our students. Over the coming weeks and months ahead, I'm looking forward to connecting with each of you, our teachers, staff, families, and especially our students. I want to hear your stories, learn more about your experiences, and build on the strengths that are already here in Ferguson, Florison that make this a special
006place. I bring nearly two decades of experience in education and leadership. But for me, this is more than a job. This is home. My first college courses were right here at Florison Valley. I completed my student teaching in the district. and my wife Nancy is not only a proud graduate of Ferguson Florison but also a former teacher here. So when I say I believe in this community, I mean it wholeheartedly. Throughout my journey, one thing has always been clear. When a group of people come together, keep students at the center and lead with purpose, great things happen. We can transform not only our schools but lives and communities. This is more than a new chapter for me. It's the start of our collective journey. Together, we'll build a strong foundation already set in place and
007work hand in hand to continue strengthening and growing our schools. Thank you for welcoming me into the Ferguson Florison family. I'm excited to get started and do great things. with you, of course. All right. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] The Ferguson Florison School District located in suburban St. Louis serves more than 10,000 students from preschool through 12th grade with an excellent comprehensive educational program. We are going to get started with our meeting. At this time, I want to call the meeting to order and let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. The flag is in the back of the room. So, I pledge allegiance to thank you. Under provision of the public law meeting meetings
008law of the state of Missouri, the board must adopt a roll call vote and agenda that includes the time, date, place, and tentative agenda for the meeting. A copy of the notice in the agenda for the meeting was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2025 at the administration center, 8855 Dun Road, Hazelwood, Missouri, online and sent to local newspapers. May I have a motion to adopt the agenda as posted? So moved. Second. Graves, yes. Martin, yes. Manserie, yes. Bailey, yes. Secretary Votes, yes. Tyson, Thurman, yes. Okay, we will go right into our Missouri school board update. We did. That's what we just did. I understand. Okay. A Missouri School Board Association update. We don't have sound. in the interest of time. Do you want us to come back to this or Okay, we're going to go
009go ahead with um Yeah, she's great. Great. Great. We're going to go go ahead with uh public comments. The board allocates this portion of the meeting to allow stakeholders the opportunity to comment on both agenda items and non-aggenda items at the start of each board meeting. The board president will read aloud any comments that Thank you. Where was I? Let's see. The board president will read aloud any comments that have pre previously been submitted. While all the comments may be included in the board materials this evening and may be they may be found under public comments, the board may limit the number of comments read allowed based on length of or repetition. Prior to the public comment period, in-person participants are asked to fill out a a comment card with their name, address, phone number,
010email address, and topic to be addressed and will be allowed uh up to three minutes to speak. Members of the audience who wish to speak to the board are requested to speak from the podium, identify themselves and in keeping with district policy 4054 and 4059, any personnel personnel law and personnel law should refrain from making negative comments that are personally identifiable. While the board may not directly respond to their speakers during the public comment period, the board president may make clarifying remarks at the end of the comment session in and to correct any misstatement of facts. Responses to public comments can be found in the meetings and agenda section of the district website within 14 days of the meeting. Okay. Where is the script for Madame President, thank you so much. Um, as we before
011we go into the actual public comments, um, a shift that I have requested is that anytime there is a public comment as opposed to um, determining right now which leadership team member will take that, all of that will come through me, we will facilitate a response and if there has not been a response within 5 days, I am asking um, for individuals to email me directly. And so that is the shift as we continue to not only build capacity but be be responsive to the concerns as well as to the praises which we do welcome as well as part of the process. So thank you. Okay. Are there any comments from the board uh with that that proposed change? Okay. If not, we will move forward. And we have one comment card from a very
012distinguished guest, uh, Mr. Doug Jackson and he wants to talk about Little Creek. I'm going to give that to you now. Is it on? Yes. Yes. So, originally I hadn't planned on coming tonight. Um, but I shared a story with um with uh Dr. Thurman uh earlier and I thought it was an appropriate night to share it with the with the entire board. So, uh first I want to welcome Dr. Fields. Um uh I don't know how distinguished I am, but I'm at least a loudmouth parent with a lot of opinions. So, uh you'll you'll you'll see me from time to time. Um well, now former parents. been promoted to community member. So, um I wanted to tell a story. So, I was going out of Shnooks the other day and I saw the St.
013Louis American and it had a front page story about Little Creek in the summer camp. I thought, "Oh, this is really great." So, picked up a copy, went home and read it. Really sounds like I didn't know it was a thing, but it's been going on for eight years and had a couple hundred students go through it. Um seemed like a great program. They talked about, you know, all the stuff they do. Um they talked about the um the student who was kind of facilitating parts of it. Um seemed like a she did a great job. 17-year-old probably a senior this this coming year. Um and then they said that um she wasn't from our district. Like oh okay well but she wasn't from any of the districts that participated here in North County. She
014was from Mary Institute. you know, we we've gone through a lot over the last few years. Um, and by the way, no shade. I'm sure she did wonderful. Um, but we have students that are capable of doing that. I'm certain of it. Um, we've had a lot of challenges over the last few years. And you know, uh, PR hasn't been our best friend uh over the last few years. Um, what that tells the community or at least it the community could infer from that is we don't have students that are capable of that. I know we do. You know we do. But that's what that's the signal it sends um when we bring someone in from an elite, you know, private school to help teach our kids. So, I just wanted to point that out.
015I think the program is wonderful, but let's let's keep it within North County and let's let's exper let's get the experience for our students, not from uh a private school in the city. Um and as far as for you, Dr. Fields, we as a community and as parents and former parents, um we have high expectations. We have a lot of things that are challenging us right now in this district. Um, I I come to provide opinions but also hold accountability sometimes when we make mistakes. Um, you know, because we have to address those mistakes headon and move forward and get to a positive place. So, I just want to say thank you. Good luck to you and your success is all of our success. Thank you so much. Thank you. Are there any other comments?
016not where we're we're going to to move on. We're going to continue to talk about the comments. We asked two of our board members to look at our public comments. Um well, how we've been doing them and how we've been working through those comments. Uh you did get one change through uh Dr. Fields that he would like to to see happen. Uh but I would like to introduce introduce have uh Vivian and also Jamal Vivian Mansereay and Jamal Bailey who worked on this this little project about uh our uh public comments and have them present what their u findings were and suggestions are. And board you should have the packet in front of you with their with their suggestions. Do you not have it in front of you? I did ask that that be put
017in the packet for everyone. If not, why don't you pass this down this? We do. We do, but we're just going to have a discussion about what they're what they recommended. Can you pass that to her, Linda? All right. Thank you. Um, so me and Mr. Bailey, um, we looked at several school districts around us. We looked at, um, Parkway, Hazelwood, Riverview Gardens. Um, and some of the things that we are looking at is setting a time limit when it comes to the public comment section. So, um, putting a time limit on that. We're looking at proposing maybe moving to a 40, um, total minute inperson time limit when it comes to those public comments. Still keeping it at three minutes per person. Um, we're also looking at limiting the time when it comes to
018virtual comments um, that are submitted, limiting that time to 20 minutes. Um, we still want to give everyone an opportunity to speak, but we want to um cap the time because right now we can be here for hours when it comes to listening to public comments. So, we want to values everybody's time. Um, and now we do have everyone fill out their comment card, but we're requesting that the comments card be filled out before the board meeting starts. once the board meeting starts, we will not accept any comment cards after that time. So, that's one of the recommendations. So, um if you know that you're not going to be able to make it to the meeting on time, it may be to the best ability for you to submit that information online um for your
019comment to be read. Um our other recommendation is that um only current FS FSD employees and individuals who reside within um our attendance boundaries are eligible to speak during the patron comment portion of our meetings. Um and then we also have now due to time restraints individuals are encouraged to designate one speaker when they are speaking on the same topic. So that will give more people an opportunity to speak. If you are coming together as a group of individuals just allow one of you guys to speak for your group. Um, right now that's all the information that we are looking at at this time, but this still is a work in progress. Thank you so much. Any questions, comments? Thank you for your work on that. Just one quick question. In your research, what was
020the longest amount of time a school district board allocated to public comments? I very we saw varied time. It was really no significant amount of time, but it was I think we decided that when we saw the minutes, it was like 30, some of them were like 45. We wanted to go even longer than that to offer what we offered a 45 minutes was to try to make sure an hour total was to try to make sure that everybody got heard. Um, that was kind of the most important thing. And even offering the time where you can submit the documents, um, you can submit your uh, comments and stuff like that earlier. sure you can send a minute via email and those type of things as well to make sure that we encompass all ways
021to be able to communicate with us and be able to for you to be heard. But we wanted to make sure that it was an hour. We saw 30 minutes. We saw 45 minutes and we bumped ours to an hour just to ensure that from the emails, from the comment cards, from the public, the people that are actually present that everybody's voices are heard. We want to make sure that we ensure that that happened. Thank I for me as you finalize it I just think 60 minutes is a long time uh for public comments personally just uh obviously the the board meeting is for the board business. We want to hear from our patrons but certainly I think not that I think we ever really reached 60 minutes. I can't recall a time that we've
022reached it. Trying to think Courtney and Don have been on the board the longest. It just seems like a long time. But certainly I understand that it's just kind of parameter to make sure everyone can speak. So just my own thoughts. Um, one concern I had, um, is when it was stated that a person had to, um, be an actual resident to speak. Um, anybody can put an address on a card. We're not going to be verifying if a person lives in the district or not. So, I don't think that we should um, even put that in there. How? And then the other thing is what if we have someone who would like to partner with us if it's like a nonprofit or something and they want to come talk about um you know partnering
023with us or just or even having a comment or wanting to say something or share something. I don't think we should just limit it to um people in the community. So I I I completely 100% agree. I mean everybody knows what I do outside of here as far as the nonforprofit work. I think was kind of how we how was uh the verbiage of it because other districts use that similar verbiage. So I think we kind of we need we we need to revisit that for sure but we want to make sure that we say that on record that anybody can come speak. Um I think it's just the way that we again this is still a live document. We want to present it get some feedback and still kind of verbalize the things and
024make sure that we include all of our stakeholders. So I do agree with that comment. Any other comments? I do want to speak to on the time that an hour for comments is it's a long time for a board meeting and our board meetings are already quite long. But um I'm thinking just like I think Dr. Dr. Martin said um there's very rarely that we go that long. And I did say something to uh Miss Manser about um about the the time and her comment was we just want to make sure it's available if we need it. Is that you want to speak to that? Um yeah, exactly. We want to make sure everyone has that opportunity, but there we may not need all the time to utilize that time. So again, for those that
025are here and able to speak, but again, if we only have two people, we're not going to sit here and hold up for 40 minutes for that time to pass. We're going to move on with our meeting because only those two people are speaking. But if we have a group of people, we want to make sure that that allocated time that they are able to get that 40 minutes in if need be. And and I think we have more like we have more sometimes more pressing issues that require a lot a lot a lot more a lot of time than others. So we just wanted to make sure that we at least had that space where we didn't have to make amendments or feel like we had to cut people off of those type of
026things. But I also do feel like as I keep hearing the constant things of the board of saying the hour was too long. Maybe that's something we can revisit again. It's a we did the process but it's always a board decision. It's always a conversation needs to be had and we want to make sure that we create an opportunity where everybody's voices are heard and we create an opportunity where we're making sure that we're using everybody's best uses of time as well. Okay. And did you and I may have missed it. Did you explain the difference between um the being in person, the amount of time you wanted in person was that that was 40 minutes, right? And then 20 was it 20 minutes for and 20 minutes it was for the virtual comments. So
027those who have submitted their information via our email address that we have or sent email to Jackie to get to the board. And they will be held to three minutes too as a reader. Um yes. Exactly. Just to make sure the community knows that. Three minutes. We want to make sure that we were fair. Three minutes is three minutes. So if you decide to write a dissertation, just keep in mind that it still will be 3 minutes. So if we get to a point where if a reading is past that, just understand because it's not fair that the people that are present get three minutes and then the people that submit documentation because they choose to submit a little longer information. Again, not to say that you we do not want to hear you. We
