Ozark School Board Meeting - June 19, 2025

001of the United States of America and to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have no requests for public comment. So, we'll move on to our first order of new business, which is um the baseball field for Curtis. Thank you. Good evening. Hope you all are doing all right tonight. Always fun to come talk about the possibility of building and renovating new new and existing uh facilities. Uh tonight we want to talk about the baseball field. Our goal in doing this would be to build a first class facility, renovate it to where people want to come play. And tonight I'll give you a little bit of my background since you don't know me very well. of I've had the opportunity to build four turf fields. I

002think there were pictures in the board report of those four fields. U so I have a decent understanding of how they need to work and I have also had the opportunity to work with Mid America on four different projects. And I will tell you during those four projects, there were some hiccups and the thing I truly appreciated about Mid America was if there was a hiccup, they were there to solve the problem to make me happy. And I think each time it happened, I got to know the owner well of the company. I can call Kirk right now and he'll pick up and hope I don't go crazy on him. But they did make them right. So, please understand in looking at projects, we're going to have some issues, but I think what impressed me

003the most about Mid America was their ability to come in and fix the problem and make a great facility for us. Uh, I think this project is a little unique for Ozark since they have not done a buying co-op. So, I have Natalie from Sourcewell. She's going to come up and explain how a co-op works so that you all have a better understanding. At this time, please ask her questions. Okay? I want to make sure you all understand what we're doing. My number one goal is to get the best product and save the most money we can. And I feel this is the best way to do it. So, I will bring Natalie up and let her talk. >> Like you said, I hope you have asked questions. Thank you. >> My soul now is

004just to make you hope you understand and what it is. >> I have here. >> All right. Well, first I just want to thank you for having me. Um, second, I want to thank you for doing the job that you do. I know how difficult it is to be a school board member and how thankless it can be at times. So, I truly appreciate you guys and the role that you play in the community and the school district. Um, so my presentation is called Cooperative Purchasing 101. It's a very brief overview of cooperative purchasing. The documents inside the folder go a little bit deeper. Um, but if you have questions, please ask them throughout. Um, oh, I have the clicker. That's right. Okay. So, my name is Natalie Morgan. I am a senior account executive

005with Sourcewell. I've been at Sourcewell for two and a half years. Before Sourcewell, I was an elementary principal for seven and a half years and I was a teacher for eight years before that. Um, so I have background in education. Sourcewell started a K12 vertical about nine months ago and of course I jumped on board to be able to work with school districts across the country. So who is Sourcewell? Have you guys heard of Sourcewell before? Okay, so the first thing is we are a government organization. I am a government employee. We are not for-p profofit. We are not I'm not I don't get paid on commission for anything that um public agencies use off of our contracts. We are a national cooperative. We support state governments, local governments, K12 districts and higher education. So

006we procure um we do the procurement process for public entities so that they can save time and money by just utilizing our contracts that we have already gone through the solicitation process for. We satisfy that RFP bid process for public agencies only. So basically instead of a district doing the RFP, we've already done that. we've already vetted the vendors and a district can just come to our website, find what contract they need and purchase directly. So, cooperative purchasing benefits, there's a ton. Um, and you can see here some of them, but really the most important one that we talked when I travel the country talking to school districts, it's that we create efficiencies so districts can save time and money. You don't necessarily have an expert in your business office that knows about turf. you

007don't have an expert that knows about X, Y, and Z, whatever you're doing. Where at Sourcewell, we do. So, we can have our experts vet all of the contracts and then you can use those knowing that it was went through a vetted process. And the other one that I like to point out is that you can still use your local suppliers. So, if you have a John Deere supplier in town, you can go to your local John Deere dealer. We have three contracts with John Deere, purchase from your local dealer, still keep the money local even though it was um vetted through a national cooperative. You can go to your local Napa Auto Group, your local AutoZone. Those are all vetted contracts that we have at Sourcewell. So, I just really like to point that

008out because again, it's stimulating that local economy. It's stimulating, you know, the relationship that you have in this community. So, I don't know if you guys know about procurement, but this is the whole these are all of the steps when you're thinking about procuring something in your district. It's a long list. What cooperatives do is they cut that in half. So, as a district, you're still going to have to identify what you need. You're still going to have to discuss with your procurement office, but instead of going through the scope, the advertise, the opening, the valuation, the award, and the pro the protest period, you just use a natural you use a co-op because we've already done that. So, it's not you're not skipping steps as a school district. We've just done the steps for

009you as a local unit of government. and then you still issue the PO and receive the goods. But that's cutting it in half. And I have another slide later, but typical this typical process is like five to six months with a school district. We can do it in 2 to 3 months by using a cooperative. So again, when you're making a purchase as a school district, you have to decide what you need. You have to choose the suppliers and request quotes still using the awarded suppliers. you can work directly with your local supplier or a representative and then you make the purchase. Um, and there's a new study. So, um, NCP, National Cooperative Public Procurement. For the last three years, everybody's been saying, "How much money does using a cooperative save? How much time does

010using a cooperative save?" So, they finally did a a project and they got a bunch of public agencies across the country and here's what they found. If it's a complex project, turf, building a facility, you can save on average $17,000 by using a cooperative contract. They even said this is on the low end. They they think it's probably anywhere between 25,000, but that was using the agencies that they had. And then on a non-complex project, that's like paper supplies, pencils, you know, your staples, your um those type of projects, you can save $1,700, which if you think about it, it's pretty significant. that can add an EA to your staff that can better support kids in the classroom. And this is the time savings. So if you look on the left, that's if a district

011does the um RFP by themselves. Again, that need is still there. The RFP that you have to post and have out for a certain amount of time. Then you have to have somebody evaluate it and then you have to have delivery. The middle one is our source well average. So you can see instead of seven months, it's about three and a half. And this furniture example is one that we internally did. A district wanted KI furniture for their building and so they got the quote and within 15 days the furniture was delivered to the building because it was already in stock. So there are some of those examples that we do have. That was a specific one that was really beneficial to the district. Um but on average it's about three and a half months.

012more specifically to Missouri. You got m the state of Missouri last year had approximately $46 million in sales from just school districts. There was over a 100 school districts that utilize source contracts and they were the top suppliers for those the um the contracts that were utilized. Sourcewell specifically has 860 vendors on contract. Other cooperatives have more of and different ones. Some of them are the same, but those were the top ones used in Missouri specifically. And this is just that same information just kind of in a different um different look. So 170 107 agencies utilize the cooperatives 4.5 4.6 million and that was 15% higher than the year previously. You can see in 2021 there was a huge spike in the use of cooperatives. I'm sure you can understand why, but the national trend

013is that it's it's it's still going up. So, Ozark Public Schools specifically, um I'm lucky at Sourcewell that we have a government relations and legal team that went through the um the state uh procurement process and your local um schoolboard policy and was able to I can't legally say yes, you can or no, you can't because that's not my role as a sourceful employee. What I can say is that the state has adopted six of our contracts. The state's procurement statutes allow cooperative contracts to be used in the state of Missouri. Your local school board has a policy that says as long as the superintendent, you give the board has given the superintendent the ability to use cooperative purchasing. And then on top of it, you guys are lucky enough that our EasyICQ, our construction

014contracts are legal in the state of Missouri, which again still uses your local the people, what are those project managers? Still uses your local project managers within um the county that you live in. But again, that's just another benefit that you have here in Missouri that you're able to use our construction contracts. But again, state adopted statute says cooperatives are good. your local authority, your schoolboard policy already says that superintendent has the right to be able to use cooperative purchasing. And that's really all I have. So if you have questions, please ask. >> Great. Thank you. >> So where what is this? The uh the Mid America uh is that the bid is that through Sourcewell? >> So remember how we said local dealers? It was bid at the manufacturing level which is AstroTurf. So

015we have a contract with AstroTurf but any retailer of AstroTurf is allowed to still fall under that source umbrella. So Mid America is part of AstroTurf. >> Okay. So then did you get other as part of this were there other bids that went out? How does that work? >> Absolutely. So similar to how a school district puts out the RFP and vendors put bids in. Same thing. Sourcewell has a whole procurement department. We put out an RFP for, let's say, turf. All the vendors nationwide put in a bid. We have a procurement department that evaluates that bid on a 1,00 point scale. 400 being pricing. And then unlike a school district, we can multiple award. So we have three to four turf vendors on contract with us. So again, a school district goes finds AstroTurf

016because that's what your district wants knowing that it already went through that RFP process. We already had multiple bids. We already evaluated the bids so you don't have to. >> Okay. >> Does that make sense? >> A little bit. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I if I pull I could pull up our website and you could see basically for turf you can see all of the vendors that put in a bit in and all of their scores. >> So you're kind of you're like a main project manager >> source. >> Yeah. >> We get we save you time and money because we just do the process for you. But what's their cost? >> We are free. >> Yeah, >> we are free to the district does not need to spend a dime. There's no membership. We