028want you to we want you to speak to us. We want to know what's going on, but we also want to make sure that we're fair to everyone in this community. Thank you. And I thank you all for the work that you did. We're not going to make a decision tonight. Uh this is just for discussion purposes and also we want to go back and make sure we are aligned with the new policy that we have for public comments. So we'll be doing that board and then we'll bring this back uh and we'll possibly have to do a vote on it and pretty soon. Yes, ma'am. I did u jot down some notes to make those adjustments based off the board feedback as well. Thank you. Okay, I appreciate your work. Really do. So now
029uh we don't our student rep is not here today and FFNA. Is someone here for FFNA or do we have anything from them for me to read? Seeing none, we're going to go on to our superintendent's update. But before we get started, I want to say welcome to Dr. Fields. And uh just to let you know, you are working in the best school district in the world in our eyes. And we we appreciate the work that you've already done. Dr. Fields has been working since we decided to um have him come to our our our humble abode and he has been working working and we've been in contact since day one. Um I will say I appreciate his his his eagerness to do what we need to have done to write this ship. I think
030he is the man for the job. The board has made that decision. uh the board, we we really vetted the the folks who uh applied for this position and we had quite a few um and when we shook everything out, guess who fell out? Dr. Fields. So, we're we're so happy to have you. And I want to say thank you to the board for the hard work that that uh we all did to have him sitting here today. And not only that, um, he also has a some new folks on the cabinet and I'm sure he'll have an opportunity to introduce our new folk. And if you can see from the community community and people here in the in the building today, change things a little bit. And so, uh, and I think I like
031this setup. So, I want to say welcome to all of you and each of you. And, uh, thank you for the work that you've already been doing. Uh, and you came back. So, that's a good sign. I'm so happy that you came back. So again, welcome and it's your show now. Thank you so much, Madame President. Plet Thurman. Um before we go into the formal remarks for this evening, um you took a little bit of thunder from the standpoint of superintendency is one position, but we're only as good as our board. And so you all have been phenomenal getting back with me, um providing clarity, meeting with me. So I do want to sincerely thank you for that. Also want to thank you to our team. We have an absolutely fantastic team. as we know
032we have some opportunities is how I frame it for our students and at the moment I would not want to be on any other team than the team we have right now. So sincerely thank you as well as we continue to do the work that we're doing. Now we've already heard tonight the notion of high expectations and I would second that. And so speaking of high expectations, as part of the superintendent's update, I would like to take a moment to celebrate some of the outstanding achievements happening across the Ferguson Florison School District. Each month, we'll use this time to highlight the incredible work our students and staff are engaged in as they continue to make our schools and our school community the best. I'll start off with Lawrence Hoy. Tonight, I want to recognize Lawrence
033as a rising senior at Steam High School. Lawrence is not only a dedicated student, he's also a young entrepreneur. He started his own lawn care business at just the age of 13. And since then, he's grown into a successful um entrepreneur as well as a business owner with the operation of leading several individuals, including um many of his other students that he employed. um as a steam high school student. Um he is engaged in work and his plan is to move forward fulltime in his endeavors. After graduation, he is going to expand his business nationwide. He's already caught the eye of local media attention, having been featured in multiple times in different arenas, as well as more recently KOV. But most importantly for Lawrence, he continues to make a real difference in his community through
034his hard work and leadership. Lawrence, if you're watching tonight, we're so proud of you and can't wait to see where your journey leads. Congratulations to Lawrence. In addition to that, I also want to share that I am incredibly proud of six outstanding young women from the Ferguson Florison School District who have been selected for the prestigious Red Tail Cadet program that is now in its fifth year. I will say today I had a meeting at the um with the uh county executive and the meeting started off with partnerships and lo and behold there was a picture one picture that was put up to really model what it means to work with school systems and we saw a phenomenal picture with six um young women and they were identified as being in the red cadetses um
035program and so in front of other area superintendents I said you know what I'm new can you expand on where those students are because it must be a fantastic school district. And so they laughed and they said, "Okay, we have someone who's competitive, but more than competitive, they have someone who is incredibly proud of the students here in our community." And so with the Red um tail cadet program, this is a six-week program that is open only to students in the Ferguson Florison School District and it honors the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen. It's made possible through a powerful partnership with the Crossing Church, Elite Aviation at the Spirit of St. Louis in St. Louis County. This year's cohort is extra special. Not only are these cadetses representing all of our um high schools in
036the Ferguson Florison School District, but they are also making history as the first all female class. KOV stopped by this week to see them in action. We're proud of all of them. And in addition to that, McKenzie Manser and Yolina do Dominguez Ral did a fantastic job in their interviews. They'll also be featured in KSDK, Fox 2, and St. Louis Public Radio. Congratulations to the Red Cadets class. Before we get an opportunity to um turn it over to the second part of the actual superintendent update, um Madame President, um Plet Thurman, not only did we share that we have some fantastic students, but we have fantastic community members as well as board members. I'm happy to share some exciting news. Uh we have a newly published author in the midst of our presence here today.
037Please join me in congratulating Mr. Jamal Bailey, who has written a children's book titled Jamal and Kobe's Great St. Louis Adventure. In this story, young readers go on a journey through some of St. Louis's most iconic landmarks from the Gateway Arch to City Museum, all while learning lessons about bravery, kindness, empathy, and teamwork. And what's great about this, Madame President, we already had this information and we may need to start writing in pencil because um if that wasn't impressive enough, fresh off the press, we just found out that this same person, Mr. Bailey, will be inducted into the Boys and Girls Club of Greater St. Louis Hall of Fame. It's okay to smile, Mr. baby. We're honored to have We're honored to um have him. Um there will be an annual reception and ceremony on
038August the 7th. This recognition is really a testament to Mr. Bailey's dedication to youth development and true reflection of incredible work he continues to do in our community. So, just a sincere thank you as I'm um transitioning to the board. you've been available and it is always focused on what's best for kids. So, not only congratulations, but thank you for your advocacy for our students. Yes. Yes. Yes. And with that, I will turn to the next item in the superintendent's update. I will bring have Dr. Chambers u report to the podium. Welcome back. Thank you so much. I think I got it. Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you so much. So, um I'm my name is Dr. Katie Chambers. Um I am the new chief human resources officer for the Ferguson Florison School District. coming back
039proudly to uh continue to serve this community in a new capacity and I'm thrilled to be here. So, thanks for having me tonight. U Madame President, board of education, superintendent Fields and community. This is just a brief update for board information regarding our current staffing situation across the district in my short time here. So, first I'd like to orient you to the slide that you see above. I would like to draw your attention to the top right corner which outlines our strategic priorities and FFSD anti-racist standards that you will become accustomed to seeing anytime I present. So, anything that I'm presenting, you will see the align standards that are connected to the information so that you can see that the work of the human resources department will continue to support the progress of the district
040as outlined by the strategic plan. So, what you're looking at now is the allocated positions that were approved by the board of education June 25th, 2025. You can see that these positions are allocated by pos um by position category listed on the left. Administrators, certified staff, non-certified title staff, and dispro staff. The numbers that you see represented are is a uh number of full-time employees. So FTEES is how we refer to that. So if you're looking at a number such as the first that says 79.2 that is not a full-time employee that is there is a 0.2 which means it may be a part-time employee or it may mean 0.2% of their 2% of their salary is paid through our district funds. So, these were the uh staffing totals approved by the board prior to
041my arrival to the district and I use this as a reference point as we continue to move through the presentation. I also just want to take a brief moment to thank the team, the human resources um team as I have onboarded have just been absolutely awesome to um get me up to speed with where we've been as well as the finance department. we've um done some great work together to begin to put a plan forward regarding our staffing situation. So, I just appreciate um that and I also appreciate all of the efforts across the district that leaders are putting in to hire wonderful people to put in front of kids every day. So, what we're looking at now is um as of you can see the date at the top, June 30th, 2025. These were
042the numbers of vacancies presented to me upon my first day. As we look at the numbers, I'll orient you again to the chart that you're looking at. If you look at the first four administrators, 76.2 and then the number three in red, indicating that of the total allocated positions, three of those are vacant or were vacant as of the beginning of of um July. So, as you can continue down the chart, 135 certified staff, 92 non-certified, 16 vacancies in the title staff, and of course, um not knowing yet the dispro funds, uh we we there were um zero vacancies at that point. Before I get to the plan of how we're addressing these vacancies, I do want to note that as you um continue to see consent agenda and continue to see, you will see
043more and more staff that are being presented for hiring. And again, I just want to compliment the efforts of everyone that's working toward recruiting and hiring wonderful people and many of those through the these partnerships and through the outreach that I'm about to share with you here. So, the first part of the plan, uh, while I'm going to share some of the work that the team has been engaged in to actively recruit amazing professionals for our community, please know that this is just the beginning of our efforts and just a sampling of the efforts that we're putting forth to fill these vacancies across the district. While I'm sharing three universities and three programs, there are multiple others that I have not yet met with but are sitting on the calendar waiting to meet next week
044and the week after. So, um we'll continue to grow. So, first off, engaging with universities. Um St. Louis University, there are three programs that I have engaged with deeply um to understand um what resources are available to bring great great individuals into the into the district. The rising teachers program is primarily for elementary and for individuals seeking elementary and special education certification. We currently have six students that are a part of that that um will continue to work for us as they obtain their teaching certification with support. I jump down to the St. Louis teaching fellows. Similar to that, it's primarily for our secondary um schools content areas. So again, the individuals that are able to work for us while they are obtaining their master's degree in teaching um having a bachelor's in a content
045area to support our students teaching. The IMATE program we're going to hear a little more about later this evening as I've got anou to present but essentially is um also an opportunity for individuals who have a master's in core teaching specifically in our STEM fields um are obtaining an additional masters in teaching while being able to serve as our serve our students as full-time teachers. Lynen Wood conversation with that um that university was um to begin opening and exploring some on potential on-site alternative certification programs for individuals that may or may not have a bachelor's or a masters that are interested in pursuing teaching. So individuals from within our own community that would like to become teachers and continue to serve our own community. We want to make sure that we have a pathway to
046ensure anyone who wants to be a teacher for the students of Ferguson Florison have a pathway to become certified. So, Lynenwood is exploring some innovative ideas to possibly have some community on-site um opportunities. Additionally, Lynenwood has an opportunity to grow your own pipeline of educators through um high school dual credit. um doing some work to ensure that um students that do have aspirations of becoming teachers that we help them begin to earn college credit at the high school level and get some of those foundational teaching courses under their belt um so we can support them all the way through their program and then ideally bring them back here to serve um as employees and then finally Washington University um connecting with them the center uh for career engagement um and they have a a FAR
047outreach for the Washington university alumni, specifically those that are seeking opportunities to change fields um and possibly considering teaching. Sometimes we just need to ask and um it's it's amazing those that really want to serve a community. So um as I said um we currently have a partnership with UMS um and then as I said future meetings with um SIOE Lincoln University. So as as the partnerships grow, we'll keep you updated. Then outside of the university realm, engaging with partners. I listed a few here um that that I have connected so far and again continue to hope for further connection. Teach for America has some opportunities um for tutoring during the day um with middle school math or elementary reading. They also have some leadership academy opportunities. And um what is also exciting is the
0482627 school year, Teach for America would like to um relaunch their core member um program. Uh so Teach for America offers a um core teaching to place teachers in school districts and that program stopped during COVID. St. Louis no longer has that program, but they are in hopes to bring that back to St. Louis um next fall. and we would definitely want to be a district that that is um connected to that program can bring some great great folks here. Nimble is a new organization. It's a statewide job board for certified teachers and DESIE has established a partnership with Nimble to be the representative job board for all school districts in the state of Missouri. So what Nimble provides is an opportunity for us to recruit certified teachers in Missouri from across the state. And
049so in my time here, all 22 principles were signed up for a free trial. And as you can see, they have been um able to recruit some teachers through that um direct uh job board with some success. And this was just their first week um first week that they had access to this that we got them connected and and and produced a training short training. So principles were uh comfortable using the platform. And then finally, character plus uh just an opportunity for district leader academy because we know while it is critical to recruit, it's also critical to retain individuals that we recruit. And that means we need to support employees of all um job positions and all groups. And so Character Plus has a uh three-year grant that's available already paid um through DESIE that
050we could um tap into as part of that leadership development so that we can make sure that schools are wonderful places for all employees so that they're wonderful places for all kids. So that is a brief update uh regarding our current staffing as of um last week. Thank you, Dr. Chambers. I do have a couple questions. So, I appreciate the efforts to try to take this on within your first day, nine now on the job with the holiday in there and five work days. So, appreciate that. One of my questions um is looking at St. Louis Community College. our teacher ed program is actually at FL Valley and so thinking about how we can partner with them to get students or even freshman or sophomores even as a long-term sub. Uh certainly they're looking at
051cohorts and so just as a thought uh to get people even if they're here for two years while they get their associates degree to be as long-term sub is just an opportunity to be able to fill some of those vacancies because 130 vacancies is a lot to to fill. And then the other one I think personally that's missing is looking at the critical shortage for retirees. And so how do we advertise and push that more for not even people who retired from Ferg floor? I know a teacher in my old district who's coming to work at Cross Keys next year who's retired. So I just think it's an opportunity to kind of really push and advertise like you could still get your retirement and if I'm not mistaken and get a check, correct? And so
052I think how do we advertise and push that out to some folks? Um I don't know if your colleagues other places would even be willing to like share list or retirees who retired recently from neighboring districts maybe share or advertise just to some of them to say hey you can you have your masters plus 30 degrees 30 is that the most right you know you can make up to that amount you might have some people who want to come do it and I think when you're at 130 vacancies I think we're willing to take anyone at this point in time because at the end of the day we want to make sure teachers are in front of our children in August so absolutely I appreciate all the effort so far just some opportunities there I
053think to think right across the the highway and then also um think about retirees and just how do we push that uh and just because I know you weren't here in HR when we did that but you were here as a principal just thinking about if we need to change any of the policies with the early incentive that we signed off on um I don't you have to give legal counsel but people did sign off for that early incentive that hey you can't work in the district again so I don't know what the loophole is for that but if there's something we need to change to allow some of those people who retired five, six years ago because we're in such a critical need. Just another thought as well, just to make sure we're not
054violating our own contract that we put out there for those people who retired early. And I don't know if it can be changed, but if it can, I think as one of seven, I'd be interested in changing it to get people in front of our children. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Thank you for that. Just curious about uh do you have a partnership or are you working with Harris do at all? So, not yet. um but is on on the list. Again, I I want to make sure that we have a a a pipeline throughout all of St. Louis and and external of St. Louis, Lincoln University, SIOE. But yes, absolutely. Thank you. And just to add to that, um Katie has done a Dr. Chambers has done a remarkable job at um working and trying
055to connect with folks. And just because there's not an official partnership does not mean we're not in contact with them. U we've been in contact with Harris Stow even Lincoln University and so when we say formally a partnership it's a little bit more formal but um Dr. Chambers um thank you to you and your team as we're working with any and everyone who's wanting to work with us as we continue to provide high quality instruction for our for our students. So thank you for that. Absolutely. All right. And so just one more note as part of the superintendence update. Um the last piece um in a second you will see the um hopefully the approval of the uh dispersement report. There has been a slight change or shift from the um dispersement report. Um essentially
056all of the information is there that we're accustomed to with the exception of the revenue and expenditure report. Um Dr. Martin said day nine is day six and and with it with it being day six, Mr. Chance who has um done a great job so far, he has started in on day on a Tuesday. We had to have everything to the board on Wednesday as we put all of the information there. And one of the things you'll learn about me is I want to make sure we have accurate information and accurate data that we're putting in front of our team. And so with that, um, working with Mr. Chance and his team, we will have the actual revenue and expenditure report at our next board meeting. We're going to speak more to this at the
057finance workshop. And so again, I just wanted that to be one more element. Thank you to the finance department, um, your entire team as well as working with HR as we continue to work collaboratively together. So with that, that will conclude the first ever superintendent report, and I'll turn it over to um, Madame President Plet Thurman. Thank you. Before you turn it over to me, would you staff please have them stand? Absolutely. So, we have um the Mr. Moore, if you don't mind standing, Mr. Moore, we have Dr. Chambers, Mr. Chance, I'm sorry. Um Mr. Mr. Moore is our chief of staff. We have uh Dr. Chambers who is HR. We have uh Mr. Chance who is our CFO. We have um Lucas Lambers goes by Luke who is Dr. Lucas Lambers um who is
058um over our secondary schools. We have Sean Joyce who is over our elementary schools. We have Mr. David Murray who is our um curriculum and instruction. We also have um Carl Imhof who is our support services. We have An Holman who is our um communications guru and we also have Jackie who continues to do a phenomenal job and we all know Jackie. Jackie can you please wave and Jackie is the board as well as superintendent executive um secretary and so when I talk about a team the level of conversation and going in depth on some of the more complex matters I've certainly been impressed. So sincerely thank you again and I'm looking forward to continue along this journey with you. Pew Walker, Dr. um Pew Walker um is not here at the moment. Um we
059all know Dr. Pew Walker. She continues to be a fascinating addition to the district. So, thank you. Thank you. And again, welcome. Um we are so happy to have each and every one of you. And uh if Dr. P. Walker is listening somewhere on an island or on a cruise ship. We just want to say again, thank you for the work that you did um in uh filling in as one of the co- uh superintendent and also to Mr. Brent Mitchell for the work that they've done. So um we're headed forward. So now to go on to the consent agenda. May I have a a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Second. Madame President. Yes. I just want to clarify something. Dr. Fields mentioned something about the dispersements being updated. Is that
060going to be pulled out of consent because or is it are we assuming that the dispersements that we would approve would be the updated numbers? I would recommend pulling it so that is a matter of process and making sure we're consistent. Once the actual dispersement report does in fact have the revenue and expenditures, it can be formally approved. But I would recommend um pulling it. Those of you who made the motion, are you okay with I'm fine with pulling item C, 7 C. I'm in agreement. Okay, thank you so much. So, we will pull that from the agenda and go to number eight, which is pulled from consent, but we already understand why it's being pulled and um we will have the this at our next an update at our next board meeting. Yes. So,
061okay, you want me to call for the vote? We are we d we're totally dropping that motion or not all of cons. Okay. So, do we need to amend the the the motion? Um, well, we just pulled 7 C. So, I think that that counts as So, the motion is to approve without the right without seven. Okay. Okay. Um, Dr. Graves, yes. Dr. Martin, yes. Mrs. Mansery. Yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Secretary votes yes. Mr. Tyson, yes. Madame President, yes. Okay, let's move on to number nine, which is uh memorandum of understanding for the international master of arts in teaching for excellence partnership and Dr. Chambers will be presenting. Good evening again, Board of Education, Superintendent Fields, and community members. Um, before I start uh with the presentation, I would like to introduce two individuals that
062are also here um that that you will learn about the partnership that we are asking for approval. Um so, first we have Dr. Gary Ritterder who is a dean of school of education for St. Louis University and uh May Lang Tong who is director of the international masters of arts and teaching for excellence program that we will from this point refer to as IMATE is is the uh program that we are asking for approval of anou to officially partner. So again my name is Katie Chambers. I am the chief human resources officer for Ferguson Florison School District. Again, I would just like to point your attention to the top right corner of this presentation so that you can see how this partnership aligns to our strategic priority four for people, culture, human capital. Five, financial
063and operational stewardship. Priority six, community engagement and communications, as well as two of our FFSD anti-racist standards. one being around practicing intercultural skills and the additional recruiting and retaining people of color and marginalized groups. So this program um that we are presenting to you tonight first want to start with an overview of understanding as I'm sure you're all very aware that there is a national shortage of teachers um particularly in our areas of science math technology and engineering our STEM subject areas Ferguson Florison is not in any better shape than we are across the country um looking at the current vacancies that we have spec specifically in our secondary areas of math and science. So this IM8 program if just a little overview of it, it is an opportunity to recruit highly qualified international individuals
064who already have master's degrees in the STEM fields. Participants that are a part of this program pursue a master's in teaching and teaching certification simultaneously while serving as full-time teachers placed in our schools in our high schools and middle schools specifically. Some key features of our program. Um it is a targeted recruitment effort because we're intentionally aiming to fill positions that are hard to fill positions. A dual pathway. the participants simultaneously are earning a master's degree while they're getting teacher certified here in the state of Missouri. The immigration management of international students um St. Louis University with this program handles all of the immigration logistics um with with our um students that they're that are serving here in our district and comprehensive support part of this program. Slooh provides an extensive support for the students
065and teachers of record to transition into teaching and also into US living. So thinking about how this enhances our outcomes for our students, improved academic outcomes, um consistent instruction from those that know the content area continues to prove um results on student knowledge. um an enhanced learning environment and exposure to exposure to diverse cultural perspectives and teaching styles allows us to um diversify our staff. We reduce learning gaps when we fill high need areas with those that are professionals in the field other than filling with substitute teachers that may not have strong content knowledge in front of our students particularly in these areas at the high school when we're preparing our students for post-graduation. And then social emotional growth, just fostering empathy and having role models, various role models um that have had various life
066experiences allows our our um students to grow and and and learn about uh cultures across around the world. Enhance outcomes for teachers. Um long-term sustainability. This this allows us to really look at a pipeline of um continuous teachers um through this program, through a through a partnership that that we can be consistent and depend on. And then also just the robust support. Um the design of this program is to really wrap those um teachers around um with a St. Louis University would provide a coach. Um and then we would um simultaneously have a district mentor just like we would with any new teacher um ensuring that they're getting the the support that they need internally in the district. Uh these students they they attend Slooh classes in the evening um and they're in a cohortbased
067model. So um if the board decides to move forward with this part partnership, we would want to connect um teachers in the same location, possibly even same teams just so that they have the support that they need um internally of the district as well. Finally is the um enhancing the outcomes for the district. Um, this program is strongly aligned not only to our district priority standards and our anti-racist standards, but additionally to the um to the commitment of our department of our human resources department to really look at innovative uh recruitment strategies um looking at teacher support and just elevating our profession to become teachers. Reduced rec uh recruitment cost again it leverages um St. University is doing the external recruitment as we are partnering to to um you know bring students to them as
068well. And then cost effective. So the annual cost of $50,000 um for an IMATE teacher would be comparable if we were to hire a individual with a master's at a level five salary because these individuals have master's degrees that would be um come that would look at about 51 to 07 on our salary schedule. So instead of paying $51,27 as a salary and then the additional $12,745 for insurance and then the additional 14.5% for retirement, we are actually paying $50,000 to the university who is handling all of the salary, all of the visa costs, all of the um any any extra costs that that benefits, all of that is going from St. Louis University to the student and that student happens to be an employee of ours. So, we are we are um that is
069is a great cost savings um for our district, for everyone that we bring in. So, at this time, uh we as a team, we we would love to field any questions that you may have about about our our proposal and our program. And let me Um I guess before discussion so the recommendation is the administration recommends the approval of theou with the St. Louis University School of Education to establish a strategic partnership through their international master of arts in teaching and excellence the IMATE program at the annual cost of $50,000 per St. Louis University student working as the teacher of record in the Ferguson Florescent School District. May I have a motion to approve? So move. Second discussion. I have a question. Why don't Yeah, we can start on this end and just All right.