017get paid by the uh the vendor. So basically if you >> we don't use you all the time. >> That's a question I ask districts all the time. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um honestly some some of it depends on like it's state by state, right? Missouri is a pretty friend we call it a friendly state for cooperative purchasing. I mean, your top districts in the state, I think one of them was $5 million in sales last year that they used on our contracts. So, it's very Missouri is a very friendly state. >> You said there like state or federal or >> I'm a state um source is a local unit of government from Minnesota. >> Yes. >> So, we've talked about this many times with other projects. It would be nice to have one person

018who went and sorted through all the bids, who knew about that stuff already, let alone what a cooperative can do. But I mean, just having suppliers on hand, vendors on hand that you can sort through that that's like a no-brainer. Sorry. To me, to me, >> I will say districts, >> we don't want everything that you purchase to go through a cooperative. That's not the the purpose. And I would say about 20 to 25% is what is nationwide. You should go through a cooperative. >> The other things you do want to bid yourself. You do want to have some control over that. But 20% is typical for when they say you should use a cooperative >> like like Amber said the big things. >> Yeah. I work. >> Yes. >> You use Source. >> Yeah.

019>> School buses, paper, copers, phones. >> So you said you said Minnesota. is sourceful Minnesota organization or is it federal or >> so we were started as a Minnesota we start in 1978 we started um the governor appointed we were a local service agency and we were basically do you have like a CISA here or um where your teachers go and get professional development that's what source started at and they like three districts would come and be like we need a we need a school bus and so this organization was like oh we'll leverage three districts to get a better deal the executive director ctor at the time was like, "If we can do this in Minnesota, why can't we do this nationally?" So, Sourcewell now has 50,000 agencies. So, when we put an RFP

020out, those vendors look and they're like, "You have 50,000 agencies. We're going to give you the best price that you can possibly get." >> And part of our process, it has to be higher than you would give another public entity. >> So, like Staples, if you just go, as an educator, you go to Staples, it's 18% you're going to save. If you use our contract, it's 22 to 25%. you get a higher discount because we have so many agencies. >> Thanks for explaining all that. >> You're talking about contracts. >> Can you talk about I'm not sure if it would be you or um if you'd be talking about that how you came up with the astrour versus the other I think you we talked about this but if you can kind of explain that

021to everybody how that worked >> and I think we'll answer questions if you have. >> Thank you so much. Uh we had a sixperson committee and we toured 16 different facilities and I think after we looked at geo surfaces, Byron Jones, uh Astro Turf, Field Turf, Shaw, and after looking at them and looking at the research, there's some research on baseball fields. A lot of them atg was a lot of them will use a higher blade turf two inches. Astroturf uses an inch and a half which it gives a truer hop that is more realistic like a baseball field. So like u University of Oklahoma banner uh Missou places like that use the turf. When I was at the ocean I did the same thing. I went and toured fields and astroturf. It came down

022between astroturf and field turf. I think the one thing that helped sell me on astroturf is that guy sitting right there. We put the football field down uh on a Monday before a Tuesday for final soccer. The seam around the arc on the soccer box, goalie box uh was coming up. I called him Tuesday morning. It was down and it was fixed. So customer service was unbelievable. Uh I'll step back. When I did the first football field the first time 5 years ago, I knew nothing about co-ops. So I used to co-op co-op, but I hard bid the co-op. So I made the three companies come in and bid against each other. Astroturf was $100,000 cheaper than Shaw and $300,000 cheaper than uh Ellis. Those were the three companies in that co-op. So, we built

023the football field. When the baseball field started, I used the co-op. I went straight to Mid America. They did that. We went built an indoor facility. I used the co-op to do that. Then we went built the softball facility. I went used the co-op to do that. So, four different projects. The first one I kind of use a co-op that I needed to know for questions like that. And then the other three I use a co-op. So, coach is here. He can come up and talk to you about field selection and different things like that. He was part of the process. Had a he had a voice in the process. >> Yeah. Make a lot of calls, did you? >> Y >> feel free to ask him questions. I do have M America here that

024can show you some drawings and walk you through the process with them if you'd like to hear that. >> Okay. >> So, if you have any more questions for Dustin or myself at this time. >> Yeah. Coach, what do you think about this? >> I'm grateful number one just to be involved in it. Feel like it was just a lot of fun at the same time. It just makes you just feel supported, excited. Um, you know, we want something we want something down there that's desired about bottom line. So when people come up that field hill, they look down and they see that field, it's something that reflects the tradition that our baseball has, which is, you know, and then all a sudden now we're hosting this tournament. Now we got state teams coming to

025our place instead of us going to their place. It just puts us on the map and that's been it's what we need. And so it's been an awful process. law for sure. >> I wanted to ask Lori a question. I have Yeah, I have a question for you. I know we talked about this at one of our work sessions about in October, I believe it was, about using the remaining bond money that had been set aside and we like hashed out all the details of what different things. Do you remember what we had estimated for the baseball field? >> I got 1.8 budgeted for. >> Okay. Okay. >> So, we got set up. >> So, this is 1.2, >> right? >> And then at the bottom of there, it talks about a ditch. >> It

026talks about a back stop, a wall. >> There was a prioritized list down at the bottom that we will >> so we can get the best thing. >> We think we can get those in for the remaining That's my question. For the remaining six, >> we can get those things go spread down. Obviously, the outfield fence is going to be number one. The back stop's going to be number two. So, if you get there, I think if we don't have to use soil stabilization, the 243,000, you're going to come in at about 14 is what I'm guessing. You still have 400,000. >> Okay. >> You would still have 400,000 to do the remaining projects. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking at that one. I was Thank you. >> I want to answer everything you

027need answered. >> I'd like to hear Christian and are here. >> I'd like to hear like that probably. >> First of all, I don't know why I'm looking up here. Everybody else is my job for you. U Thank you all very much. U you have no idea how amazing this is for me. I grew up a little unathletic kid in Missouri and now all over the country uh selling selling some of the nicest fields on the planet. Uh a little bit about us. We're America Sports Construction. When we started 35 years ago, at least some of Missouri as a golf course, built golf courses all over the country. Then when the Tiger Woods kind of plateaued, we transitioned in doing high-end natural grass fields, Royals, Chiefs, Kay, then this when the new style of synthetic

028turf that we see today that you guys have on football, this started coming in. So we started building the base for better. Everybody, the system on every turf company's field, we were doing everything. And about 12, 13 years ago, we teamed up with Astron. They were the easiest hit to work with. They had the best product and their vision for baseball was out of this world. The first major install of this new kind of turf, I won't bore you too long. Everything I'm talking about and more we have here on file. So, you're having trouble sleeping tonight, you can definitely read through the rest of it. The first major install was 1999, a football tournament at University of Nebraska. The first baseball turf infield was only 15 years. So think about how many synthetic turf

029fields have gone down in the last 25 years. How many baseball fields have gone down in the last 15 years? The first major baseball install. Everybody was trying to do baseball at that time, but they were doing football turf with baseball covers. It played awful. It it just was not a good setup. legendary coach of Witchaw State teams. He got a little master truck and said, "Let's go down to CM, Florida to the Braves minor league training facility." We shot Doug machine ball. We shot ground ball, ground ball, thousands of ground balls, measured, bounc, we were the first one to nail the playability of synthetic turf for baseball. Right now, there's about 104 division one baseball fields that are synthetic turf. Astro term has about 83 of our market share is ridiculous. It's because of

030the playability and please stop question if you have something come up about that. Oh yeah, we're kind of a team here. So if anything anything pops up. So Ma, we still do golf courses. We have five golf course crews. We got 14 turf construction crews. We got four or five turf installation crews all out of Le. I basically cover from Harrison, Arkansas to Watford City, North. I'm in Lee 7. Again, from Southwest Missouri, it's home for me. So just on baseball games, it's ridiculous. Out of le Missouri, 30 fields in Kansas City, 10 in Omaha, This is baseball and softball city area northwest Arkansas. So you get the idea. They do some baseball and this is just we've done baseball fields I kid you not in Guantanamo Bay to Salt Lake City. So we've done

031but this is this is home for us. If there's ever an issue, every project has a vote beyond the score pile. I I kid you not, I was sending you Kenny Chzn and Las Vegas last night 8:30 answering a text on an issue. My last you got to be kidding me. So, anytime you need me, I will be there for you. A little bit about us, the 16 of 19. Anytime there's a baseball game going on, the most you can have on a baseball field is 19 players or 19 people. Out of the 19, 16. So that is where the game originates from. That's the most important and that's the most important with us. So over the 15 years, we tried and succeeded and failed on a couple things, but we've dialed in ball fields