070Thank you, Dr. Chambers. I appreciated your presentation. I wanted to ask um when we think about the number of existing vacancies that we have in the district right now. What is the potential impact for us? In other words, I know it's unrealistic, right? But we have lots of vacancies. Do we anticipate that there could be five to 10 students that could come out of this like or is it is that not a realistic question? Um I I think it's an excellent question. Um so our current um vacancy rate specifically to meet the needs of those that are at the secondary level in the STEM fields, we are currently looking at 24 teachers. So it's significant. Um as far as who we're looking for to best support our students, um I I'm going to yield uh
071to the team. I know just in initial conversations there were eight individuals initially which when I started conversations in June were available. Now again these are individuals that we would present to principles so that the principles can meet with them and go through the process prior to having students placed to make sure that it you know that it is going to be successful for both the individual and the school. Um much as we would with any student teacher. Um but these are professionals with masters that would be um placed similar to a student teacher um teacher of record in in the place. So I can yield maybe if they have updated numbers or Yeah. Yeah. Great. Very quickly, we at this point we're late in the year. So we we believe we could dent that
072by sending possibly three teachers. So this would not be huge. But in future years with us partnering well ahead of time and recruiting well ahead of time, I think we could get in double digits. Okay. And then one other question, thank you. Is um I guess I'm curious to know is there any possible incentive for folks to stay on after you know this? So I can speak to that. um just in the work uh in our early conversations um and and the work that um I I was thinking about how do we retain individuals who want to continue to stay with us. So just in connection with the principles um of both Cross Keys and Mccclure North um again looking at where are our largest needs number of vacancies um starting with with those schools
073just having conversations with uh the principles about this opportunity. they were very interested in how can we best create an environment in our building that is inclusive of all employees to where we create a space that no one ever wants to leave. Um so it would be intentional in in working around how do we create an an and you know a workplace environment that is supportive and and and that serves all kids well. Okay. And I don't and I so while I do have an appreciation for that I think we ought to be creating a a good environment for people to stay. I'm wondering if this is a unique opportunity uh you know where because I'm being extended this opportunity something that maybe other people aren't getting could I potentially be you know have it
074take like yeah you can get this but you've got to give us five years or three years or whatever. Got it. That's what I'm curious about. Got it. So the current agreement would be a semester to semester. Um so in the way that we would pay um the salary it would be each semester because on on both sides we want to make sure that one the teacher is successful in in the results of student learning. We're going to be monitoring all of those things in their you know in in the um in their teaching methodologies all of those pieces. And then on the other side the individual knows that for two years it's a two-year program to obtain their Missouri teaching certification. And then at the end of that two years, that would be where
075um that individual if wanted to continue here would go through a hiring process as we do with all individuals that we hire that have teaching that have um Missouri teaching certifications. Does that better answer? Okay. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you for the question. Dr. Pow Walker asked some of the same questions that I wanted, but my question is just in regards to um the actual person for this position. Would they be comparable to a student teacher or a first year teacher in um in regard to like experience level I guess. Okay. So, as far as how experienced are they in teaching? Yes. Okay. Great. So, I'm gonna uh lean to my partners to talk about the um process that they use to recruit. Thank you. Uh I I think and getting back to the prior
076question too I think in terms of incentive to stay I want to highlight also that students who are applying for this are very excited about the possibility of coming to work in the US. So if they're if you're finding them successful teachers I don't think it will be challenging to to bring them on board. I think the the students who are applying are very excited about this possibility with regard we I would view them as firstear teachers not as student teachers. They're content experts and they're they're getting all sorts of pedagogical instruction in the summer and in the evening, but we really view them as first year teachers. I don't know if that helps. I just got to say thanks. I mean, that's pretty impressive on your day six. Um, so thank you. To be
077fair, this was done before day six, so she's present. I'm just just to put Thank you. One quick question is um I don't want to confuse the programs from neighboring districts, but are there any neighboring districts that have had it? I've heard of programs I still want to confuse the two like oh they're talking about this one and I think Normandy comes to mind that they had had a program was this one or a different one. So I'm just curious are there any neighboring districts that had this program and what was the success rate from semester to semester retention wise? Yeah. So I I can't tell you about the neighboring districts, they haven't done our program. So the one advantage I think with both talking to Dr. Chambers and other districts about this, this is
078a way to dip your toe into the international pool without really committing because you don't you're not paying for visas. You're not having to do all that international work and then if the students work out then you decide, okay, we really want to keep them. So, this is a bit different than those I've heard that that I think you're referencing, and I apologize. I don't know more in terms of the success of our MAT programs. Admittedly, we haven't done international yet. This is new. This is our first year, but we have done MAT for the past six years, and we're around 80 to 90% of those students are staying in the field, staying in teaching. One of those is the St. Louis teaching fellows program that we are also working with your district on. So
079that's close to your question, but not exactly it. It's more encouraging than uh from what I heard from neighboring districts experience. So again, I know you're not talking about those programs. It's just reassuring to me that they're not the same programs that I heard that potentially this will have better retention between semesters, which is important for me to to hear. So I appreciate that. I think the challenge was they were large and our and we'll be able to keep track of a smaller number of students and also it wasn't kind of dipping your toe in the pool, but diving in. And so I think there it was a lot harder those programs that they've tried to do. I think this is more manageable. Well, also SLO's had experience with international students as well of how
080to provide supports and transition which I think is different than if you're just trying to a money grab I'll call it. And I'm not saying these other I don't know their other program names, but there's certainly people who are trying to make money off of education which is like oh we can find international students and they're not proing the same wraparound supports potentially that you all are. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation, but I don't have any questions. Okay. I I I think you took my question. I did want to ask about your success rate in this program and if you have any data, but you just said that it's brand new. So, we don't have any data to you don't have data to present. Sorry. The international
081portion of our MAT is brand new. The MAT itself is in its sixth year and we do have some data and that's about 80 to 90% retention rate but we do but we do not have this is admittedly new and it will face different challenges but I'll highlight the point that was made a second ago in terms of our university's experience dealing with international students and Dr. Tong is indeed expert at that. So I believe I believe we'll have a a good chance of of again doing better than those o other situations and and trying to meet and ideally meeting or exceeding our experience thus far of 80 to 90% retention. So So I want to make sure that every everyone understands in the community community as well as our our board if we approve
082this tonight it's only based upon the the the teachers that we get. There's no money going out until we get a teacher. So the approval is not 450,000. It's to make sure that it's just to get into the program. Correct. Memorandum. Yes. Memorandum of understanding. That's absolutely right. Yes, it is. It is to approve the partnership um so that we do have the ability to bring students and we do have the ability. The board is authorizing us to pay $50,000 at um quarterly increments for each person that comes to teach for us through this program. Yes, ma'am. We're not putting a cap on It sounds like we're not we wouldn't have to because you don't have a lot of people in the first place. uh put a cap on how many we would would take
083um in thisou and also I just want to make sure that this is understood the people that we are recruit that you would be sending to us they're not certified teachers they are people with master's degree in a content area but not as teachers correct correct so getting the MAT through St. English university over the next two years while teaching as a teacher of record. They will earn their certification, but they are not certified teachers. They will be called provisionally certified just as is the case with our other MAT program. Got it. And and this is done in a lot of districts, the provisional certification MAT. Thank you. Just for clarification so that everybody's understanding what's going on. Yes, absolutely. Just wanted to say thank you to Dr. Tong and Dr. Ritter. We talk about
084opportunities in our districts. It certainly is one that we need a number of partners, but not just any partners being incredibly intentional. So, for you all to have this newer component that you're willing to work with us on and for the board to potentially move forward with it, I just want to say sincerely thank you because it will take partners for us to continue to provide high quality instruction for our students. So, thank you for that. Thank you. We're grateful. And I just want to say thank you. Oh. Oh, I'm so I just wanted to It might already be understood. At least I think I understand it, Dr. Chambers, but I think um to to clarify for the community also to kind of piggyback on some of the things that Dr. Thurman was saying because
085because we are where we are with our budget, everybody's paying a lot of attention to things that we approve that have money attached to them. So, I think it's important for people to know that if we were to bring on three students and the $50,000 per person is paid, it is the money we would have paid if we hired three teachers anyway. Is that correct? Absolutely correct. So, we already you all have already approved approved the budget for the allocated positions based on the last presentation that I shared with you. Um so those monies that that budget is already approved and allocated and so in allocating that this is actually a reduced cost because because it does not we will not be paying the insurance the um retirement. So it is actually bringing a master's
086level professionals to teach our students at a savings a substantial savings for the district that is already budgeted. Thank you. Yes thanks for the question. Are there any other questions? Oh, I guess he doesn't have a question, just a comment. If if there are no questions, let's call for the vote. And I want to say thank you. Thank you all for coming. And this has been really eye openening because I pulled this from the consent agenda and I'm glad I did because this clarified a lot more um um uh areas and especially like what Dr. uh Martin was saying. I was thinking this was the same program that has been out there. So yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate it. So let's call for the vote. Dr. Martin, yes. Mrs. Manserie, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes.