032the playability as close as you can get to to national. We're actually teaming up with MLB should have it in the next in the next month uh be the official turn of Major League Base. So the turf you get here is the same turf that Vanderville has, University of Kentucky, Missou, and now Major League Baseball. The thing about our there's the first turf and the one you had on the football field here for years was an old field. That was turf 1.0. That was a great trip. It lasted forever, but it never looked real. The day it went down, the day it got pulled up, it looked plastic. It looked fair. Then about 13 years ago, they came out with what's called a truly extruded monoil. That is made from a liquid into a fire

033just like fishing line or pasta. It looked real. It was amazing. It didn't hold up as well as the slip film. So in today's world, you marry them together. It holds up well. The slip film they lay over they encapsulate everything you need to keep the ball from rolling to keep the ball rolling smooth and the monofilament to stay up make it feel a little weird. You keep your infill in place. You have a better playing field, a safer field, less bad hops. They just it's pretty simple. We put more fiber in than other people up to five or six tons of fiber. We more fake grass her field than our competition. So if you're going to have anything out on your golf field, it's going to be fine. It's not going to be standing

034hard. Start with more fibers, the better the better off you'll be. And then where it's most crucial that I touched on earlier is your infield. Your infield will have a thatch zone. And that just locks in your stand that you see when you're watching an NFL game, college game. You see the rooster tail, the black tire pieces. That's what locks it in along with the slip fil. That's pretty much the science. Now, the places that are the most abused on a baseball field are the most attention we give to the field. That is your pitching, your catching, and your batteries boxing. They come in with a very, very, very plush turf, heavy duty turf, and in. So if for instance it was the second inning of the first game of a double header, you had

035a batter set through the batter box, you could literally pull it up, replace it, and be playing shortly. >> How long is shortly? >> Uh oh. >> After the game, you want to come back and you want to get it going. Also, now all of that with turf is nice and it's all pretty. If you have a problem with your turf fields, any of us here can walk in and say that's an issue. If you have a problem with your drainage system, we don't know where it is. I mean, honestly, you're So, as nice as the turf is, the drainage system is even more important. We can make a decent parking lot, but we're field. I mean, we we do feel we got millions and millions and millions of square of fields all over the

036Midwest. Our people, our people, our machinery. And here is here. We are now officially if you got a chance to see. >> Yeah. We just finished their field. If you ever have a chance to listen to the gentleman talk with the owners, his story is out of this world. So again, there's just a bunch of fields, a bunch of real pretty fake grass. The reason this is all here is so everybody can sit down for fun and see what you like. Like here today looks like play. Uh they're crazy back here that I did. Beautiful. So you can we can dial in your field to make it custom the way you want. We're not doing our field. We're doing your field. And then there's all the fields here. All of them down here. Please ask

037some questions. There's a couple things we we touch on there. One of them being your base is A good base should last 50 years. So you can literally just carpet your house down and the hardest thing without a doubtation. So the sun might stands up. So the sliding slide, what's so crucial there is you're displacing that rubber and then essenti And here's where we even to go on that a little bit more. For instance, say Drury here about eight or nine, we'll start to look around first base will start to get thin because we do not velcro that in because then that'll leave a seam right there for a dangerous soft. So that is so what we'll do is we'll come in here to this area here that's faded the same amount. We'll put new

038in the bulk. Take that piece and put it here >> so it doesn't look like a quilt. >> So I have a question about the >> Tell me again about what this dirt is. What did you say? Rubber. >> There is the dirt is actually there's no dirt. There's nothing natural on that field. The dirt area is either a red plate looking like South's area is known for or >> brown brown. So there is no there's no dirt anywhere. Not all ground. Not anywhere. >> Yeah. What what was it? What's it made of? >> That's a polyethylene fiber >> and that Yeah. in the middle. >> Oh, >> the black end that you would see that on your on >> on your football field. Um, that's just ground up tires. SPR is what they call

039that primary use of the rub for a safety side. So on your football field, it's much higher person. If you're worried about impact issues, you're not worried about that baseball field. So your stand >> and that's where I was talking earlier, the other companies just put a football field out of a baseball and it was a bunch of rubber, a little bit of sand. The same thing they put for football or soccer ball. >> What kind of maintenance does this require? You use the groomers that you grab for a football field. You do the entire thing and then what we suggest steel um the chainsaws um dusted steel does. You can use those to power them and it's like a weed eater with nylon bristles and you can spot shot around first base all your

040low areas still getting the whole trap and everything out just it's definitely not no maintenance. slow maintenance here. >> What's that? >> I kid you not, the first ones we're seeing which the technology has gotten so much better and I sound like we they're getting they're getting 8 to 10 years out of the infield but the infield the outfield they're getting close I have couple fields in Iowa 12 13 years and So 8 to 10 8 to 10 years on the infield though. How much what what's the cost when they have to >> right >> really it's warrantied for eight. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Warrantied for eight. >> Most people take pretty good care of it. West or even >> say you got 13 or 14 years and then and then what happens?

041You have to replace it. You have to repair it. What do you just repair different sections? >> Cut out the brown. Replace the brown if the green is still in good shape. >> It's like replacing carpet in your house for a whole new field. you take the old and that's where the drainage system is so important because if it's done right then it's literally just replacing the part which is about 50% of the cost >> that's what I was going to ask next >> about 60% of the cost >> about 50 to 60% to replace the grass >> right >> so so every plan for every 10 years that is 50% cost >> so every 13 or 14 years is 50% for a second. Maybe >> I'll go a 10 >> 10. >> So, >>

042and Richie can Richie can confirm this. I'll be down. There'll be a lot of times I'll stop by on the way through town and I'll go out and walk the field and not tell anybody on there and I'll send coach a message. Hey coach, can you can you hit the second base area? It doesn't look like it's been. and every single plan I stop by. If if I'm in my vehicle, I will have everything I need to make any minor repairs on the field and have done it on every school. If I don't have the stuff to do a minor repair, I'll give you $1,000. If I'm in my district, >> you're writing it. >> I'm writing that out. So, so which part of the bid is just the grass part that has to be

043replaced every 10 to 15 years. >> It's not it's not rolled out in that >> or should we just plant? >> So 50% of the total >> just plant. >> So if it's so if it's 13 it's 65 >> is it? >> It's except a lot. as we showed here as we showed here was roughly $650,000 for Oklahoma to go from their first turf to their second turf and also for University of Iowa to go from their first turf to second turf was about $650,000. So, what about >> Well, I mean, when you're thinking about if you're going to do something, you think about what's the maintenance cost >> just to plan ahead. >> Yeah, >> that's not maint. >> Yeah. >> So, you compare replacement to maintenance if you used a different type. Don't

044forget. >> Yeah, that's good. Eight years of warranty. I think that we need to have a baseball field where other teams can come play, districts can come play in because we have a field that's usable. >> Quick quick clarification because I'm not very I'm not like a baseball guy here. So, >> um this So, this is what they instead of the clay or whatever that is. >> Uh you run on this. Is that basically? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yep. It plays like dirt. Um half the fibers are polyethylene, half of them, but nylon nylon's a lot a lot more of a fiber. So hold up the pound softball field there. So yes, >> but but your pants don't get all the dirt on there, >> right? >> And this actually >> we'll put some red

045in there. >> Yes, even this. And it slides easier a little easier than dirt when it's dry. If it's a little damp to slice, 10 and 12% faster than a dry. >> So give us a quick education as to why people are picking with an astro artificial field as opposed to keeping a traditional dirt. >> Yeah, good question. >> Playability service happens for all I can speak of is is our customers and those are the two they know the playability is out of this world. It's major league certified. It's NCA all the big boys there reason baseball coaches are stars baseball. >> Yeah. So, take for instance, University of Central Missouri. The year before we put the field in 43, >> right? So, the water comes down quick, but it gets away quick. We haven't

046talked about much clean. If you have more rain, if you have more rain than 16 in, you have more than >> I don't know. I don't know if you know the number, Richard, but for comparison purposes, I mean, I think we all we all think this is great, but just for our number of purposes, if we're to say now, let's just redo the grass and dirt. I mean, what's >> Yeah. What >> mower? you specifically >> I mean like half like half a million or something. >> Okay. So you're it's not it's kind of a wash. >> So it's not just Yeah. >> Yeah. So yeah, >> what's the timeline on this? If we said yes, good to go. >> He's going to start around August 1st, which be done March 1st. That's two or

047three weeks before the season. >> Okay. Complete the practice. that's built in because the winter weather >> for softball people. >> Yeah, >> we are putting a portable mound in so we can lift the mound off if we would happen to have a conference game that we could not play. If we would buy a portable fence, we could play softball on this field. So, we are making it to where we could use it for softball. The outfield could be used for practice, junior high football, soccer. We did those things at Neo show. And so you can use this for many different things. >> I like that kind of >> I do. We need >> a second. >> All right. We have a motion by Matt, second by James to move forward with Astro Turf via

048the source. Well, >> yes. Cooperative. Well, yes. Um, any further discussion? All right, let's vote. All in favor? Passes unanimously. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate your time and presentation. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you for explaining all of that to us. >> Okay, moving on. The next thing on our list are the 2025 2026 board meeting dates. >> I'm sorry, Madam President. Can I just add one thing? >> Thank you, Dr. Fretwell. I want to say thank you so much for bringing information to us and explaining the reasoning so so we could hear, so the community could hear, so we could all understand what's involved in the decision, so we could compare and contrast and make a best decision. That was excellent. I appreciate that. Thank you. It's very thorough. We appreciate it.

049All right. Looking at the board meeting dates for 2025 2026. Has everybody had a chance to review them? Is there anything that needs to be addressed? >> Huh? >> September the 1st. I forgot. >> 6:45. >> So, we'll get that changed. >> Oh, okay. So, that's a day off. >> What are you saying? >> September 1st instead of green. Did that change? >> I don't know. It'sformational. Okay. >> Right. Superintendent update, if you have anything you'd like to add. >> That summer school was today the last day of summer school and I think it went very well. Uh, and I would also like to add that just be aware coming down the pike there are some funding uh some potential funding uh issues that we may have in the future with Senate Bill 3. Um,

050also we do not know what the governor is fully going to appropriate right now. So when we're talking about a budget it is a pretty soft budget at this point. But I will say that Senate Bill 3 is very concerning to us and that we're going to have to be working through. >> I agree. Okay. District reports, we do appreciate appreciate that you guys all um submit those to us with lots of time to review. They are very informational. Yes. Uh informative. Does anybody have any comments before we move on? Okay. Future dates. These are the same thing we just looked at. So still, but you don't need us to vote, right? All right. I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Dustin, second by

051James on the consent agenda. All in favor? Passes unanimously. >> I would like to say thanks for pulling those things off that I had questions on. Mhm. Um on new business, we have um we are presented to approve the 202526 salary schedules. Um I'll entertain a motion that we approve those and then Dr. Hedge can come up and speak. We should do a motion first. >> So moved. I move that we approve those salary schedules. >> Okay. We have a motion by Christina, seconded by Dustin, and now we'll have some discussion. >> Sure. >> To approve the salary schedules. >> Yeah. So, the salary schedules, the approach this year is a little bit different than in years past. We just got done going through our strategic planning process. Um, and the um attack and retrain

052team uh group in that area with Dr. Link really looked at um how we compared to other COC districts and what our comparison was. And we could really tell that um you know the group noticed that our our areas in the masters um if you had masters plus 10 if you had an ed specialist degree that we were behind in the other COC districts that we compared um to. And so um as we looked at the schedule we looked at how we could you know try to make up a difference overall in all areas but also in that area of the teachers that had their masters and above. So, um, we took the current, uh, teacher salary schedule and we added $1,000 to every cell that was masters or above. And then we added $1,400

053to the base, which is cell A1, that beginning teacher, uh, which is currently $42,000. So, that amount now came to 43,400 and took that same percentage, which is 3.33%, and applied it to all the other cells. So, it was kind of a a two-step combination, adding that $1,000 to every sale, masters and above, then taking that 3.33% to the rest. Um, now that was just for the teacher salary schedule that we made that special adjustment. Any other schedule like a classified staff or administrators was just the 3.33%. Um, only that special allocation was for the teacher schedule with masters or above. And so, that's how that was calculated. And, um, that's how all the amounts came on this schedule. You'll notice in past schedules that they're very round numbers like 350, 750, 300 because that

0543.33% you'll notice that all the numbers now become an actual true number to that percentage and you might have a a number that ends in you know 682 or something like that. So that's just to to show that realization that we're using percents to increase everything and not just a flat number um you like we've done in the past set that up. >> How does this compare? I think we talked about this. How does this compare with us being competitive with other districts? >> Sure. So Dr. Link and I have looked um how we compare to everybody else and we were making guesses of what everybody else would do. We had about 1,200 to,400 in total that maybe other districts would do. We estimate that we'll pass at least one if not two districts in

055our ranking in that masters and above. Um but it's also contingent on what they do with their salary schedules as well. And some people are pretty height liift about what they're going to do for that. So um >> because you're competing for the same teachers. >> Yes. And so that competition brings out the best and worst sometimes and so many people are very collaborative and some just don't want to say anything. So we'll find out in due time what they end up doing. We think we passed one or two schools on that ranking list. >> Yeah. In 10th grade. We've talked about this a lot in different sessions, but the community members who are listening haven't and so will you just remind us like where did we rank compared to the district schools around >>

056so out of 10 districts and you know you have multiple schools within some districts like Springfield. So you can look at as 14 or 10 I think we were nine in Masters plus 10 for that ranking. >> So we ranked ninth out of 10 >> out of 10 >> for what we paid our teachers. >> That's correct. I believe our our beginning teacher was six or seven out of that 10. >> Yeah, that's I'm glad we're catching up. That's good that we're catching up. Thanks for figuring out how to do that. >> Well, I had just applied the numbers. It was that um strategic planning committee group that came up with that research >> and and had those ideas to do this with. I was just the one that said, "Hey, this is how much

057it's going to cost. Can we afford it?" All those different things. So, really that that should go to >> Dr. Link >> for sure. Okay, thank you. >> Any other discussion? Okay, I will call for a vote. All in favor? Passes unanimously. Thank you. Next, I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2024 2025 budget revision as presented. Real >> quick on the third budget revision. >> We're going to have a motion first. Just one second. >> I'll make a motion to approve that. Okay, we have a motion by James, seconded by Dustin to approve this um third budget revision. And no, >> my apologies. Just go ahead. >> Uh this third budget revision is very minor compared to what we had in the second budget revision, meaning that there were just some slight tweaks. It

058really was just done to um sh some things with federal programs and Perkins and enhancement grant. So a lot of times they have expenses and they go into EPEGs, which is a desi tool, and they're trying to compare those things. There really was very small tweaks. So nothing major changed in really this budget revision. It's really just there to wrap it up and finalize this year. Um I will say just quickly uh the budget is a budget and not what I think actuals will be. Um just to give you a quick preview in actuality I think we'll be in the black by about 100,000 if you're looking at just fund one and two. Um and so that's where I think we'll win the year there. So, $100,000 on a budget that um is is about

059what $73 million in expenses and about $73 million in revenue. So, $100,000 is a very small percentage. So, probably go to Dr. Wilson because she's the one that created this preliminary budget back a year ago. >> All right. Any other discussion? Okay. All in favor? All right, that passes unanimously. Next item is I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2025 2026 preliminary budget as presented. >> Dustin made a motion >> and James has seconded. That's for the preliminary budget 2025 2026. Is there any discussion or questions? Seeing none, um all in favor passes unanimously. Uh the next item, >> Madam President, may I may I say something really quickly? I know that there was no discussion right here, but I truly believe it's because that Dr. hedge has done a tremendous job in all of

060our meetings prior to this and all of our work sessions and emails explaining where we're at. Yes. >> And where we're going. So, I just wanted to say this is his last board meeting and so big kudos to him. Yes. >> Yeah. >> Still a little bit in denial about that, but okay. >> Yeah. And 100%, >> you know, the preliminary budget is is kind of the Super Bowl for a CFO. Um, I will mention one thing. This budget is in the format for the meritorious budget aud. You've probably heard that term before. So, uh, there's a deadline of October 1st to apply for the award. Um, and I've worked with Dan Ortega to look at that process to go through because this is this is really everybody. This communications department, business services, cabinet team

061building that strategic plan. This is truly everybody. Um, and so there's only six districts in the state that have ever won this award. Well, currently have won this award. So, look forward to that application process in the fall with Dr. Gray who has been fantastic to transition with and uh look forward to that in the in the fall. So, >> well, we appreciate that. We appreciate you. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. There is no motion for the next. It is just a first read over the MSBA policies. I do hope that you have had a chance to review them. Um, if you have any recommendations or changes, um, do you want us to send those to you directly, Dr. Philip Link, is that what you'd like or do you want, does anybody