087Dr. Graves, yes. Secretary Boltz, yes. Mr. Tyson, yes. Madame President, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. We will go on to our next uh item and it is Emerson Early Literacy Grant uh high dosage tutoring. Uh Dave Murray's coming. [Music] Let me try again. Good evening. I am pleased to present these uh early literacy tutoring um proposals for the board of education um for the Emerson grant that the board approved the memorandum of understanding last month. So what is high dosage tutoring? So many of you are obviously everyone's familiar with tutoring. High dosage tutoring um has a few requirements around it and some best practices that research has shown to be effective. And so high dosage tutoring is looking at getting students three or more times a week in small
088groups typically one to one or one to two one to four max. Uh students are getting um frequently measured. They're getting data for progress monitoring. they are getting the same consistent tutor week over week and day after day so that they're able to build relationships and build upon their learning. They're typically seen at the exact same time every day in the same days of the week. How it works. So this is virtual but it is live. We will have live trained tutors um who will be teaching according to a science of reading all curriculum. Um the tutoring will be based on student data. We'll be using the data that we are collecting at baseline in the fall with our students to figure out where they're coming in at as well as to identify which students
089we'd like to be a part of the tutoring program. As I mentioned, it'll be the same tutor working with students. There are two different vendors being proposed. One of them is one-on-one, so it'll be one tutor to one student and the other one will have two students to every one tutor. So, as mentioned prior, this is a program that we're doing just at Commons Lane for this upcoming year, but we absolutely will be taking the data and the lessons learned from this to figure out if and how we'd like to scale it across the district using um other funds. So, in terms of input, uh teachers and administrators at Commons Lane, a few board members were part of this process and um basically helped craft this plan uh that was worked on for the past
090year plus. the alignment with our strategic plan. So all FFSD students will meet or exceed the state standard or demonstrate significant measurable improvement. That'll be a big part of this. The goal is that students who are in our high dosage tutoring are going to be growing more than students who are not in it. Otherwise, you know, there wouldn't be a point of it. So we're really looking to see some outsized gains for our students that we are making this investment in. So, in terms of how this will fit, this will essentially come in and support our teachers as a second layer, kind of a tier 2 layer. So, all of our students will be receiving UFly. They'll be getting all of our tier one literacy supports. And this will be something that will be layered
091on um on top of those programs. And there's considerable research behind both Ignite and Air Reading um and other places that have shown um adding additional months of student learning uh onto those students test scores. That's just a screen grab from another district off of one of the websites, but showing you kind of what it looks like and what our our students will be seeing. So, in terms of the benefits that we expect to see, as we said, we want to see accelerated and we expect to see accelerated growth for K2 students uh who are in this program. It really will free up teachers to be able to support other students. So, if it's happening in the classroom, it might look like a teacher is pulling a group of students and they're working live, but
092then some of the students who otherwise would be kind of working independent work will also be getting live instruction at the same time. And really, this will work to support schoolwide MTSS reading plans. So, we're trying to bring down the number of students who have um reading needs and this will be one of the layers that we are using. So, like I said, we'll be measuring success with our star reading CBM. So, this looks like things like one minute probes where we're seeing how many words a student can read in a grade level passage in a minute or if they're perhaps a kindergartener, how many letter sounds or letter names they can identify in a minute and we'll be measuring and benchmarking them as the year goes on. They'll be taking star early literacy three
093times a year. Uh we'll also be measuring program attendance and sessions completed. So, this is a really big piece. We don't want to pay for tutoring that we're not getting our students logged on to. So, I can guarantee that, you know, while the school principal and the school staff will be bought in, I'll be there as well, making sure that we are logging students in and getting them on because we want to see that nearly 100% of our our sessions are happening. So, we'll be tracking that our students are in seats. Um, and obviously we expect the vendor to be present on time 100% of the time. And then we'll be evaluating as well based on teacher feedback um throughout and at the end of the year. But this is something that teachers at Commons
094Lane voiced that they wanted to see as part of their literacy grant plan. So, here is the account code. There's 80,000 budgeted between these two vendors. One is 40,000 and one is 39. So, it'll come in um just a little bit under that budget. Um one of the other questions we've talked about in the past is when we have these grants, when do we get the funding? How long are we floating funds? So, I'm pleased to report this money has already come in after the board approved the memorandum of understanding. So, we already have I think just under 125,000 sitting in our Emerson account that has already been set up. So we'll be expensing against that, but we've already received all the funds that we are asking the board to approve. So the recommendation is
095to approve the two high dosage tutoring providers, air reading and ignite reading at a cost of 39 and 40,000 respectively for a combined cost of $79,000 total. And I welcome any questions or comments from the board. May I first have a motion? So moved. Second. Discussion. Thank you for the presentation, Mr. Murray. Ready? I just have two quick questions. What were the what other companies submitted for the RFP? I would have to go back and look. We had at least I want to say six different companies apply. So, we got a pretty robust amount of selections. Um, but I can follow up with that tomorrow if So, were these the top scored? Were these Yes. So, these were the top scored from the RFP committee, the two that were selected. I guess one of the
096questions I have for Dr. fields moving forward if when we have RFPs if we could just have the scoring of all the companies just because again it's just hard to know who we're comparing against. So if we can see this not all the packets just like here's the companies and the total score just so we can make sure that we are not violating that policy. Thank you for that. The other question is so when they're virtual which is just a concern of mine because we know we've tried virtual tutoring outside the school day. We've tried, you know, virtual. Sometimes we know virtual learning doesn't work great for our students during co other times. Who's supervising them if there's still class going on and it's one to one or two to one? So, I'm just curious
097who's supervising the kids who are actually getting that. Yep. So, it could look a couple different ways. So, we had a really small pilot a year and a half ago at Commons Lane. The principal herself pulled the students and supervised them. Um, if it's in the classroom, the teacher will be supervising. if they're pulled out, it could be an ISL, it could be an administrator, it could be a special teacher. So, it kind of depends on whether it will be in the gened space or whether the students will be pulled out. And so, that's something that we'll be working through the details with with the team there. Got it. So, some logistics to fill out. Okay. And then the just verifying Anna was not here at the June 12th meeting or whatever. The Emerson Early
098Literacy Grant is funded from who again? Yes, it's funded through the opportunity trust. And one of the questions that Dr. Pow Walker had I believe at that meeting in June was kind of what data we're sharing with opportunity trust and I shared at that time that the only data that we'll be providing will basically be the exact same data that's going to be on our success ready network um dashboard through star. So we won't be providing any particular individual student data or anything really that's not publicly available to them. I just want to say as a board member, I kind of helped um with this um with the opportunity grant and I've kind of been on the committee and the planning and things. When we went on our site visit, we was in DC, right?