062want to discuss them now or what would you like for us to discuss it and then they fix it? >> I would say you would send those changes to me >> to you. Okay. >> Do we discuss them all together? Like there are some things I just like to talk about. Sometimes it helps me figure out what when I hear other people talking about it. Um it's just a first read. I mean we can gather our thoughts together. Um but if you wanted if you have something that needs to be discussed, go ahead. >> I just have a couple questions on different ones of why this was that way or Okay. Nothing on EBBC. The next one was GB1. Um, oh, and Lori answered that question for me about the substitute teachers have to be

063no one under 20 can substitute in the high school and I wanted to see if that included volunteers, but it was only for hiring. Okay, then the next one, GBE, I had a question on page one. Um, oh, page two, I guess, is the part where it's read. It says up at the beginning by editor's note uh that they're that they're taking it out because they're just going to say, "Oh, this is in accordance with law, but just about every other policy that we have, I mean, they all are in accordance with law." So, they kind of spell out what the requirements are. So, I thought, let's leave that last paragraph in there describing what in accordance with law means. Why is it that we would need to strike that out? I think that explanation

064is good. >> Which >> this is GBE, >> the staff health and safety. >> Sorry. Yeah. >> The bottom line that that second page of lined up >> the last paragraph where they lined out the last paragraph. They said we don't need to include that last paragraph because we're just going to say in accordance with law. Well, that's what all of the policies are are to explain what the law is. So, I think we should leave that in there. It describes what's required. >> Yeah, it does. I mean, it does tell you that you must provide a medical exam annually or >> Yeah. >> Just for context, these policies, you can get these policies from a bigger organization that provides them down to us. They routinely update them and then send us the updates and

065then we're if we choose we're allowed to modify them. >> You are correct >> because I assume that they're legal and everybody else already and sign off on it said we believe if you adopt this policy which we have drafted provided you you should be okay. >> Yes. >> And if we modify it they would say that's at your own peril when you say modify it. Good luck. >> They don't care if we modify it. >> We can modify it. No, you can modify it. But you said that you you come out from under the slight umbrella for text. >> Most of the time, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Wilson, when we decide to modify something, she runs it past the MSBA lawyers to make sure what we modified was okay. >>

066Well, I I tell them, but they don't come back and say that 100% that this is legal or not legal. They're like because they're well, they they give us advice on that and they have come back with some policies and say, "Hey, you need to think about this." And when they do that, we would bring them back to you. But there is there it is their recommendation on this. It is up to you whether you choose to accept that recommendation. But if you choose to accept something that is uh not been legally vetted, then it would be on us. >> So So but but I mean >> do you think what do you think leaving that that test in what does that accomplish that's not accomplished? Well, if by that's a good question. >> Thank

067you. >> And part of what we pay MSBA, our membership fees, includes legal advice. So, you said they're not our lawyers, but they are. I just wanted to I wanted to clarify what you said a minute ago. They are our lawyers. They are. They I mean, that's part of our membership fees is they give us legal advice. >> They give us legal advice on policies. So the reason I think we should leave it in is because I mean that's what our policies are is to explain what the law says. If we didn't have to if we could just say oh we have everything in our school district according to law then we wouldn't have to have any policies. But almost all of our other policies actually explain what is required and let's leave that in

068there saying what's required. >> Yeah. I mean I I kind of agree on this. I mean that if you look at it who it kind of that sentence tells okay if you're employed I mean how do we no longer have to do that it says contracted service to drive transportation must annually provide yada all that stuff so I mean is that a law or is it not >> if it's still the law I mean granted everything like she said everything's a law but for that matter we don't need any policies but will they know that >> and you know up at the top they said we took that out because we're going to replace it by saying in accordance with law so that's the only reason they took it out according to their explanation >>

069I guess is there anything illegal about that >> and what we can do is I can we can double check with MSBA and then we'll write this down and we can bring it back to you next they re they said it in a different way you see They say the district will make medical inquiries require physical exams and keep medical information on employees only in accordance with the law. But that took out the explanation of what all was involved with that. I mean for me it's six of one half dozen another. So I mean it doesn't really make that >> that's just my just my opinion. I'm just one Okay. Is there anything else we can >> Are we going to have her ask about that? >> I can. >> Thanks, Lauren. >> And then

070at the next I can bring it back to you at the next time. >> Ask them why. I mean, ask them what the significance is of striking it. What What's their purpose of doing that? You could ask that. >> Okay. Next. Next one. ILA test integrity and security. I had a question on number one. It says violating any provision of this policy. And as I read through the rest of the things, I was thinking maybe we should add on to the end of that or the security and integrity requirement of any assessment manual because they talked about how the assessment manuals were going to guide and direct what happened with the tests. So, we should we should include that. They they took out things about the rules for what to do with the test and

071just said follow that test manual. So I think we should include not just filing provision of this policy but also provisions of that test manual. Am I making sense? >> What section is that? >> Section IA sorry test integrity and security underneath number the sanctions against improper or unethical practices. number one, violating any provisions of this policy. Well, throughout the policy, they took out all of the rules for what to do with handling the tests. You know, you got to keep them in a secure location and all the different things that you have to do with all the different assessments. And they said, "We're just going to say follow that assessment's manual for how things are supposed to be handled." And so, I think if we're going to say you're going to get in trouble

072for doing something, we say, "Oh, you're going to get in trouble for violating this policy." We should also say or the security integ integrity regulations of any of the manuals that came with the different tests since we've reduced the policy to saying follow the manuals. I can I mean I can check and bring it back to you. This is more of uh Dr. Carson's area and so I would have to 100% read through to make sure it's not written somewhere else. Am I is it because Dustin you probably remember from when you were a teacher right with the when you have the state test or whatever the ACT or whatever there's a rule for you have to keep it in a certain location locked up and nobody's allowed to look at it and and then

073you pass it out these many hours before and only certain people I mean they have all these different rules for how you have to handle their tests you know and what to do with it afterwards and all that stuff. And so instead of spelling out the rules in the policy like it used to be since there's more than just one test now they they simplified the policy and said we're not going to spell out the rules. We're just going to say follow the that particular assessment's rules for each one individually. So I just wanted to add to the end of number one or at least talk about adding violating any provision of this policy or of the security and integrity regulations of any of the manuals for the different assessments. Let me read through it

074and I'll bring you back some information or next time. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. >> That makes sense. >> Because we don't get test manual. Not for many of our things. >> What's that? I didn't hear you had I'm sorry. >> Oh, I wanted to hear what you had to say. >> Oh, pencils. >> Yeah, that's true. They don't go lock them in a room, >> but they do have different manuals telling what to do with the different >> assessments whether they're online or what. >> That's their point is they have different manuals. >> I will we'll check we'll check. >> Okay, next one. JCFL A+ scholarship program. Um, I just had a question about under program goals. The first sentence under program goals, they took out establish the following goals and performance standards and

075they changed it to is committed to ensuring that and and then the and then the very first thing is something that we're not in charge of ensuring the very first thing. Our goal is for all students to graduate from high school, but we can't ensure that all students graduate from high school. It seems like we've turned something that was a really pretty high. This is our goal, what we're aiming for. We turned it into something less. I don't know. You don't like the word ensure. Is that what you're saying? >> We're committing to >> You're going to ensure all students graduate. Sorry, you didn't graduate. You got to come back. I mean, we're not we're not in charge of I don't think that's something under our control. >> So, what do you think? >> I

076I liked it saying goals and performance standards. I like that. But >> guess what you're trying to draw. So, what do you think? I don't think there needs to be any reason to change that to to take out goals and performance standards and replace it with we're going to ensure that this thing happens because some of those things we can't ensure that they happen. >> Yeah. So that how do you think that functionally changes anything school district? >> Yeah, it doesn't. That's why I like the policy the way it was. I mean change but I mean changing the way they're that they propose here functionally. How does that change anything that the district is doing? >> Well, we're talking about policy and you know words matter. When you're writing down what you're going to do,

077the words that you choose matter. So even if you might be able to somehow get the same result, the words matter. I'm a math person. But I but it feels like we're really word smithing here to a and sometimes you're right. That's that's important. But my question is as we get we dig into this mode. How does it functionally change anything that we're doing? >> Yeah, good question. Why did they change it? >> I don't know why they changed it and but I'm just trying to figure out here uh and I appreciate the discussion but it feels like we're getting really deep in bud and I don't know that it makes a difference at the end of day. So I'm just asking you functionally if we change it or if we don't how does that

078change anything that the district's doing? >> That's a good question. I'm saying this is what our st our policy was. Why you persuade me why should we change it? They like I would like to know maybe they have a great reason for why they're suggesting that change but I' I'm like, let's leave it like it is unless there's a reason to change it. >> Yeah, I'd probably ignore their >> I mean, I'd probably >> I'd probably ignore their change on that, too. I mean, it does seem like Well, let's go. We're going to change the all the the phraseology for I mean, it like you Yeah, Matt. It doesn't really matter either. It doesn't matter either way, but it just >> they changed the policy as the eligibility changed. So, they just took it upon