099When we went on our site visit in DC, we actually saw a classroom where you can see the all the groups learning and so you had some kids doing individual work. You had some with the teacher, then actually it was like maybe another um maybe another support person in the classroom. but you got to see all the individual groups. So, um I'm excited to see this um finally get through with the plan and all. Any other questions? Okay. If there are no questions, um let's call for the vote. Mrs. Manserie. Yes, Mr. Bailey. Yes, Dr. Martin. No. Dr. Graves, yes. Secretary votes yes. Mr. Tyson, yes. Dr. Thurman, yes. Motion passes. Thank you for that presentation. And I guess you're staying here for the spring math renewal presentation. Yes. And I'll welcome Jennifer Comvest, our
100K12 math coordinator up. Um I'll read the board item while we're getting the presentation up. So this is the spring math renewal. Uh this past year, school year 2425 was a pilot year systemwide in kindergarten through algebra 1 classrooms. Spring math is a paper and pencil classwide intervention that targets fact fluency gaps including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Um, per our spring math screener results and program evaluation, we saw some really large double-digit gains uh in K2 with smaller gains in grades three through eight. And we are excited about what year two will bring for our staff and students with this intervention. Initially, we noticed that there were some large fluency gaps for most of our students. Um that was despite the other programs that we already had in place. In the spring of 24,
101we did a smallcale pilot of spring math. Um that was in I believe five classrooms, five it was five or six classrooms. Um that showed a lot of promise. So we went ahead and did a full-scale district um pilot in the 2425 school year. Um and so some of the things that we'll be discussing are the results of what we've uh seen in classes so far this year. So, as I mentioned, SpringMath is entirely paper and pencil on the student. Um, from what students see, this is a big break from many programs that you'll see on the market. So, we thought it was really important that uh we get our students um working with math, that we get their pencils moving, that we get them um interacting with each other. In addition to being paper
102and pencil, the students are paired up every single day. So, if we were doing spring math, myself and Jen were partners. I might be working for a couple minutes and Jen's basically looking over my paper saying, "No, David, like four plus three is not six, it's seven." And having me go back and fixing it and then we switch. Um, and the other person will be the worker and the other one is the coach. Um, spring math is really meant to be a comprehensive MTSS solution. So, we focused this year because we know we have a lot of student need. Instead of trying to pull a million in two small groups, we said we're going to give this to everybody everywhere and try to see progress across the board, which we did. Um, in this second
103year, I think we'll be expanding into using some of the small group and individual interventions layered on top of it, um, to get even more success. And the program works best and was used in most of our spaces daily for 15 to 20 minutes. As I mentioned, this starts at kindergarten and goes up through algebra 1. So, you know, when we're looking at things like algebra 1 proficiency and middle school math, we're not waiting until our students get to middle school to realize we have a problem. We're really intervening based off kindergarten fall screening data as soon as they're stepping into our schools. And you'll see in a few slides that some of the biggest gains we saw were in kindergarten and first grades. You can see at first it looks like kids just counting
104up objects and circling the answer, developing that one to one correspondence, but then it gets into subtraction, addition, fluency, multiplication, division, and you can see some of the procedural um steps and order of operations and and skills that are really important for algebra 1 proficiency. The program was implemented across all elementary, middle, elementary and middle schools as well as in all algebra 1 classes. Spring math um occurred daily um in all classes for as David mentioned um about 15 to 20 minutes per class. Uh as far as input from employees, we did follow the CAC process. So it was piloted last year at the um conclusion of last year in April. We did vote um through CAC. All staff members had the opportunity to vote. 52% of teachers overall um did vote to continue using
105spring math this school year. Um and then additional PLC listening sessions were held in secondary schools. So again highlighting our alignment with our FFSD strategic plan and anti-racist district standards. Um, we believe this program will help close gaps of getting our students um on grade level and really able to interact with each other and show their student thinking um in mathematics. In terms of what this program will replace, so you all will recall that we've had Imagine Math and Galileo for a number of years. That contract um sunseted this past June 30th. I'm pleased that spring math will come in at over a hund about $100,000 cheaper annually than what we were spending on Imagine Math. So, we think that we found something that is really good and effective for our students, but we're also
106going to spend a lot less money um on that intervention. Spring Math is also one of the most researched math interventions that there is. Um there are multiple randomized control trials showing really um those effect sizes are like moderate to large effect sizes for um students who are in spring math compared to students who are not. Um and some of the effects were even larger for students who are behind grade level and students who um have IEPs. In terms of the benefits that we'll that we've already started to see from spring math and we continue to see is one eliminating these skill gaps. So especially from our secondary teachers, you know, we'll often hear that students are coming in with these really large gaps that make it very hard to do grade level math. So
107not only are we attacking those aggressively starting in kindergarten, um but we also have seen a lot of positive social emotional benefits from this program because it's not just individual work. It's not just teacher and student. really is peer-to-peer. Um, and students from the earliest grades are getting opportunities to interact genuinely with each other and support each other um, in their math skills. There's also a lot of celebration that goes on. So, I have seen um, classrooms basically when the teacher puts in their data, a majority of the class has to hit this mastery target to show that they've passed the skill. And from the littlest of kids, like the class goes crazy when they pass their skills. This is something that even when we were having one of our literacy events this summer, talking
108to some of our littlest students and asking them, you know, do you do spring math? Like where do you go to school? Who's your teacher? Do you do spring math? And they're like, yes, I do it. I like it. It was one of the things that we weren't even expecting to see was how much our students really enjoy doing this program and celebrating the su the success that they're feeling from improving their skills. We'll be measuring um success in three ways. There are weekly CDMs that are tracked within the platform um that show growth across time. The spring mass screeners will also be given in the fall, winter, and spring as they were this year as well as ultimately looking for improved results on our state map testing. Um in addition, we will be monitoring
109usage as we did this year as well. Um the goal for usage is for data to be entered um in 80% of weeks. So the goal overall would be that in 80% of weeks you would have entered data during that time. Um this year we had a usage rate of 75% districtwide. Most buildings uh 12 out of 18 buildings far exceeded that 80% goal and so we'll continue to monitor that um to ensure that we're using the program with fidelity as well. Um really excited about this slide. in my roughly year and a half here, this is perhaps like what I'm most most proud of so far. Um because we have been able to close some gaps for our earliest learners. So what you're seeing here is data based on the spring math paper and
110pencil screener that we gave three times a year in the fall um in late winter, early spring, and then at the end of the school year. And you can see u when our students started in kindergarten, only 5% of our students districtwide were hitting spring math proficiency marks. But by the end of the year, over 50% of our students district-wide were meeting those expectations. And then we can likewise see some um smaller but still large gains in first and second grade. One thing that I'm very um optimistic about and expecting to see even when we test our students this fall coming in is our first grade won't be at 5% anymore and our second grade won't be at 2%. we basically expect to see those bar graphs start to shift right year over year and
111into third grade and so on as students are spending more time in the program. This year was really a year of almost ripping the bandage off in terms of saying like as a school district Ferguson Florescent prioritizes our students knowing our math facts and so it was a shift uh this school year and there were some large gaps but we're really proud of the work our teachers and students uh did this year particularly in our early grades. In our grades three through eight, we saw our proficiency hover more or less around 10%. So, um kind of speaks to why we are um so interested in doing this early intervention work so that students are um on grade level when they're entering middle school and beyond. This is a graph of the um average number of
112skills that are completed by grade level. So for instance in fourth grade approximately five skills passed over the course of the school year on average um on average of all the fourth grade classes. For reference there are about 12 to 15 skills per grade level. It varies by by grade level the number of skills that are there. Um but you can see success um high success rate in kindergarten. We had many kindergarten classes actually finish the complete series. um as well as second grade and sixth grade also were some bright spots of completing lots of skills. So students showing lots of growth in those grade levels and and I really can't emphasize enough um how proud we are of getting these kinds of results in the first year of an implementation. Um sometimes when you
113switch curriculum sometimes results even get worse at first because it takes time. People are getting used to new programs. They're understanding how to do it. All of our teachers outside of those couple pilot classrooms came in completely cold this year. And so to see the amount of progress that we made and knowing how many of our teachers are going to jump in on the first week of school, knowing exactly what they're doing and even the students, right? So I get a new set of students next year, but but this program won't be new to my students. They already know we get in partners, the timer starts and we start working. And so we're really excited about what we were able to do to do in just one year's time. Um I touched upon the cost
114effectiveness and sustainability. So, not only is this coming in about $100,000 cheaper than Imagine Math, but compared to other programs for the amount of uh gains and returns and student achievement that there is, um it's one of the cheapest programs per amount of um student achievement that there is out there compared to peers. And so, the recommendation is the board to approve the renewal of spring math at a cost not to exceed $65,100. Um, this is already budgeted in our curriculum budget that the board has approved and we open it up to any questions. May I have a motion, please? Second. Discussion. Let's start on this end. I have nothing at the time. Thank you. But I don't have any questions either. They yield their time to me. So um thank you so much for
115your presentation and information. I do have a couple questions. Um certainly I see a lot of highlighting for K2 and the excitement around there. And so obviously we know algebra gets harder and but we also know algebra is one of the methods for success long term and career in other fields, right? That we need students to understand algebra. beyond that they don't really need to fully understand but if they understand algebra they'll be successful most likely in that. So just curious, you know, I know certainly you highlighted that. My one concern is at the end of the day, this is still costing around $100 a student, the program, right? And that does not include the paper cost or anything like that because it's 66,000. There's six, [Music] closer to $10. $10. Yes. Sorry about I
116saw the one that said $59 and I was confused where it said $59 standard deviation. Thank you for that correction. But $10 is more, but it does not include the paper cost. And I know we obviously have budget cuts. So, have we included that in some of our Yeah, we actually just had a discussion about this as a leadership team a day or two ago and um I'm going to be getting with our CFO to try to project that out more accurately so that just so that we're aware of it. Um I can say from everything I understand that we didn't it didn't blow through any schools. So that comes out of like schoolsbased budgets. None of them exceeded their budgets as a result of printing. So, they were able to kind of incur it
117with existing funds, but it would be important for us to be tracking that and knowing that so that we can account for it properly. Got it. My last question is, uh, based on board policy, since it's over $50,000, it requires bids. And I didn't see anything about bids or RFP in here. So, I'm just curious if a bid took place otherwise. Uh, good question. I would question about it following the policies which are in effect as of July one and other policies previously. Yes. So, we conducted RFP prior to even rolling out and piloting it this past year to figure out everything that was on the market before we even um went to that pilot year that we're in. So, uh yes, we did conduct a competitive RFP and just like the other one, happy
118to provide scoring for that RFP as well. Not to keep digging certainly. I just curious, was the RFP for a pilot year for totality? Because some people might bid for a pilot and then that doesn't mean it includes. So, I was just curious what the initial Yeah. was it a continuation of contract? Yeah, I'll imagine that it was I mean it was for a school like the schoolwide pilot, so the cost and scope of it was the same, but I believe that language would have just referenced that pilot year. Um, so the cost was basically the same year-over-year, but you're right, that initial RFP just spoke to the pilot. So, that would be my concern that it just in my opinion doesn't align with policy what it says for RFP personally. So, I say concern.
119when we see the dollar amount 50,000 or above, we're already in money money crunch. And so certainly I'm not saying it would be cheaper, but at least by doing the RFP process, no one can come back to us and say like, "Hey, you didn't follow your own policy and now here's here's the issue." That's my only question. Thank you. Hi. Um, I heard you say 52% of the teachers u voted to keep it. Okay. So, if my math is correct, that's 48% that didn't um And and this is something I mean there's just something about a split vote like that that concerns me. Um has there been any polling or um questioning to the teachers that didn't buy in or that didn't support it? You know, what are some of their inquiries or some of
120their concerns about the program? Yep. I'll I'll start off and then if if I miss anything, you want to jump in, Jen? Yeah, we were really interested in engaging our teachers not only about whether you voted yes or no, but you know what are your what's working, what's not working because we wanted we want it to be a success. We don't just want to do it to do it. Um the majority of the concerns came basically as the grade levels went up. So there are a lot of math standards that have to be covered. our curriculum has some really fast pacing and so as a result of that our older teachers get worried about the time crunch of essentially trying to get spring math in and then also trying to cover all these standards in
121the curriculum. Um so we are exploring solutions with them to figure out how we can make both things work. Um there's also we've had some very um fun math debates with a lot of our teachers and even um in our district just about how best to teach math. So, there are schools of thought that say, you know, if you have a calculator, why do you need to know any of this stuff? And then there's others that are like, actually, all these foundations really help you um when you get to more advanced math, knowing these types of facts um off the top of your head. So, some of it has been a mindset shift as well. But I think ultimately all teachers want to see their students learning. So, as their students are growing, I think
122that teacher buyin will happen. Um it doesn't always the buyin isn't always there first. Sometimes the results come and then the buyin grows over time. I don't if I missed anything else you want to add, Jen. uh many of the things that um teachers referenced as challenges were things like uh motivation for students or just students buying into the program as well. And so we've been kind of brainstorming what are some ways that we can support teachers in building in some more motivational p pieces. One of the key components of the program is keeping the program fun and motivating and tracking progress and focusing on growth. Um, and so that will be an area of focus moving forward as well as supporting teachers in how can I make this feel good for students because when
123students are enjoying it, it becomes really easy to teach that thing as well. Um, so that's one thing that we're looking to support teachers in as well. We've heard that in some of our our listening tours at the secondary level where teachers were more um felt a little more pressed with that time. That's some of the feedback they gave us and so we'll be providing additional support around those challenges that they mentioned. I appreciate that because that does speak to some of the my next question which which what what does the roll out look like in teacher buy in uh but again my concern goes to um you know that 48% you know what because the data is always is going to be wrong if they don't buy in. If they do not push their
124students to do it then we won't be able to see what this our investment is really working. So, I'm just really curious to see how how we're going to encourage our teachers who are not buying in to get on board. Like, this is not an option, right? You know, um I mean, it's not we're spending this money. We're if the board decides to do this, we're saying this is what we want and we need you to give us the results or at least the data to show us the results if it's not working. Um So again, that's that's just kind of Yeah. And I will say I agree with you and I will say along those lines, the the vote, if I remember, was pretty similar for our ELA um adoption last spring. So, you
125know, it's it's difficult to get in, you know, a district with 500 teachers to get everyone kind of moving in one direction or another, but I agree. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Um, thank you for the information. Um, I like I mean I like what was shown, so um I don't have any additional comments. I don't have any questions. Okay. I do have a question uh based on um Dr. Martin's comment about following policy. Um could you elaborate on that a little bit more and how we would not be following policy based on the art? Yeah, our policy requires anything over 50,000 to go out to bid and we didn't do a bid on it. So it just some can come back and sue us for not getting a bid and then we get legal things.