079themselves to try to they're just trying to make it better. >> That's all. I don't think there's any difference in that if nobody likes it. But I don't think there was a problem. Is that >> we can double check. >> Sure, we can double check. >> And I wrote myself a note but didn't get a chance to do it. I can do it later. Or Lori, maybe you already know. It mentioned policy IGCE being updated. Did is ours already updated? >> Uh what did it say? Where does it say that? >> Um up at the top third paragraph down in their in their explanation. To avoid confusion, MSBA has included dual credit, dual enrollment inp policy IGCE and so that's why they removed it from this one. I was just going to check and make

080sure ours was updated. Okay. >> Because it could be, you know, how >> right. So, let me double check that. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Uhu. >> Um, so nothing on the next one. GCBA. I see nothing on the next one. The nothing on the next one. The last one that I have a question on is the last one that was given to us. Uh BBB1. Okay. School board issues. >> Um again, the same thing as what happened on the the same thing as what happened on the bus driver one down at the bottom of page two. Um Oh, no. That's just where I wrote the note. Sorry, it but they did it somewhere else. The um Oh, no, it was the bottom of page two. Creating subd districts. Each section in that policy waiver or

081proposition C roll back boundary change whatever the section was in the policy. They described what the law requires for that thing to happen. And and I think it's a little bit inconsistent. They did not describe what the law requires in order for it to happen on creating subdists. So, I think it'd be nice if it matched what's required by showing what's required because they did that on there are several different sections and they did that on each one what needs to happen. And if you want me to go just copy and paste it out of the law, I can or maybe maybe they maybe the MSBA people have already looked at it and have some wording. But but I think we need to have include what those requirements are also. And so you're saying that

082they in each section they described what the law was except in >> that bottom one on page two creating subdists. >> Creating subd districts. >> Uhhuh. See, but they gave the requirements. It first gives notice of public. It gives the date and the petition has to be signed by 20 resident. I mean like it spelled out all of the requirements. Right. That's on changing the district name. That's true. They But they spelled out the requirements, but in creating subdists, they just said, "Okay, just do it as law." But there are like some rules. There has to be petition and there has to be a certain number of days and like their requirements. If you go and look at the statute though, it lists requirements just like the the changing the district's name say, "Oh, the

083petition has to be signed by 20 resident voters." like it gives those specifics. There's specifics for creating subdists also, but those specifics just got left out. >> So, you're saying that they have placed the procedures >> basically. >> Good. >> In each of the subsections except for creating the subd district. We want to see the procedures >> that you have to go through. >> Good. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Yeah. Just just be consistent on it. Let me double check that. Thanks. >> We've got quite a few coming down the pipe. >> Could we establish policy that if Great questions, good discussion. Thank you for all that. But if the answer is going to be we got to go back and ask whoever drafted the policy what have we we get these well in advance of

084the meeting. We established a policy that the board has questions about these to get them to Dr. Wilson before our meeting so that she can then check on whoever so that when we do get to the point of discussion we have answers and we can actually make decisions and the board this forward. >> We can absolutely adopt a procedure of doing that. >> You just commit to getting to us, you know, a week before the meeting or whatever prepared time, >> right? >> We then shall commit to reviewing them and whatever questions we have, we can get to her. So, if you need to follow up on them before the meeting, you can do so. So, if we get to this point of discussion, we can actually do something instead of just have a discussion

085that leads back to you have to go back. >> That's a very good point because then when you brought it back to us, you would know why. You could say this was a proposed change and here's why and here's why we can't do it or here's why they're saying that we should and then we could actually move forward >> probably have to give it to you um two weeks >> yeah two or three weeks but we can we can adjust that to make that happen we can adjust timelines to make that happen >> I kind of thought that was why we had decided we didn't used to have just first read one month and then second read the next month it used to just be look at it all that night and decide so I

086kind of thought that was The purpose of having a first read now is we got to all talk about the changes and somebody could say, "Christina, that's a silly idea. No, that doesn't work." Or somebody could say, "Yeah, yeah, and I was kind of thinking this also." And and we have a discussion. That's why we're bored. We have a discussion and then Lori knows which questions she actually needs to ask or which ones she doesn't need to because we've all kind of hammered it out for ourselves. I >> I think you probably agree. Uh it's that can still happen, right? Um but on some of the specifics we're like, you know, that's a good question. Let me see why they put that or why they made that change rather than waste 15 20 minutes on

087each one and driving the meeting on. We would know on the first discussion what that reasoning was. We're still going to have discussion probably on the first read, but instead of having a lengthy discussion on 15 of them because this particular time we're going to have a bunch all in one go, I think it streamlines it a little bit for you to go, hey, I've got something around that deal. Maybe not something that that Dustin even thought of. Fire the question away. Hey, Christina, pop this up. We discuss it in the first one because it's there. Otherwise, she might give us the hey, here's the why and then answer it for everybody rather than waste. I mean, truthfully, I know you don't feel that like that's a wasted time, >> but it's a valuable time.

088I think it's the most valuable time >> drags that out immensely >> because in this point, the end point to every single one of those >> is right back to >> it makes it more efficient because we would still be having this conversation right now. We would just be saying with the information we're already tasking her to do because then we're going to make a decision on the changes we want and when it comes to that second read, everybody's going to be comfortable to vote. >> That sounds good. >> So, I like that. That's Let's adopt that. As long as we still get to discuss things. >> Okay. But we'll just have more information now. >> Well, talk doesn't make a decision. So exactly the discussion, but everything we did was just punch back after

089her, which means 30 more days. Well, actually 60 more days now. >> It was already it was already going to be 60 more days. We're not voting our first read. >> But now when she brings them back to the second read, we're still going to have to discuss them and make decisions. We'll have new information, >> right? >> They can take action. So, >> okay. Uh the next item is I need to I'll entertain a motion to approve the change orders. >> Okay. >> Right. We have a motion from Matt and seconded from Dustin to approve the change orders. Is there any discussion? Um >> I do have one question about that. Uh or I guess it's uh Richard now. Uh do I see Curtis? So I mean we talked about having the sun like

090we added a sun shade in there. at at the original one. I I don't know if that's in there or not. I see something, but I thought there was a couple of them >> and if you don't know, you can get Well, >> will you come tell us so we can all hear? >> We had this conversation Tuesday morning and the meeting first did say that it was put in there. >> Okay. >> So, I'll check and figure out where it is. Let you all know. >> I mean, my my point is in each of these projects, it's not that it's whatever they wanted is in there. Yeah, that's what I want to make sure is happening. >> Good. >> Okay. >> Um Okay. Any other discussion? Okay. I'll um all those in favor passes

091unanimously. All right. Next, I'll entertain a motion to approve 2025 2026 meal prices as presented. So moved. >> Yes. >> Okay. We have a motion by Christina, seconded by Rayanne on the approval of the 2025 meal prices. Is there any discussion? >> Can you talk about what what the increase is here and what how it affects people and is it is this requirement? I assume >> that I'm suing I did not do this with her. So she probably put the total in the launch calculator and figured that we were either within range or out of range. Is it normally how we figure those >> last two we were it was when it was presented we were told we had to >> Curtis brought this. This is I think based off of the stuff that Curtis

092brought us based off that big >> about the paid lunch equity. It says it that it has a little paragraph there. I don't know if everybody gets to see that or not, but Oh, it's right over there. >> Yeah, good job. >> Oh, yes, there it is. There's our answer. >> Thank you. >> There we go. >> Okay. Any further discussion on this? >> And and nobody likes to see prices going up, but costs are going up, right? You can't buy things at the grocery store for for the same price anymore. So, all in favor passes unanimously. All right. Next, I'll entertain a motion to approve the employee handbook. >> Any All right. I have a motion by Dustin and second by Rayan to approve the employee handbook. There any discussion? I did ask this

093question in advance about the transportation and field trip procedures. I just wondered what happened to that section. It got moved out of where it was is we felt that that would have been more appropriate since we're talking about this is for all employees. Um you're talking not just certified staff that take people that could potentially or activities coaches that take kids on trips. Uh this is custodians, everybody. Uh felt that that would be more appropriate in a transportation handbook or an activity handbook. instead of the all employee handbook. >> Oh, good. Thanks. >> Yep. >> That was all I wondered on that one. All right. All in favor? Passes unanimously. Okay. Next item. I will entertain a motion to approve the student handbooks. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Dustin, seconded by Christina to

094approve the student handbooks for 2025 2026 school year. Is there any discussion? I have a couple of things in the in the junior high handbook on page six. I hope and I did ask these in advance also. I hope somebody will tell us a little bit about the behavior code. I think that's a great idea, but I'd like to hear some um explanation about the thinking behind it and how it was put together and all this stuff. >> So, um I'm trying to find my text message from Gerald right now. So, I because I did ask what the acronym was. It's called ROAR. And what it is, it's respect, ownership, accountability, and resilience. And so whenever you are assessing a student and they have a grade, the grade should just reflect their knowledge on whatever

095they're doing, okay? It should not really be participation points. It shouldn't be, have you turned your homework in on time, but we know that we have to teach those soft skills. So how do we uh assess where the students are on those soft skills? And so they've come up with a roar score and uh they'll have a rubric just like they will with a regular grade and they will assign it I think in class whatever their classes are but it's a behavior score or um almost like a soft skill score. I equate it to because we've had conversations around when I was at College of the Ozarks I had an academic score and I had a work score and all of it went on my transcript. Not that I'm saying this is going on their

096transcript, but it does give value and credence to are they participating? Are they turning their work on in on time? Are they being disrespectful or respectful? So, that's what they're going to try this year. That's great. Again, I like this a lot, but I have another question that came up while you were explaining that. >> Okay. Does that mean that your grade, your academic grade no longer reflects, oh, you know, 10 points off for a day late and 20 points off for two days late or after 10 days you don't get any credit? I mean, does academic grades still allow to include that? >> I would have to check. I don't I don't know what exactly their academic grades I mean, I wouldn't think that. I mean, whatever their >> they wanted it to, >>

097right? I don't I don't know what there's what they include, you know, what an English teacher includes or what a math includes, but it should be what they're getting on their assessments and what's on their homework. >> But they're most of us, I bet, probably went to school in the day when if your paper was late, you got some deduction for it being late. >> I don't think we do that. >> We don't do that. >> We don't reduce grades for turn it. So if I if you assign something, it's not going to be part of the grade. >> Yeah. I have a junior high teacher sitting in here now and it's not a part of the grade. That's why this work that's why this roar score is being developed >> so that we can

098assess what those soft skills are. >> I I would probably disagree and say that it's not a soft skill, right? So, um, because if I'm I'm employing Matt and I give him something to do January 1 and it's due January 5 and 5th and he gives it to me in um May, he's fired. Right. Right. >> So, we're not our job is to educate them but also to prepare them for life and that's not >> right. >> So, I I struggle with this piece immensely to say that it's it >> we give them more extended time. We don't deduct the points necessarily from now. I know I can't speak for every department on how they or every ELA or math how they grade. I know that in certain instances, you know, at a certain point

099if you don't turn it in, this is your grade or it's a zero or it's a 40%, whatever it is. Um, and then there are some departments that would possibly say that we're going to give you two times and this is going to be what's your reduction of the grade. But to say I think that if you don't turn something in, it's automatically 10 points off. But does this does the policy read in a way that says it it hey you if I'm the teacher and I want to say this is due this date right and if you're late it's here's the clear cut line does the policy now say I can't do that as a teacher >> I don't know >> okay I I hadn't um yes just a junior high this is a

100test test uh a pilot program for this, right? >> I kind of I didn't know this was part of this soft score thing. I didn't know the deadline thing was and that has been a problem for the last several years. kids as a former local community college teacher, kids, not just from Ozark, but from all over come to class and don't realize that when the test is on a certain day, they can't just stop by your office later and tell you they're going to make it up because they missed it. No, they got a zero. I mean, that's college policy. They don't seem to understand about deadlines. And I thought Ozark kind of went through a phase of not really having deadlines and you can turn it in late as many times as you want.

101And then the last week of the semester of ice cream in there. So I thought that kind of got straightened out. So it wasn't like that. And I know the teachers are the scientists who know what the kids need in their classroom, but there are some things that employers and colleges even need the kids to have learned before they get to there. And those are deadlines. I think it's holding them accountable, more accountable for deadlines. This is I think this is holding them more accountable because now we're making an emphasis on what are you turning in, how are you acting in class, but it's not part of your grade. >> So when you say sorry, >> but it's not part of the grade. >> But that's that's the accountability part is it's a part of

102your grade. If it's not like let's say it's not part of my grade, Then what am I what am I really losing if it's not part of my grade? >> That is impactful. >> I would hope that this becomes impactful to them and that's why we're going to try it this year. >> I I'm 100% understand what you're saying and I'm not going to argue. I mean I totally get what you're saying. Um but it's something that we have to work on. I understand. >> When they get to the high school, it's a different standard. The same the same account they have in junior high. When they get to high school, the sons do have deadlines. >> They don't have deadlines there so much either. No, >> no, not as much. It's a No, not

103as much. No, I think this is something that we can discuss. I mean, that we can work on. And I would have to have Dr. Carson and Dr. chambers and the principles and the teachers and everyone involved in that. [Music] >> Well, January second. >> Yeah. Well, in to Matt's look, you know, I if I'm a teacher and I get mass and Matt >> works his butt off to get it stay, he's got band practice, he's got soft, he's got all these things and he sacrifices to get it done time. That's right. And it doesn't procrastinate waits two months to do it. >> That's right. >> I get it done. You better get it >> and you get the same amount of credit. >> He put the time That's not it. >> I can tell

104you that when I met with the high school and the junior high teachers this spring and we talked about can you hold students accountable? I said yes. I said yes, we can hold them accountable for when you turn your work in. Yes, you can hold them accountable for whatever you need to and we will support you. what that looks like at this point. I don't know because that was me telling them in April. Okay. And so that is going to be a mind shift or a a shift in thought for a while as we work through it. But I did tell all of them, you can hold our students accountable. >> That's right. turning up. >> Yes. >> Doesn't that strip them a little bit of the power of class? Maybe. Maybe not. It's been

105a minute. >> But there's definitely the educational theory uh thought that a grade should only reflect it should not it should not reflect if you turn something in late because that's not from an AC. I mean, I'm being very honest with you. >> What thought is that? >> That mean I'm very serious. It's a co >> it should it no >> so we can we can have this discussion if you don't mind. >> We got we can do it right >> maybe at a work session >> but they had more time to learn it too. I mean that's not fair. I I mean there's a lot of arguments against that but that's >> I I'm 100% understand what you're saying. >> We got we got the handbooks right here. We can do it right now.

106>> No. >> Okay. Did you have any other >> I got one thing as well. I know we I know that the the dress code and the cell phone thing was a significant addition in the high school and we and we talked about this before and in the high school and the junior high the middle school is not there's basically no change to that. >> My thought is middle school has they're basically like junior high kids. Um they all do the same thing. So, >> I would I would like to see that same stuff added in there, especially the cell phone stuff, it's not that much, but I mean the dress code because if you want to tape tamper the behavior by the time they get I mean they're in that pre-teen era, whatever. So,

107they're going to be like, "Oh, I can do whatever I want and look like I'm going to the club." And then come junior high, oh, I can't do this. I've been doing this for the last two years. So, >> it's valuable for junior high kids. this valuable for middle school kids. >> I would say that if you would approve these now and then let Dr. uh Sappington go back to the middle school because honestly I don't want to put something in a handbook that our teachers have never discussed before. No way. Or they've not had a a chance to make it their own. And uh so >> yeah, but they didn't have a chance to make the cell phone thing their own. >> Well, that was by state law. >> Well, this is our law.

108I mean, I I would not be in favor of pushing the middle school like it is. It's >> if we want the junior high to change like that, then >> what tell what's the difference between that and middle school? I mean, when I grew up, it's all it was junior high anyway. >> Are the teachers going to have a Did they have input originally into the dress code? >> Oh, they did. Oh, I didn't know. >> Is there a way to delay approving that particular handle? can always you can you can approve it and within and in August or September we can bring it back to you for a modification. >> You can do that in the school year. >> Yes, we can. >> Okay, then we're going to have the whole thing printed and

109put it out there. >> Yeah, >> but we could we could do >> we'll sign it and >> the same thing that is in the junior high and the high school for closed to go down to the middle school. >> I mean I don't at least junior high >> cell phones again. >> Yes, the cell phone thing. There's only a couple words added. I think that's about the same. >> No, in the junior high they took out they gave them a free chance. So every teacher >> Yes. Every day they get a free chance. I I don't think that should be taken out. I think they should >> somebody who has a junior high students, they absolutely need more grace than my high school. >> They are not fully developed. They have to have a

110little bit more grace than what you do at high. >> If you tell them at the beginning, these are the rules everybody else lives by. Don't don't turn it on in the school building. Then they can figure that agree to disagree. >> Yeah. Yeah, I'm talking I'm talking about the dress code part. >> Now, the dress code is probably something that should grow with them, you know, but that's something brand new and you probably we probably didn't even address it with the younger ones. >> I mean, most of it seems obvious to me, but then again, it's not obvious that some people >> Well, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Right. Right. >> Good. So, if you might just quickly touch on what came out of Jeff City that helped encourage allow this policy change on cell

111phones. >> Good question. It was um and I don't have the the rules because you there is a little bit of interpretation but that uh cell phones are not allowed or should be powered down not cell phones but electronic devices uh should be powered down and not used but in during instructional time. It is a law >> school district that you now have to >> have a policy but there's a law that says you can't do >> good point >> right >> the one that we made on our own was the dress code. Yes, we and we used to have a dress code >> and we should I mean people need to be appropriate >> when in public >> all says communication devices right something verific >> yeah so your tablet your >> right >>

112yes smartwatch you know yeah >> and I I'm in favor of that I think it's great that they're going to go back to talking to each other at lunch there I mean there's all kinds of good It's so distracting to have your >> It's so distracting to have your phone going off in the middle of trying to learn something that you need a long attention span and you have all these distractions coming up. I'm glad that you put that in the handbooks. I'm glad that that's being enforced. >> Where do we stand currently? That's a whole lot of just >> I I still think that we approve it and move forward. There's nothing that we I mean I know you want to include something else but there's nothing that we need to change that's being

113presented. Correct. >> Except for on the junior high one and maybe I'm the only one who thinks that you on the cell phone they gave them that one exception. >> Oh I their brain is not as developed as the older students. I think you absolutely and that has been decided and discussed with teachers >> the junior high when like we went to the tour. Like you said, no no no teachers talked about the cell phone policy >> at the at the junior high now and even previously it's it's pretty significant. It's already no no cell phones. So it's not that much change I think as I understand it. I mean when I did the tour so they're already really not allowed to do it right at the high school. It's kind of a well it

114was kind of a free-for-all. So the floor has to approving all of these as our new expert on Robert >> with all of the discussion and proposed things. How are we supposed to handle that at this point? >> Thank you for bringing that up. We would need an amendment to that motion to change that. However, and who would like to do that? Was somebody wanting Are you officially wanting to make a motion to remove junior high students from having a warning? >> I move that we amend the motion to say that the junior high school handbook on page eight leaves that number one in there where they not allowed to have any free warnings. Is there a second to that? >> There's no second to that. So that amendment dies. >> Okay. I I move

115to make an amendment to the middle school to add some of this dress code items. I'm not sure maybe copy the dress code items or similar as the junior high. >> I second that. >> Okay. Now >> discussion on amendment. >> Discussion on the amendment. >> So functionally uh we cannot grab a policy on the fly community. So it would it be more prudent? Well, two things. Can you amend Could we amend the policy in August or something? Do we have to do it right now? >> You can amend it. >> So So could we give instruction for somebody to go back and draft a dress code policy that is somewhat in line with what we talked about without actually trying to force it through an amendment like this? >> The amendment was copy paste

116it. I believe >> from an HR standpoint that's giving me a very bad feeling because you are going to have students and teachers who are going to sign that and it's not going to be included and then later if they violate it they're going to say well I didn't agree to that from the beginning. So that's why I am that's that's my HR brain. >> Yeah. So if you change it what you're saying is if you change it like well you said we could we didn't have that rule before. I didn't have to wear shoes before. >> So we should >> now we have to wear shoes. No. So the motion is do we um do we So the motion that you have and was seconded is on the middle school handbook you are wanting

117to add the same verbiage about dress code in it. >> That's the high school. >> That's what it is. >> I mean I'm open to hearing some discussion from Dr. Link or someone in the audience that knows about this stuff. >> Yeah. I I just agree with with Amber that I don't want the kids to get this and then say, "Oh, now we have a change." Because then they're going to >> I understand what you're saying. >> So you don't change it. >> I would be happy to amend the middle school handbook to say the same thing as the junior school junior high handbook. >> Well, and then I will talk to the teachers and the principles and make it work. >> Is there are there any issues? I mean, >> No. We have always

118worked very hard since 7th grade went back to junior high to keep the middle school as more of an elementary school um instead of making it like a secondary school. And so we have kind of kept middle school handbook looking like elementary handbook. But I completely understand what you're saying about dress code and it needs to improve for someone who's been here for 20 years. I think it's a great thing anyway. I think I can make it work with teachers. I think they'll buy it. I think we'll be good. Principles will be fine, too. No problem. >> Do you think even if we made it too strict on accident and the teachers had some good thing to think about, we could loosen it up and that would not have >> You can always make it.

119>> Yes. >> You can always make it easier. >> Yeah. >> So, the amendment is to add what is in the junior high to the middle school. >> Yeah. >> And you >> I will verbatim >> Okay. >> cut and paste. >> Okay. We'll vote on it. Is there any further discussion? We're going to first vote on that. All in favor of amending the middle school handbook to have the dress code that the junior high does. Good job. Okay, that passes. The second the first we still need to vote on. All those in favor of passing the rest of the student handbooks. Um I just have a question. We talked about that behavior thing. Are we going to include that and approve that? Because that lets the Oh, the behavior code is the thing that

120lets the late score not count as part of your academic grade, but puts it in a different grade. >> I can't I don't know what the exact rules are on that. I can tell you that this was something that the teachers fully supported. Now, how it comes with what the grade practices are, that I don't know, but I do know that this was something that the teachers worked on and supported. >> I liked that behavior code idea. I thought it was great, but I didn't know it was going to take away from them. >> I don't know that it will. I don't know that. >> So, if it includes being able to include that in their academic grade, then I >> I don't know that. >> Okay. >> Dr. Sabington, do you know anything about

121that? Not to put you on the spot at all, do you know anything about whether people teachers can deduct for late work or set a hard deadline that is included in their academic grade if we include this new roar score. >> And again, I'm I'm sorry for putting you on the spot. >> I will be honest with you. I believe that that is pretty that is left up to >> up to the teacher. Yes, that's what I wanted to know. >> I would say if you talked with a group of teachers, they would probably say they would prefer something that was more in stone about what it should look like. Um, I think for a while we've been pretty willy-nilly with it. Um, I think people probably would appreciate um some direction there. Um, I

122would hope that you all would allow uh Dr. Carson to lead that >> um instead of making a determination ourselves. I would hope that you would allow him to do that. I think the direction for him would be create some kind of a procedure for what the work looks like. >> So, we could still approve this thing, >> correct? >> And just say with the caveat that Dr. Carson's going to work to create some kind of policy where deadlines are enforced. >> Okay. >> I think that we want some concrete lines. But functionally, I don't know how we accomplish that. I think that these >> I don't know. But I think these handbooks, if we don't approve them, it creates a big issue during 60-day block. We know all I agree with you that we

123all want uh some guidelines and some give the teachers some authority there. I don't know that we accomplished it tonight. So, I do think the proposal something that brings to us that might be we can get to tonight. This is not a problem that's going to get solved in a day >> and it's we still should approve what's there. That's >> and this isn't going to rule that out. That was all I was concerned about. >> Yeah. Good. >> Well, I think you're going to approve it, but you're just going to give some more strict um you're just going to give some more guidelines to it >> because it's >> we can't make those decisions now. >> Exactly. >> We're talking about one sector of a bigger book, but Maybe we should look at those

124handbooks earlier in the year in the future. >> I don't think you remove it though. >> I I don't think you remove it. >> It is a It is a procedure that we need to go back to and have conversations with the teachers just like when I said in April, you can hold them accountable. Now, we have to go and we say, give us how are we going to do that? >> Oh, >> okay. We can't make that decision here. We have to go back and talk to the teachers and say, "These are the parameters. How are we going to make this happen? Knowing what the will of the board is, right? >> No. >> Direction of this is what we want you to go figure out. >> Right. Exactly. Because they know best. >>

125Dr. Sappington. >> Some folks would have already registered their kids and will have already signed. So, just know we'll have to go back and ask some folks to re read that. >> Oh, that's already open. >> Yes. For I think it's is it new? brand new folks >> and we don't know yet. So, we got to go back and tell them. >> Correct. >> I did I honestly didn't know that. I didn't think we'll have to go back and ask a few folks to redo just that portion >> because of the dress code. >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm sorry to do that, but I >> hopefully it's not a lot. >> Okay. >> Maybe can we approve these or >> All right. I'm going to go ahead and Are we good to vote now? Um,

126all in favor of the student handbooks. Um, okay. So, that is all opposed. Okay. All right. >> I wish I could have heard why. >> Oh, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> It was motioned by James, second by Matt. All in favor? We are journed. I get it. Good. How are you? >> I'm sad.