126And I thought we did get a bid for a one-year pilot is what Mr. We did. We did a bid I think spring of 24. Um, and I was going to say obviously this is, you know, it's the board's pleasure how you want to handle this. So, you know, if you all don't feel comfortable and want to table it, you know, we have enough time in August to to reput it out and and bring it back if the board would like. And that was going to be my suggestion that we uh not uh vote on this tonight for action and that we make sure that we are following policy. And that that is one thing that I want to be a stickler on is is following policy and also I know Dr. feels wants that
127as well and I'm glad that we do have time to come back and revisit this. So, can we um those who made the motion, are you comfortable with um pulling the the the motion? I just got a question moving forward though. So, this was a part of a pilot and we had success in the pilot, but then if somebody else bids and they bid lower, are we gonna just go with them because they bid it lower or are we going with what's best for kids? I'm just confused. Well, to me it's what every set of the RFP is because it's not just scored on the lowest bid. There's a scoring criteria that you could they would set for what they're looking for. Obviously, wouldn't be tailored just towards spring math, but obviously whatever they're looking
128for. And I hear you, Dr. Graves, but again, that's why we have policy in place to keep us financially solvent and not lawsuits from other people saying, "Well, you just gave us this bid to this person and now I'm suing you because you didn't give us an opportunity." We might come back to spring math might be the one we come back to. But at least we did the RFP process. Maybe no one else will even respond to the RFP. Who knows? But it's not just based on the lowest bid. It's based on a set of criteria that they use for scoring. And I I would like to know um just now that I'm thinking through some things um and you did mention that you were going to get this information, but I think it's very
129important as we move forward, we do have the the the supply cost uh allocated to us. So, we kind of know because paper does add up. Um, it's just a whole bunch of different variables, pencils, all of that. Um, are things that we just have to be conscientious about and think about or even providing, again, we we keep saying partnerships and we're doing a great job of securing that. But even partnering with Staples to see if we can get notebooks and different things like that to kind of weigh out the cost. Um, because kids are going to need what they're going to need. Um, but if you add an additional cost when you go to pencil and paper versus tablets and technology, you got to kind of weigh kind of what the best options are.
130So, I think that's important. Um, because it is because the number it says 65,000, but when you add supplies, that's not really 65. It's more than that. I just thought of one more thing. Sorry. Just thinking about, you know, certainly to get under the 50,000 mark. Like certainly, as Mr. Tyson said, I don't know if you have data where that vote was split. Was it more split at secondary? Was it more split at elementary? Is there a way to look at maybe starting with your K6 group to try and build buy in and build which would bring us under 50,000 then you don't have to go out for bid and then look I'm just giving options not saying what to do but certainly I think if the split was smaller in a certain span does
131it make sense to try and start there as we have 24 STEM vacancies at secondary anyways you're getting a whole bunch of new I'm just throwing out thoughts of just you know to get to Mr. to Tyson's point of closing the split a little bit more. If your split was less in K6, maybe it was 8020 there, maybe we just do the program there and then you're under the 50,000. You don't have to do a bit. I mean, because the needs as they progress or more. So, I mean, they elementary has probably a little bit more time I would say to kind of focus on that. High school, you get depending on your block schedule, it's an hour, might be 45 minutes, and then they have other curriculum that they have to teach. So, I
132can kind of see the split going on as far as timing and different things like that. And we need to make sure we're going to make that universal process, which is fine. We also got to make sure that we vary it to make sure that everybody gets the adequate time and adequate information and different things that they need as well because math is a very very hard tedious subject. Um, we want to make sure that we prepare we prepare our young people for whatever is next. And it is more than just a calculator. It is more than just a pen and paper. But it's a foundational thing that skill that's built upon. We need to make sure that we focus on that skill that's built upon, but we also make sure that we make sure
133that it's equitable for all of our kids and our teachers as well. But to be fair, I'm just curious. Um, because you're saying this starts with grades going up to high school, but a program like this, isn't it difficult for someone with already established practices of math, particular like our high school students to come into this program without some of that core data um that are grades like coming up in it is what I'm saying. So, a high school student who started in first grade with it is different than a high school student who has none of those core basics. Yeah, it can it can be a challenge. And I I think what we kind of thought about and we're we're looking at is that, you know, say a student was in eighth grade last
134year if we know that our students need this and that it's best practice. Do we kind of just keep working up from elementary and then kind of not intervene for those students? So, we kind of just took it from approach of we don't we don't want to wait just on the younger kids to get older. Like, we want to try to reach the older students where they're at as well. Kind of no different than, you know, when we rolled out UFly, the kids who got it in kindergarten and first grade. Now, they're probably going to score better and do better than older kids, but we still started it with the second graders last year as well because we don't want to, you know, we don't want to waste any kids' time. We want to as
135soon as we have something that we think is going to work, we want to put it in front of them right away. So, that that was our thought process. I mean, I I appreciate that. I I get it. I'm just to I'm not sure to everybody's point, but I'm just curious, you know, the difficulty level. Is that pos possibly some of the push back from teachers like, hey, this is new for a junior to start now in their educational path, you know, to start this now. So, is that some of the push back? Yeah. Along with the cost? Yes. Yeah, I think so. Um, but as well some of the conversations we've had with some of the assessments that our students go on to take to enter the workforce and some of those CTE assessments,
136the kinds of skills that they're working on here have a lot of applicability. So even if you never test proficient in algebra 1, you still might use this stuff on on a test that you're going to take for the workforce. And so that was another reason why we looked at it like these are just life skills that are good to have for everything from calculating a tip when you go to a restaurant. I do have one more question. I'm curious to know too even the split I often want to know what type of support and what I mean by that is not necessarily the defined support what I mean by that is when you build programs and capacities of anything especially mathematics and we know that it's a built upon skill set every kid is
137not going to get it so what additional supports um do we have in place um because that's an added cost too whether it's tutoring whether it's an additional um uh what is it not a database but additional curriculum to kind of enhance those things. Those are things that I'm just thinking through as you as you speak. Um because it just can't be math is just not one specific um spring math. It's going to have to have extra supports to kind of to to uh Terry's point to uh make sure that it's equitable in a way. Um, and that's just something I'm just thinking through and I know you don't have the answer and I'm sure you thought about those things as well, but it wasn't in the presentation, but those are just things that I'm
138thinking through as to why the split is because that split is kind of is concerning. Just being honest with you. I just want to get an opportunity to say thank you, uh, Mr. Murray, for not only putting the presentation together, but being well aware of a number of dynamics, including um, the financial status that the district is in. That's not what I'm most impressed with. What I'm most impressed with with, as many of the board members have said, there is a split, but you didn't necessarily stop there. You stated specifically about responding to the concerns because at the end of the day, we want to make sure that our teachers are in the best position to support our students. And so, I don't want that message to get lost. Again, thank you. Thank you, Miss
139Competis, and the work that you're doing. And whatever the board decides, certainly, we'll work together and provide the best opportunity for our students. So, thank you again for that. Thank you. Okay. How would the board like to proceed? Would you like to to vote on it or would you like to pull it? Go ahead. I would rather have it be pulled than vote no on it to give them a chance to go follow the process and and be done. But certainly if other board members feel differently, I'm happy to vote no. So, is it okay with us pulling? Okay. Who made the mo who made the motion? Was it who was the motion? Was it Dr. Graves? Graves and Tyson. So, would you like to pull? So, for clarification, why are we pulling it? Just
140for and I'm sorry if I do off but no, I'm just joking. What What What are the reasons why we're pulling it? I'm curious. because we we were not we're not following policy in terms of the um yeah in terms of and so we want to do the uh RFP RFP because there's no RFP on this. Oh right. And then something that he stated too is that even though you see the and I don't want to misspeak so again cut me off correct me if I'm wrong that's not the real number is 65,000 because he also stated this supplies like paper and stuff like that that he has to go to the CFO to get the number about. So that is a cost that is going to be associated with it. So this 65 may
141go up 20,000. We don't really know want that number included in the next um um when you bring it bring this back to us. Yeah, I can I can do my best to estimate that. I just want to clarify two things which is that we did do an RFP to have it for the exact amount of students that this is before the RFP was just done last spring before um we conducted the pilot. I'm happy to estimate the cost of the paper for when we bring it back. that hasn't been something that we've traditionally done. I mean, we there's paper involved in 90% of the things that are coming in front of the board. So, are happy to do that, but basically this is just the cost that we're saying like we are paying this
142to the vendor for the service. Um, but we're happy to include that if it's the board's pleasure. Okay. So, the people who who made the motion have decided to not pull it call for the vote. So, so we're going to call for the votes. Pardon me. I was correcting myself. I've called a question. Thank you. So, what we're voting on then would be to the administration recommends the renewal of spring math at a cost not to exceed $65,000. So, uh let's call for the vote. Graves, yes. Martin, no. Manserie, no. Bailey, no. Secretary votes no. Tyson, yes. Dr. No. So, we would like for you to bring this back to us, please. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you, board. And now we're going to go into the resolution to borrow up to
14325 million in tax anticipation notes. And uh Hello there, How are you? Doing okay. Welcome again. There we go. All right. Good deal. Well, good evening to the Ferguson Florison School District, colleagues, uh, community, and the board of education. Again, my name is Tony Chance. I'm the chief financial and operations officer for the district. Tonight, I'd like to discuss the need for a resolution to borrow up to $25 million in tax anticipation notes to relieve budget shortfalls anticipated in the 202526 fiscal year. The district's had an expected shortfall in the incidental fund for the past fiscal year 2024-25 and has a deficit in the current fiscal year's budget. In order to relieve the shortfall until tax collections begin to be received in December, it's necessary for the Ferguson Florescent School District to obtain a short-term
144bank loan in order to provide a temporary source of funds. The district proposes issuance of a tax and revenue anticipation note barring against those future tax receipts. The TAN would be issued in the amount not to exceed $25 million, but only an amount necessary to cover expenditures will be borrowed against the TAM. This note will mature March 1st, 2026. Repayment can also begin at any point prior to March 1st. This will be a short term short-term borrowing just to get through until the receipt of property tax collections can begin. The term of the payments will be computed on the basis of a 360day year of 12 30-day months. The interest rate on the note has not yet been set, but will be determined on the date two days prior to the issuance of the note.
145The rate will be established at the secured overnight sofur rate or or financing rate or sofur plus 2.75%. To give an idea of what rates are currently, if the loan were closed today, sulfur would be 4.34%. Which would make the total loan rate 7.09%. The target date for closing is July 17th and the rate lock date will be uh July 15th. Current estimates of revenue and expenditures for the period of July through December show a potential need of approximately 17 million of the $25 million TAN total. Additional funds will be withdrawn from the district MOAT's account as needed. Incremental borrowing against the TAN would result in just under $500,000 in acred interest if current rates continue to hold. UNMB Bank is the lender on the financing. Gilmore and Bell PC is the district's bond council
146and have drafted the attachments on the board agenda tonight, the resolution, the note purchase agreement, and other various closing documents. With us this evening is Jason Terry from Gilmore and Bell and Vince Rug, vice president and the district's commercial client manager at UMB. They will be able to assist with any questions that you might have on this tan. Pardon? Recommendation is to uh approve the TAM as presented. May I have a motion? Some moved. Second. Discussion. Um Oh, okay. I I have a I I think one of these is a clarifying question just because I'm trying to understand it. Sure. The 25 million is it actually a sort of a credit line that we would tap as needed. Correct. Yes. It's very much it's very much similar to a a home equity loan where you
147borrow against and you can pay um against as well once you receive funds. Okay. And then I think I heard you say that um it it it's you know whatever we have borrowed becomes due March 1st of 2026. That is the deadline. And so um I want to ask you as the chief financial and operations officer based on what you know about the budget so far it's very new to the role. Do you believe that we will have do you anticipate that we have the revenue to make something like this work? Does that make sense? This is a temporary fill. Okay. Of the gap until we receive the tax revenue which will in in majority start in December through the beginning of um 2026. Okay. And I have two more quick things. one I want
148to ask uh for you you mentioned that the interest rate would be set two days prior to issuance the issuance correct but you said that whatever the interest rate is there's an additional 2.75% that is correct and I wanted to ask why there is an additional 2.75% um these gentlemen can can give more detail but it what it's called is the credit spread adjustment it it's the assumption of risk on behalf of the issuing um financial institution. So basically it's over the sofa rate in order to um basically account for the risk that they are taking with the loan. Loan is never 100% even though we are 100% sure ourselves that we are going to repay the loan but this particular amount is is what that's for. It's to the assumption of risk. Yeah, the
149uh the only thing I'd add to that is this is structured nearly identical to the TAN that the district took out last fall. That margin of 2.75 is the same margin that was on the TAN last year. Thank you. And then uh Mr. Chance, just one one question I guess that I wonder if you could speak to. um you know whenever it's time for us to do something like this like this is not something anybody wants to have to do but we are in the position we're in so we have to at least entertain this um if we don't approve this what is what is at risk when we think about uh moving into the 2526 school year what are some of the risks associated with you know like us not approving this there would
150be a significant amount of shortfall that we wouldn't be able to pay any bills or or pay payroll or any expenditures for the district. So, it is very essential that we do have this um extra uh revenue that fills the gap until such time that we receive the tax revenue um towards the end of the year and into 2026. So, this basically is it's a loan that we know that we're going to pay back. Okay. Thank you. Um, and actually, it was kind of the same question. So, this is basically used to help our cash flow problem that we anticipate will occur um in the first couple of months of the new school year. Correct. So what happens is that there's usually an eb and flow of revenue and expenditures. So um a majority of
151your tax revenue comes in the end of the calendar year and the beginning of the next calendar year and then you generally will spend that money down again uh towards the end of the year and so it's kind of an up and down. Um so yes, what this does is helps us cover um in the second uh half of the calendar year until such time as we have um the tax revenue come in towards December and January and February. Okay. And then and will this decision um at all impact our community, their dollars or anything like that? No. No, it will not. And I just need clarification because to my understanding tans are fixed. They're of they're not a um it's not a flexible rate. It's not a flex. There's no flexibility with it. We're
152borrowing a lump sum. And in this case, we we're borrowing against um up to 25 million. We don't have to take the 25 million right off. But to her point, she was asking about the line of credit. Line of credit is more revolving. like I want to use what I want and I'm only paying interest on the difference. So this is this those are the differences between this per se and a line of credit. We are borrowing up to 25 millions but it's a one time whatever we borrow we borrow out of that 25 million right well we can pay back at any time before there's no prepayment penalty right so like we can take certain amount so I've put together a a general um schedule of payment um and borrowing um based on an
153analysis I did of uh all of the revenues and expenditures each month from July through December. And so we can we only really have to take out the amount that we need to cover a particular month. And then um when revenues start coming in as early as December, we can literally start paying back at that point in time, which will lessen the amount of interest that we have to pay for. So, we wouldn't really be holding on to those funds uh for the full amount of time up through March 1st, but there will be flexibility. So, let's say for instance, and I'm asking in December, we need to borrow 2 million to cover expenses and we pay it back. Will we do we have to recast, reapply, whatever? No. For January if we need another
154five million, right? The deadline for this particular loan is March 1st, 2025. So regardless of how much we borrow against it monthly, right? Yeah. We pay back whatever it is we have outstanding at the time on March 1st. Gotcha. But during that time, we can borrow and pay back as we have the funds available. Well, I mean, I like the 10 because the interest rates lowers in a line of credit, but I do like the flexibility of a line of credit. then I do attain because that could also be considered an asset on the back backside because you got $25 million. But um yeah, I'm with you. So we're good. Okay. Anything else you'd like to add? Yes, please. Sir, you're you're exactly correct. The the maximum borrowing is 25 million, but it is it
155is not a we we sometimes use line of credit and and it's probably a term I use with with Mr. Chance. Um, but it is not a true line of credit in the sense that when you uh if you if you borrow five and pay back three, do you get that extra two? You you do not. Your maximum borrowing between now and March one is 25 million. And again, kind of line of credit is used very frequently and so I apologize if if if I misspoke. Um, but it is a maximum 25 million between now and March one. Even if you pay back 25 million, you don't get another 25 million. And thank you for that clarification because I knew I wasn't crazy. You you were saying it correct and I and I'm sure I
156misspoke to Mr. Chance. And then you also raised a question about the interest rate. It will be fixed. It's just not fixed today. So it'll be a fixed rate. Correct me if I'm wrong. That is correct. Fixes two days. So, and it's based on it's based on the uh the sofur rate plus 2.75 and that will be fixed, but not today. It'll be fixed two days before we close. Well, in and 10 rates are typically lower than than a line of credit rate anyway. So, I think that's not my biggest concern. I mean, I like the interest rate for 10 than I would a lot of credit, but I appreciate the clarification. Sure. Thank you. Welcome. Uh such a fun financial situation to walk into. Certainly appreciate your work jumping in and I know it
157is common in many districts regardless of you know financial situations that they have a tan just because the way the taxes work in Missouri other states you get paid twice a year you pay taxes. So being in Missouri obviously coming December just creates a an issue regardless of obviously we have a more financial situation. I do want to clarify though one thing with Dr. Graves question. What's the impact on community? Based on the budget we approved, there is still an impact on the community of around $368,000 in interest we're paying. So, because we are borrowing this money, we're still going to be paying $368,000 plus the fee. So, you're talking about almost $400,000 is really the impact on the community because it's not free money, right? We don't get to borrow it 0% interest. So,
158there is a financial cost. Obviously, we have to do it, but obviously there is a financial cost, which in my eyes, I go to like teacher salaries. like six and a half teachers is what this is costing us if we borrow all 25 million because we only pay interest on what we borrow. Correct. So, um I just wanted to clarif uh purchasers fee shall not exceed $40,000 is what we put in the last resolution. However, the fee was 50,000. So, we didn't even file the resolution from what we were presented to the board. Now, certainly that's what I'm just saying what we presented on the CFO line. This resolution says it will not exceed 50,000. I'm just making sure the purchase or fee really is not going to be about 50,000 because last time we
159borrowed 9 million and it was 50,000. Now, we're borrowing 25 million potentially. Is a purchaser's fee still not going to exceed 50,000? Yes, the the fee on this will not exceed 50,000. I'm not aware of the fee going from 40 to 50 on the last tax anticipation note. We we had 40 in and I believe in the documents we had 40,000. So, I'm not quite sure where the extra 10's coming from. I just Yeah, certainly on the resolution said 40. I'm just saying what the CFO presented. I'm not going to go backwards. I just wanted to make sure that we have 50,000. is that the other question I have just because this is such a legal document and I don't know if it's just standard because we changed the title chief financial officer does that
160make the resolution have to change because now Mr. Chance's titles chief financial and operating officer I just want to make sure since we're signing official resolution that the titles are matching what that or is that just the standard title that you would use? I we can read that into the resolution this evening if that if that's a concern. It's not a concern of mine from a legal standpoint. Not for I just want to make sure because once we approve it, we approve it. I don't want to come back for that. Right. I uh I did not know that the title changed from CFO to CFO and operations, but um I think it's the board's intent and it's clear that Mr. Chance as the chief financial officer and operations is authorized to take the action that
161a CFO is authorized under this resolution. I just know it's a super technical legal document. I just wanted to make sure that there was no issues with that piece of it. Thank you. You got a you got a spot at Gilmore Bell if this doesn't work out. How much they pay? Any more questions? Okay. If there are Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Chance. Um, as well as to our our guests. We really appreciate the partnerships. um as we continue to look at our financial situation, we understand that we have to look at absolutely everything. And so I want to thank the board as well as making sure that we're crystal clear, not only with um our team here, but with the community as well. And so, Mr. Chance, you've done spectacular in terms of looking
162at absolutely everything. Um and so I really appreciate it and looking forward to continuous support as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Fields. Are there any other questions or comments? If not, let's call for the vote. Secretary votes yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mrs. Manserie, yes. Dr. Martin, yes. Dr. Graves, yes. Mr. Tyson, yes. Madame President, yes. Motion passes. Okay. Do we would we'd like to see the Missouri School Board Association's uh presentation if it's ready? Miss Hollowman, do you think that they can play it or if not we can move on? Do if you've got a good Don't worry about it. Don't worry. We'll catch it next time if that's okay with the board. Okay. Is there any new business? Madame President, I was just going to ask if Dr. Fields or you
163could remind the community of the upcoming opportunities to meet our new superintendent in the community. Thank you for that, Dr. Paul Walker. on the 15th as well as the 17th at 6 pm to 7:30. Um we will have an opportunity to meet our entire community on those two days. Certainly want to um touch base, hear from you, your celebrations, your concerns as we continue to move forward as a school community. And so that will be July the 15th, which is next um Tuesday, as well as next Thursday, the 17th, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:30. The specific locations are on our website. I'm looking forward to meeting as many community members as possible as we continue to do the great work for our student, staff, and school community. The day after my birthday, officially. Yes. Any
164other new business? Seeing none, may I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor?