Park Hill School District Board Meeting 04/24/2025

001[Music] Good evening. I call the April 24th, 2025 meeting of the Park Hill Board of Education to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you for uh silencing your phones uh this evening. Um I would like to remind the uh board of our norms. Uh be prepared, be an active listener, be missiondriven, uh stay in the role of a board member, uh embody integrity, be respectful, and of our district's vision statement, building successful futures uh each student every day. Um board members, any announcements this evening? Uh, Miss Barnes, good evening. Um, just in case anyone did know, Missouri Senate

002passed um, SB711 on April the 22nd. So, you might want to just look into that and see how that affects your schools. There's things in there about transportation and the money that your school district gets from transportation from the state and how that would affect next year. So, you might just want to look into those things and um contact your representatives if you have any issues. Okay. Thank you, Miss Barnes. Uh Mr. Are any other announcements? No. Thank you. Uh Mr. Todd, none tonight. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Woodley, I have a couple. Um I attended the Park Hill Cappy which is a Park Hill Community Alliance for Youth Community uh meeting that was on Wednesday and they were just expressing um the importance to remind the community about alcohol and vaping prevention since prom season

003is upon us. I know the next this weekend and next is going to be for our schools. So just be aware that we need to keep our students safe. Have those conversations. Also on September 6th, they're hosting their annual grow gathering program for uh middle school students. And it's um this year they're going to expand it to sixth grade as well as seventh and eighth. And there will be a parent and guardian component as well. And on the 29th next week or this upcoming week, they're having cookies with Cappy from 6:30 to 7:30 where you can come out and just learn about what Cappy is and what it does for our students and the district. And um while I was there, I met our social worker from Park Hill High School, Mrs. uh Tipton, and

004she shared that there's a Park Hill senior Trojan named Isabella Amos, and she is doing a mental health awareness um game on April the 29th at Park Hill for the um at Park Hill South Soccer Field. And the proceeds will all go to the National Alliance on Mental Health of Greater Kansas City. She's doing a raffle. She's secured different donations from Casey Current, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of KC and other local restaurants. And so, um, just wanted to spotlight her doing that work for not just her community, but spreading it out through the district, the importance of mental health. And maybe, you know, if you're able to go out April 29th and, uh, see the game between, I think it's Liberty that they're playing against. It is. Okay, that's it. Okay. Thank you, Mrs.

005Wood. Mr. Montes, none. Thank you, Miss Bolan. None. Thank you, Mrs. Barber. None. Thank you. All right. Um I think a number of us had the opportunity to attend the excellence in education um meeting last night. Uh it was a great uh celebration of education in the Northland. Um it's kind of the kickoff to uh to kind of celebrating uh during the school year. Um the art fair is this weekend. Graduations are coming up. Proms are coming up. A lot of recognitions of all the hard work that our our district's been doing. So looking forward to all of that. Um Dr. Kimbell, any additional um announcements? Uh yeah, I do have a couple. Uh the first is that we have uh sent out a Park Hill Bulletin and pending your approval uh tonight, we've got

006a couple administrator announcements to be made. Um first one that I'm going to recognize is Dr. Allison Atkinson. Uh she is right there. There she is. Uh she is going to be our new Lake View Middle School uh assistant principal and she currently serves at Lake View uh as a teacher and the building section 504 coordinator. Prior to joining Park Hill, uh she served as principal at Mid Buchanan High School. uh 18 years of experience in education as a teacher, assistant principal, and as a fax teacher, uh FCCLA state adviser uh with the NE Nebraska Department of Education, and we are excited to have her uh joining our administrative team. Congratulations. Uh we also have I think I just saw her sneak in here. Christy Hensley is right there. Christie is uh going to be

007our new Plaza principal at Plaza Middle School uh for the 2526 school year. She currently serves as assistant principal at Lee Summit West High School. Uh a role that she's had for the past couple years. And prior to that, she was assistant principal at Raytown High School. Uh she's began her career in education in 2008 as a speech and theater teacher at Raytown South. She actually said to me, "I think I did, was it student teaching or a long-term sub in long-term sub?" long-term sub in a building that I was the principal in in another district. So, we are so glad to have Christie. Please help me welcome her to our administrative team. All right. The other announcement that I have to make is you might see flowers up here next to uh Miss Tina

008Freeman. This week is uh MSBA's uh board secretaries week. And so this week uh in addition to having yesterday as all administrative professionals uh day, this is a specific week uh to recognize our board secretaries. Uh Miss Freeman, as many of you know, has just stepped into this role with a previous uh retirement and her moving over from academic services. We couldn't be more happy with how she's just uh slid right in, done an awesome job, and uh we are so thankful to have her. So, the flowers and there's a certificate here and a card for you. Thank you, Tina, for everything that you do. And that's all I have. Okay. All right. We'll now move on to item two, uh, adoption of the agenda. I will need a motion and a second to adopt

009the April 24th, 2025 agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Right. I have a motion from Mrs. Woodley and a second by Miss Barnes to adopt the agenda as presented. Uh Dr. Kimble, are there any modifications? Uh none tonight. Thank you. Uh board, do you have any modifications tonight? Seeing none, um all those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstain? All right. Motion carries. 70. All right, we'll now move on to item three, recognitions and awards. And I will ask Mrs. Rachel to come up and uh do some awards. Good evening. Um hello. Thanks for being here this evening. We're going to start with our first recognine and that is Jaylen Woodley. Come on up. You are first this evening. Jaylen, come stand right here next to me. I'm going to read

010a bit about Jaylen and then have her share a little bit about her experience as to why she's here tonight. So, uh, we are Park Hill proud of Jaylen Woodley, uh, Park Hill South Senior for being selected to attend the United States Senate Youth Program in Washington DC. The USSYP is an extremely competitive merit-based program held in Washington DC in March. So, she's already been um gathering two high school juniors or seniors from every state for an intensive week-long study of the federal government and its leaders. So, she's one of Missou's representatives, which is again a very big honor. Um, the state departments of education throughout the country select the students through a rigorous nomination and selection process and a $10,000 undergraduate college scholarship is given to each student in the name of the US

011Senate with encouragement to continue coursework in history, government, and public affairs. Congratulations, Jaylen. This is where we have I'm going to have Jayen say a few words, but I'll say is any family members here? And we have a family member right over here. Any other family members here tonight? Where's dad? Hello, dad in the back. Okay, Jaylen, say a few words about your experience and tell us about it. Um, it was great to go to DC. Um, I had the honor of laying a wreath at Arlington Cemetery um with the tune and unknown soldier. We got to go to the White House, the Supreme Court um hear from people like Justice Kavanaaugh, um, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegsth. Um, we got inside the Pentagon, which is truly amazing to be inside, but obviously we couldn't take

012our phones inside. Um, but yeah, it was just a really good experience to see how government works and to see the insides of it, especially in a time right now where like a lot of the government is on the news. I get to see and be in those spaces. Um, but yeah, and I plan to go to Missou and study um, political science and constitutional democracy and end up at law school next year or not next year, four years. And that scholarship goes towards your college of choice. Yes. And then other scholarships that your mom was telling me about, is that part of that? Yeah. Um the Bank of America student leader thing, um it's 12,000 people apply, 300 people make it and we go to DC again. So I'll be up in DC in

013July again. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. Good work. And here the board will shake your hand. You go around and shake [Applause] hands. Congratulations, Jaylen. And um Miss Tracy in the back will take your photo when you're done shaking hands. Congratulations, Miss Tracy. I'll take your photo real quick, too. Congratulations. Okay, next. If you're here from Missouri Scholars, come on up. All right. Hello, everybody. Come stand right next to me. moving with the drill already. Okay, we're missing Zach. Zach is at track tonight running. He's one of the captains, so he has an excuse to not be here this evening. Um, this is Avian Manzel and Leah Helm from Park Hill High School. And then Hannah Peterson, Missing Zach, uh, from Park Hill South. And these four students have earned spots in the Missouri Scholars

014100 class of 2025, recognized for their academic excellence, leadership, and impact on their school communities. I'm going to have them introduce themselves and say a bit about Missouri scholars and what they're looking forward to. Hello, I'm Leah. As she said, I'm a senior at Park Hill High School. Um, for Missouri scholars, my counselor, um, Miss Morris nominated me, which is very nice of her. And they looked at community service, they looked at leadership, they looked at academics, all that sort of stuff. And I was very happy to be selected. Um there is a luncheon in about a week over in Columbia, Missouri that I'll be going to. That's very exciting. Um next year my plan is to study biochemistry on the premed track at Co College up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. And I'm very excited

015for that. I'm very excited for college and I'm very thankful for the recognition tonight. Thank you. I'm Hannah Peterson from Park Hill South High School and I'm so grateful to have been nominated for the Missouri Scholars. Uh she already kind of explained a little bit about what it is, but just based off of my involvement academic, athletic, and through leadership in clubs, my counselor too nominated me and I am so happy to say that I was selected. Um I plan on also majoring in biochemistry at Kansas State University where I'll be playing in their symphony orchestra. you. My name is Avon Bansel. I go to Park Hill High School. Um, again, like these two both said, our counselors nominated or my counselor nominated me based on my involvement in clubs and my academic performance and

016my community service. Um, it's an honor to be selected for this Missouri Scholars 100. Um, next year my plan is to go to Purdue and study computer science. Excellent. Okay, they will shrink. Any parents, family members in the audience, please wave to us. Congratulations. Excellent. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. And then Leah Tracy, you'll take a picture back there with the group. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Next, we have our Project Adam school. So, if you're a principal or a nurse here for Project Adam, come on up. might be just be Rachel this evening. Others come on Rachel Ward. So we are at the last group of our certified Project Adam schools. And right there perfect so the TV can see you. There's that. And um Southeast Elementary, Park Hill South, and Gerner are the

017newest and last schools to be Project Adam certified. Every Park Hill school is now certified in Project Adam with a cardiac emergency response team and practices emergency response drills. Um again the goal is to have lives saved by empowering schools to prepare a cardiac emergency plan with a practice plan through the program. The schools designed as being heart safe geting to sport training and reertification on a regular basis. Congratulations Rachel Ward. What would you like to say? So, um it was really exciting experience to go through this um process because many times I've gone through CPR training and it's the idea that something could happen, but this really forced us to be able to think about putting all of that in action and be able to respond in a variety of places throughout our building.

018So, it helped us apply what I've learned for many, many years and look at it in a very different way to be able to prepare to save someone's life. Thank you. All right. Congratulations. The board will shake your hand. Excellent. So, yes, this is our last uh school and group of schools to be Project Adam certified. So, all of our schools in Park Hill have the certification now. It's a really big deal for us and we're proud to recognize all these last schools who are now certified. Thank you for being here, Rachel. Okay, we have one more before it goes to Dr. Kemroll. Um Laura and Christa Christa, come on up. Oh, and we have more. Rener, come on up. Right here. Yes, you should be. Road Runners. Beep beep. Okay, these are representatives from

019Runner Elementary. And we're here because we're going to congratulate Ren Elementary School for earning the 23 through 25 National PTA School of Excellent Award. Excellence award. Rener is one of only three schools in Missouri to earn this prestigious honor. and this marks the second time they've actually received this recognition. The award highlights the school's strong partnerships with families and its dedication to building inclusive, welcoming community. So, I'm going to have you introduce yourselves. Laura is here as a parent and PTA co-president. And tell us about the award. Laura, you're first. Hi, I'm Laura Sidell. I am uh currently at Congress Middle School involved in the PTA there, but last year I was co-president at Rener and helped spearhead the efforts for school of excellence for Rener. Um now you want me to Anything else you

020want to say about what this award means and why it's so important to receive? Well, as everyone probably knows, PTA is all about um school involvement for parents. Um making sure that the students are being taken care of, the staff are being taken care of. So, um, it's just an honor to be recognized as a school that really values the partnerships between schools, administration, staff, parents, kids, the whole gambit. Um, and we've actually won it now, well, Rener has won it three years totally. It's a two-year term. Um, and Kristen, who you'll meet in a moment, she's been uh present in the past and has spearheaded as well School of Excellence. Um, and she's currently the uh recording secretary on the board at Rener. Okay. My name is Kristen Fallon. I work at Rener. I

021teach special education. I am proud to have been on the board for probably the last 15 years at Rener. Um, yes, you are correct that we did win it. Um, many many years ago. I I also came to the board of education meeting and that's when that's when we won it the first time and we did not have to talk um at that time. So, I am not I am not as prepared this time. And that's all I have to say. I think Laura did a great job explaining everything. Um, I'm Britney Kleinmire. I'm the admin assistant for attendance at Rener and I am the current treasurer, the money the money holder um for the current year. And then I also helped last year. And I just love Rener's atmosphere and we love our kids.

022We love our families. And you can definitely tell with our PTA that we do take care of our staff and our family. So, excellent. They will now shake your hands. Congratulations. Okay, Kristen. [Music] any family members of our PTA folks. All right. And we have uh two more uh awards and uh recognitions and they are both for uh a couple of our board members. So, first of all, we'd like to recognize Ila Barber. Leila has achieved and earned advanced and master board member certification for the MSBA Missouri School Boards Association. to tell you a little bit about what this means is to earn advanced certification, board members must uh earn the essential certification but then uh complete a refresher training at least uh 30 additional hours and credits, attend two MSBA core meetings and with

023uh at least one in the current year. They must read two books from the MSBA book list uh for reading requirement and submit a two to three page reflection little homework for you and uh do that do related to their board service. Uh to earn master certification they must uh earn essential and advanced certification. So uh Miss Barber's done both of those. uh in in addition to the refresher training and uh then also 42 additional credits um along with the meetings current year uh uh reading two books. So is that four books? Oh my goodness. You uh nose in a book there. And uh learning more and more about uh how Missouri school boards association works and um everything school board uh certification wise. Congratulations Ila. That's a lot of work. And we also have,

024if I can find it here, Mr. Turwilliger, uh, to my right has earned a master board certification. So, I've just explained a lot about what that means. Uh, but you only read two books, not four. Um, and so, uh, I did the two, you did the two the year before. Thanks for correcting me. Um, and so, uh, thank you very much for, uh, your service and your extra work here to earn these certifications and continue your learning. Appreciate it. And that is all we have for recognitions and awards. Okay. All right. Well, we'll now move on to item four, public comment. Um during this part of the agenda, we will receive public comment from patrons who pre-registered by the noon deadline today. And we did have four um patrons pre-registered today. Um when called upon

025by the board president, patrons are to approach the presenter station, speak into the microphone, and state your name before making comments. Uh each speaker will have a threeminut time limit, and the board secretary will monitor time. Uh please direct your comments to the entire board. Uh generally uh board members will not provide um any response during public comment. However, if needed, uh board members and or district staff may provide a response at a later time. Um discussion about individual staff members or students is not allowed. [Applause] Right. There it is. All right. Um first up for public comment is William Quipm. You can approach the presenter station and begin when you're ready. I guess well um good evening. I'm William Michael Quitmire. I've had three kids graduate from Park Hill School District. All of them

026were very successful and um I couldn't be happier about the school district um until I learned about what we pay our our educators at the gurner school. It's a feebased uh place. We pay them like $37,000 per year. They pay 6,600 in taxes. That leaves them $30,400. If you try to rent a property in Plaque County, it's you're going to spend um $1,900 a month. That's minimum. You want to buy a house, there's no not even houses available for 200, 250,000 anymore. So, you're stuck. Um that leaves you um $7,600 for everything else. And then you guys put a $3,500 annual deductible on their health insurance. So they can't even if they get sick, they can't they have no money to go pay the deductible. None. So they can't if they get sick or injured,

027they're they can't go to the doctor. Um they work snow days. They don't get summers off. They work all year long for this money. Um they have a half hour for lunch but have to clock out for that half hour for lunch. Um, we agree that early education is very important. I mean, um, everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten, although that book's not about that title, but nevertheless, it's a cute title. And, um, we certainly teach the kids to get along with others. My grandkids, you know, their menaces at home, but somehow they go to school and they they are polite and uh um and we can all agree that the kids at Gruner are being educated. Yet we're one of the lowest paid school districts. Uh we're educated. We're one of

028the lowest paid educators in school districts in one of the wealthiest districts. So I mean this is not we're not this is a pretty good place for your revenue. Um you market the school as an educational center. Consumers prefer this to a daycare center because the kids they expect their kids to learn and they are learning and it is a better thing. um that you market the education early educational center can um with give them badges that say associate teachers that they're not really treated that way pi pay pay-wise ger is constantly advertising for new educators in the gerner school and you have a tremendous amount of turnover and that is I think that's directly tied to pay the school makes $990 per month per child as a fe on a fee basis and I

029think that it's like $1,5 $100 at daycare centers or monastery if you wanted to go there. So, so I think it's good to have that it be affordable for the citizens but on the other hand we can't take advantage of our our educators. Um as a voter inflation is rampant. You see that and everything time thank you for your comments tonight. We appreciate it. All right. Uh, next up is Corin Hungate. You can approach the presenter station. Okay. Hunggate is not here. Okay. Um, next, Monnique Leonard. Uh, you can approach the presenter station. She's not here. Okay. Okay. All right. That Sydney Johnson, you are up. Uh, you're up. Thank you for coming tonight and you can bring you in whenever you're ready. Okay. Hello, my name is Sydney Johnson and I go to Lead

030Innovation Studios. Having a brother with his disability, I have seen the ups and downs regarding his education. I have seen my mom fight for what is right. And I honestly I honestly believe it should not be this hard. When I was growing up, I I saw when I saw a kid with disabilities, I honestly didn't think anything of it. I would think, "Oh, that kid seems nice, or I want to be that kid's friend." To allow students of all abilities to access their education within their community is an injustice that will affect our school environment. To not allow students of all abilities to um access their education within their community is an injustice that will affect our school environment. Inclusive education is essential for people uh for people with and without disabilities to thrive. Separating

031a kid from their peers just because he looks different or learns differently from them is an is absolutely dis devastating and wrong. It is a violation of the individuals of with disabilities education act to remove these students from their communities and least restrictive environment. I truly believe that putting a kid with disabilities in a classroom with other individuals with the same disabilities robs our communities from their full potential. In class, we are currently learning about synergy. In simple terms, synergy is when things working together produce a much better result than they could separately. And two minds who think differently will come up with a better, more effective solution. Knowing this, it just seems wrong to segregate students based on their disabilities. Students of all abilities have areas of strengths and weaknesses. We can all agree

032that we all learn from each other. My generation understands that all separate is not equal and that disability rights are civil rights that must be protected. The recent announced special education pro programming shift is based on adult um adult cocons. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight, Sydney, and giving your comments. We appreciate it. All right. Um, next is item five is our consent agenda for this evening. Uh, before I call for a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda, are there any items that need highlighted? Dr. U, no more uh, additional information. You had these in front of you last week as information items, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. board. Do we have any questions? Um, seeing none, I'll need a motion and a second to approve consent agenda

033items 5.2 through 5.26 as presented. Second. Right. I have a motion uh from Mrs. Barber and a second by Mr. Todd to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any uh further discussion, board? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed say nay. Any abstained. Right. Motion carries. 70. All right. Next um is action items for this evening. Um item 6.1 is approval of the continuing retention incentive bonuses for the 20252026 school year for nutrition services adventure club preschool and teaching assistant employees. Uh Dr. Kell and Dr. Dylan. Yeah, I'll just give a quick overview of this particular item. We brought this back to you uh for multiple years now. This is actually something that was implemented uh originally with one work group in COVID and we've learned that uh through that it

034has been positive for other work groups. Remember that this is an incentive that is paid out twice a year. So employees must be employed at the end of first semester and at the end of second semester to be able to be eligible for that additional bonus uh which is a uh per hour type bonus. uh we have seen data that would suggest that we are uh decreasing the number of openings and turnover that we have in these positions. Sometimes we've gone from for the teaching assistant, excuse me, for the adventure club one actually we had 85% at one time back in the COVID day of turnover and now we're in the 20s. And so to be able to reduce that, we feel like this has a positive effect on helping people um make decisions about

035wanting to stay with us. And so we are recommending that we continue for these work groups. Um Dr. Dylan, anything to add to that? No, there's just that the statistics are available to you. Yeah. And we can take any questions uh in addition to that. I don't have any questions, but just very glad that this is working as planned and that we are taking care of our our staff on the um school age child care. Um we're we're doing good, but we're still pretty low compared to like 2019. Yes. And we we are low across the the board. Well, that's one we we struggle in specifically. Precoid was was much better. We see that across that sector in all uh areas of early childhood and uh child care in general. That's a a pinch point

036for employees not only in schools but also uh I think across uh for many of our parents. Dr. Dylan, anything to add to that? Yeah, we're just we're operating at about 50% of what what we need. we just across the metro um in in that sector of employment that's about what um every daycare center is running with about 50% um openings of what they need. So, and with this we know that that creates a uh frustration for our community and for our parents. Um we would if we had the staff uh we would love to be able to fully staff this. We would not have weight lists if we had uh the staffing to do it. We have very strict ratios that we have to hold to and unfortunately because of the staffing shortage in

037this area. Uh we do have to continually have a weight list every time that we're able to hire more and we're able to reduce that weight list is uh that's in the best interest of the parent and we want that as well. Yeah, that's I know it's it's uh what Adventure Club it opened up a couple weeks ago and I know that's always been a point of frustration over the past five years and you know the money's there to to pay. We just can't get we just can't get those employees hired. So yeah, we're we're trying we're doing everything we can at it. Yep. Dr. Dylan, are there any specific hurdles that you hear about all the time with those positions? Is it just scheduling or purely personnel? Um, all of the above. I mean,

038there there's there are um it's the hours, right? The limited number. It's a split schedule often. Um like before and after school care versus, you know, an all day job, a full-time job. It's benefits. It's um it's salary. There's just there's a variety of of reasons why um people are choosing other professions. Um I think too we really saw the decline when people could start working remotely and we have little humans to take care of so remote is not an option for those positions. So but I think we are um cautiously hopeful that um we're going to we're starting to see a turnaround um and an interest again in in those professions. So is is there um just just looking at that schedule just like I'm just thinking of like college students and and different

039people who like I might have afternoon classes but I could do the morning session. Is that available or if you take it do you have to take both? No, that's absolutely available. We also have some folks doing um split schedules that are doing like before school and then they do um you know nutrition services at lunch or so they're doing split schedules with other positions. The other thing that's really exciting is we just uh worked with a whole group of our aspiring um educators, our high school students who are about to graduate. We're going to come in this summer and help. um we've asked, you know, we've um put the, you know, kind of the planted the seed that when they're at in college, perhaps if their class schedules allow for it, they can come

040in. And also, um so we're doing lots of things to um be creative in and um in who we target to uh to um recruit for those positions. Thank you. I know my my son did an A+ out of Union Chapel, but I'm assuming that doesn't help with the ratios. They're they're kind of a bonus help, right? They're bonus. Yeah. Yes. Still extremely helpful. Yeah. And then proposition G, this would it'll help for the uh overall pay. Yes. I mean, it's going to increase on top of that. Yeah. The bonuses on on top of that. So hopefully the uh pay piece will continue to improve and that we would be able to chip away at the gaps that we have relative to the staffing ratios that we know. Okay. Any other questions, board? All right.

041Then I'll need a motion and a second to approve item 6.1, approval of continuing retention incentive bonuses for the 2025 2026 school year for nutrition services, adventure club, preschool, and teaching assistant employees as presented. So moved. Second. I have a motion uh for Miss Bolan and a second by Mrs. Woodley to approve continuing retention incentive bonuses for 2025 2026 for nutrition services adventure club preschool and teaching assistant employees as presented. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. Any abstain? Motion carries 70. All right. Next um is item 6.2, approval of 20125 summer school teaching contracts. Uh Dr. Kimroll and Dr. Dylan, I don't have much to add to this other than the uh written item that you have in front of you. Uh we are in the process of offering these

042contracts and getting summer school staffed. Obviously, that's right around the corner. And so we're looking for uh the board approval tonight so that we can start uh making those placements and getting everything in place for summer school right when uh the regular session's over. Right. Board. Any questions for Dr. Kimble or Dylan? Okay. Then I'll need a motion and a second to approve item 6.2 approval of 2025 summer school teaching contracts as presented. So moved. Second. I have a motion from Mrs. Barber and a second by Miss Barnes to approve the um summer school teaching contracts as presented. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say nay. Any abstained. I abstain. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Todd. All right. Uh motion carries 6. All right, we'll now move on to our information uh presentations

043for this evening. Uh 7.1 is our 2024, 2025, and 2025, 2026 uh budget updates with a revenue focus. Uh Dr. Kimble and Dr. Kell. Yeah, I will turn this over to Dr. Kelly in just a second. remember uh for the board that we are working toward uh presenting a budget in June that then you would approve by the second meeting in June. That is a statutory requirement of all Missouri school boards every year is to have a uh approved budget before uh July 1. And so tonight we're going to talk about some projections around revenue and then each meeting from here we will be building that information and uh getting to where we will have that full draft budget presented at the first meeting in June. Dr. Kelly, thank you. In addition to the I

044need to get this. Okay. In addition to the statutory requirements in terms of budget adoption, the um board has actually written um maximizing our financial resources within our CIP. So, you know, within our uh systems objective that that is um spelled out as um a requirement uh that we obviously uh put a lot of time into building the budget is the primary way in which we demonstrate to the community that we are in fact maximizing those financial resources. There's a strategy that talks about sustaining a fiscally intentional operating budget reflective of strategic goals. And so that is part of the again a part of this process is to demonstrate that to you and so that as we build the budget um this month and then leading up into June uh that you are comfortable that

045we are showing you a way to not only um maximize our our financial resources but we're also presenting you something that's sustainable. Uh and so throughout this presentation um those are kind of questions that um you might have which is like is this sustainable and and if there are areas in which you have concerns uh now would be the time to to let us know. So um you're probably very used to the process having been through this. It's very cyclical. Um if you start at the top really what kicks off um our efforts on building the budget is the establishment of the budget assumptions. We did that actually in February this year. Typically we do it in January but because of the um bond and levy election. Uh we pivoted a little bit. Um but

046the budget assumptions really lay out the uh draft the blueprint of the budget coming up. And so that then sets us off on creating estimates and putting together the budget. All of our principles, our directors, um our administrative assistants, our bookkeepers, uh are then tasked in the months of February, March, April, and all the way into May with putting together the budget um for their departments, for their schools, uh for their areas um of supervision. And so it's a team effort putting this together. Um, and we have to really hit three different areas. The revenue is a part of it, which I'll present tonight. Uh, the expenditures we'll present next time. Um, and then the fund balances we'll talk about uh consistently because fund balances are the main way that we measure that sustainability uh

047strategic goal. Um, so you'll see the cadence there where we review with you our estimates and those are the dates here. Um actually on June 26 then you'll actually do both of these steps which is amend our current year which we're in fiscal year 25 right now or school year 2425 that ends on June 30th and so you'll make amendments to that budget and then um our next action on that very same night would be to approve the budget that we'll talk about um beginning tonight. Um we then set financial targets and we will do that. One of the steps that's not reflected here but that is key in terms of deploying the budget would be you setting the tax rate. So August which is typically the second meeting in August uh we will set

048the tax rate. Um and then that actually is the biggest component that drives this revenue that I'll show you tonight. Uh but then we'll we'll go through deploying and setting financial targets and putting uh those targets within our budget assumptions. Um and so that would ultimately look like something like this which is again not a lot of change has occurred to this um this system of metrics. looking at our um looking at our revenue and expenditures actually through the um function of a fund balance is the way that we've adopted for the last decade and a half or two decades uh to measure sustainability and so we have separate measures or targets within each one of those funds and these are all uh have been around in Park Hill for quite a while. Some of

049those are things that the board has adopted as guidelines and others are requirements by the state or by the state auditor. The one that actually were recommended have been recommended in the assumptions would be to change um this uh target which had been to maintain a fund balance in capital of 65 to 85% of the prior 3 years expenditures in capital. And so uh we brought to you the budget assumptions in Jan or in February. Uh the concept of actually moving that because the um those expenditures in capital were just they varied so much yeartoear and we were spending quite a bit in capital particularly to supplement um the bundle two or the bond projects that were outlined in April of 2022. So, we were using bond dollars as kind of the core uh resource,

050but then while we're in those buildings, we find all kinds of other things that uh can be improved on. And so, we use uh those dollars that are in that fund balance uh for those. And so um that is going to create a sizable expenditure like last year, last summer and then an even bigger one this year in capital um which would be very very difficult in the future for us to maintain and it would be way too much to be maintaining 65 to 85% of what we're going to spend this summer. And so the recommendation is to turn that um into a flat figure uh and have it um land somewhere between three and a half and 6.5 million. So when I present to you a budget ultimately um on the expenditure side, this

051is the target that I will be looking at at the end of 26. So uh the by June 30th 2026 uh we were looking to land our fund balance and capitals uh not at the the old metric but at this new metric when we present um our uh these different components fund balance revenue and expenditures um these are all very consistent with Missouri public schools. So you could go on to the DESIE website and basically all of our public schools report in the same fashion. So this is a convention of communicating um financials. When when school districts talk about fund balances those are typically um represented by fund um hence fund balance. Um in revenue we talk about where the revenue comes from. So what is the source of revenue? And so those are split

052into local, county, state, federal, and then non-current, which is largely bond revenue, which we'll have um we have on the books uh this this fiscal year and then again next fiscal year, which I'll explain here in a minute. And then next time when we talk about expenditures, it's not it wouldn't really make a lot of sense to talk about the source of expenditures because um that's typically where how we report revenue. But actually we use object for expenditures. And so you can see these logical uh buckets of expenditure, salaries, employee benefits, supplies, uh material materials and supplies, purchase services, and capital. And so we'll talk more about those. Um but these codes as well as this whole framework is actually mandated to us by the state of Missouri that manual changes from year to year

053only slightly um as new items come come in and some changes uh maybe with um regulations at the at the national level. The next graph here is looking at operating fund balance. This is the fund balance that we um we try to keep between 18 and 22%. This is a 9-year history. And on this graph, this last one actually is an estimate of where we believe we'll land um on June 30th of this year. And so the we've been uh really very close and in some some years actually high. um building a a larger fund balance operating fund balance is useful when you're opening new schools um to to take on additional operating costs that first or first couple years as a new school comes online. So um we have made expenditures for Angeline Washington

054um we started the year at 22% I look I think we're going to end up around 20%. many of those expenditures, a lot of that um is um the upstart on supplies and items for Angeline Washington Elementary School. This is um the capital fund balance and um as we began to supplement our um bundle two or April 20 uh of 2022 bond projects, we um began to use this fund balance. Um, this is as high as it's ever been. This is al also a projected number, but that's intentional. All of those dollars will be in fund balance for about um four months, 5 months because a lot of that will be spent in the summer uh to complement our bond project or our bond dollars uh for the schools that were in this summer. And

055so that'll be a temporary condition. This is the one though that I would suggest that we do away with the percentage. And so in future iterations of this graph that it wouldn't be a percentage that we're looking at, but rather fund balances that are probably closer to this uh 2022 fund balance somewhere between 3 and 1/2 and 6 and 1/2. So um this will look different in the future if we continue to adopt that new metric for our capital fund balance. Dr. Kelly, previously that was what 65 to 85%. Right? 65 to 85 of the prior three years of ex of capital expenditures. Okay. So if we look at like 22, it was 54% and that was 6.5 million which is actually the upper end of our new our new metric, right? Yeah. I think

056as we've grown and I'm going to go backwards one slide but um as we've grown this um is also a function of our prior year operating expenditures and you see that you know even though we're let's say going to drop that that is a getting to be a bigger and bigger number because it's a a function of our overall expenditures and so this is becoming a sizable amount um that can take on some of that rainy day or emergency funding that we would have otherwise had over here. We have sizable right now we have sizable fund balances in both and I don't know that that's really working for us uh as intended if it's about um h having the fund balance for emergencies or rainy days or to meet cash flow in December which is

057a primary reason why you even have a fund balance. these these are getting too large I in my opinion and so part of the reason why we want to bring that fund balance down is to um effectively use the money that we have and by um using those in our buildings to improve our schools seems to be the most logical way to use those one-time expenditures you know these wouldn't be ongoing and so taking those out of um fund balance is not a sustainability issue Dr. Kelly. So, are you talking about on the operating fund balance to lower our on this one the capital? I know the capital, but you said to make payroll at the end of the year. Isn't that from the operating fund balance? Uhuh. So, are you saying this this fund

058balance is too high at $20 million or No, I think so. We actually dropped by December into the close to the 10 million mark. um which isn't really even a month's worth of cash for us for our expenditures. Um I what I was trying to get at is that this is a large number um even though it's dropped um in terms of the percentage. This is a sizable number by which it will take care of um our cash flow needs. Um I'm not suggesting we change the percentage here. The point being that this is getting large enough to take care of if we were to have an emergency in December, right? We would have it as well as this capital uh what's remaining in this capital to address that emergency if it was just at

059the worst possible time. So the capital fund balance, this is June 30th. What is the capital fund balance on December? might it might get down and we've had negative fund balances before because we typically do most of our capital expenditures between July and December and so it's not uncommon for that to get fairly low and then it gets replenished in January when our we have a small tax levy that goes directly into this fund and so it replenishes itself. So we can we can turn that can go negative or very low uh and then we can recover it immediately in January. So I built a couple reports and I am not going to go through the reports but certainly if you have a question on any of the detail in these reports. The first one

060is a comparison of um our revenue budget to performance. Um and so you can see where we've underestimated the budget for this year and where we've actually overestimated. And then we've provided a little commentary uh on why some of those uh numbers are what they are. Um and so that report is in your board agenda item and it's the one that's got the gray and red bars. This overall over here is looking again at our current budget and the breakdown of where the revenue came from. And really this starting right here in this teal area all the way around the blue and even the red could be considered a form of local dollars. And so Park Hill is unique in terms of you know that's approximately 3/4 of our revenue uh or so coming from

061local sources. What varies from year to year is this chunk which is it's classified as non-current but that's actually bond dollars. And so you might remember that we sold $77 million uh in bonds um um earlier this fiscal year. And so that's that's there. We don't sell bonds every year, just only when we have bond projects uh to fund. And so that is um that that changes from year to year. But even then, we still are very much dependent on our local dollars. Um then next in line would be our state sources. That's primarily our transportation funding, our state foundation formula. Uh that would be the green area uh which is about 16%. And then federal sources, the purple that would be nutrition services, the free and reduced uh lunch uh dollars from the federal

062government, IDEIDA, and then all of our title programs would be that revenue. Dr. Kelly. So, um, based on what is happening in the state and in the federal government, if we were to lose those funds, where would we where would we have to make that up at? That's a good question and u I've got a little bit on that here in in a couple slides. So, we'll come back to that. Um, but that's a good question is that we're definitely uncertain right now um about what that's actually going to mean and so we're we've kind of had to hit pause a little bit just to see how that's going to play out. Um, okay. So that's revenue to performance. Oh, sorry Dr. Um the uh inside the document on the right there 5113 overestimates from

063Desi. Is there any thing to note there? Is it just a No. Um typically in May and June the uh DESIE will um estimate what they believe that the revenue will be for that year and they will say well this is the amount of um dollars that we think that you will get per you know per child for Prop C or the state foundation formula and just their guidance from May of last year just over um overestimated that. So, um, that was what that was. Okay. Mhm. So, the next graph actually is more talking about projecting forward into next year's budget. I think what's interesting about this is that we actually are going to end up with two consecutive years that look very similar. Um, and and it really has to do with a couple

064things. one is I don't know that we've ever had a year in which we would have two consecutive years of large bond sales, but this this teal uh part is our bond proceeds or our non-current revenue. Here's the $77 million that we that we sold for this year to finish up our last 10-year plan, which included Angeline Washington and all the summer work that we're doing this year. And then of course, as you know, the the the community voted for uh Proposition O. And in Proposition O, the the community authorizes to sell 128 million. There's just no way that we need to sell $128 million next year. Uh and we're still putting together what the draw schedule would need to be for that. So, what I've tenatively done is plugged in half of that for

065next year. And so this is $64 million in bond revenue. That would be to support uh Park Hill High School um and the stadiums at Park Hill South and other projects that we outline on our um overall um sequencing plan which has not been uh brought to you quite yet, but we're it's in the works and you'll see that soon. Um so that's that's a tenative number that might change based upon that sequencing plan. It may be a little lower, maybe a little higher. I would think that probably more likely it to be a little lower because there's so much design work uh that will need to be done on all of these projects. And so the first year of many of these is going to be designed, which is not where a lot of

066the money is needed. So we may not need that full $64 million for uh that quickly. and we will be presenting to you uh in your work session retreat coming up uh a proposed draft timeline and and starting to look at that. So you will be getting that information here shortly. Yeah. So these are so close and and I was saying that you know that blue part at the top we went from 77 to a tenative 64 and so that's quite a bit of a change just in that in the bond funds. But what's picking up a lot of that is Proposition G. So when you see the dollars down here in local sources, that is actually making up some of that difference to make that overall budget um next year, the revenue budget a

067little bit higher right now than it is currently. And so it would grow uh for two reasons. the we're selling bonds again and Proposition G um allowed for us to increase the um tax levy by 40 cents and so that'll generate obviously um new money. We do have that second report. This one is laid out with the purple and blue columns. These are giving you three years of actuals. The purple column that you'll see in the PDF is an estimated of where we're going to end this year. And then the blue is our tenative budget. And this will change slightly. The blue um as we kind of proceed up through the end of June. Uh but this is uh where we're at right now. And our our our plan for overall revenue is at about

068$320 million for next year. Um and so within the budget assumptions, a lot of this has been pulled out of that budget assumptions document and repeated. So this is not necessarily new information. Um kind of the most basic of all things is just to keep in mind that our fiscal year is a July 1 um fiscal year. And so we're targeting that uh date and actually the board meeting, the last board meeting in June uh for the board to adopt the budget. Um these are the um projected fund balances. These are the same values that you saw in those graphs u and and prior. But that does set the stage for the money that we have moving forward for next year. Um we are proposing a new capital fund balance target that is shifting from

069the 65 to 85% to the 3 12 to 6 1.5 million. And so we would budget to fall into that new target for next year. and then some of our overall uh $2.1 million increase projected for next year and 10.9 million increase in operating. And so this 10.9 in operating is almost exclusively the increase in the tax levy um because this the operating does not include that bond the bond sale of 64 million. And so this, if you wanted a general number of what the impact of the increase in the tax levy will be, you're looking at about $11 million of of change over this year. So key assumptions, uh, again, props G and O are now embed will be embedded in that. Um, we did not take that for granted and so this just

070after the election, we just then started to apply that to our budget. Um and so um even for like salary schedules and all those things, we waited until we had those um that election under our belt. And so we're moving forward with that as an assumption. Uh 5% assessed valuation growth. Um keeping in mind that this is a reassessment year. I think 5% is actually conservative. Um if you look at the last five reassessment years, it's more like a 7% uh growth. So, we'll see. That's up to not up to us, but that's up to the county assessor um assessing the the assessed valuations of our property in the district. Um really on enrollment both here, this is repeated, but enrollment does play a factor when we look at revenue for nutrition services or student

071activity funds. And then when you shift to the state sources, it does play a role in um our state foundation formula. That's a key variable. Really the 11,584 uh K through2 students is uh relatively flat. So, it's it's probably uh just an easy rule of thumb would be to say that we think that all of those sources, the state and and um these sources here specifically listed will be relatively flat next year because that's largely driven by enrollment. Um and then uh Miss Barnes, here is where I uh just expressed the uncertainty on federal programming. So all of those programs I listed all the way from our free and reduced lunch dollars, our idea dollars, and then our title one, title two, title three, title four. These are all really kind of up in the

072air. The state and federal government have never been really timely with telling us um even despite the confusion and and some of the mystery about what's going to happen moving forward. And so that's always been very delayed in terms of knowing what u how much we can plan on. But um and those would typically come in maybe May or maybe even the beginning of June for that next fiscal year. But then what our um our team will do is design programs around those allocations. So um if that if we're going to get information around a title budget dropping, well then we need to respond. some of those dollars can be shifted to some of our operating dollars. And so we might have to put some dollars in to support those programs because we've already committed

073to the teachers. We've already committed to um that program, but we may have to take a a hit in our operating fund balance of a year so that we can then recalibrate those programs to meet what our allocations are. But right now, we just frankly don't know what the allocations are. So, um did I answer your original question? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And we've u MSBA's been doing their munch monthly lunch and learns and they've been like be conservative when you're planning on your budgets all the uncertainty here. Yeah. So we have and in fact those are just um we just have plug values in there which are just consistent with what we have currently. Um and then we'll obviously meet as a team as we get more information and we'll bring to you a

074budget that that's that's representative of those allocations. Have we received any more information on how the county might handle the freezing of some property taxes? I do not have that information. Dr. Kelly, since um since this is a reassessment year and we did have both GNO pass, to my understanding, the Hancock amendment doesn't apply this year. Is that right? Mhm. Yes. So, it typically would be taken from the ceiling um the prior year ceiling, but one of the overrides is if the voters passed an increase, then you the first year that is that sets the new ceiling and so Hancock wouldn't apply that first year, but it will every other year moving forward. Thank you. Yes. And then you can see I've I've tried to just show uh here really not sure exactly what we're

075going to need in terms of um the the bonds and the bond sale. I've just plugged in that 50% 64 million there as a placeholder. um you know we'll create the sequencing plan which will then drive the cash flow that we anticipate we'll need which will then drive information from um Piper Sandler in terms of what's strategically best for us and also consulting with um some of our experts at MOAT which is would assist us in investing the funds that aren't being used and so how do we maximize all of these this revenue um and so it takes a team of people there's a lot of moving parts there. Uh, and so we'll get that done in the next couple months. That is all I have. Um, when you talk about investing with the market

076the way it is right now and all of that, are we going to be conservative in that? What was the last part of it? Are we going to be conservative in that? I mean, when I hear investing that and obviously now is not a great time. Yeah, we already have a lot of our um investments in tea bills anyway. Guard rails for that, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, you have a policy and this MSBA and the state has, you know, we cannot we there's just only there's only certain things that we can invest in. So, yeah, you can't get too far outside the box um on that. So the the individuals we work with both at MOAD and UBS where we invest, they're well aware of what Missouri schools can do, can and can invest

077in. So there's no high-risk uh investments. Dr. uh Kimbro, I guess my question is if since we don't know what the federal government is going to do, are we just going to make commitment to continue the free and reduced lunch and we take care of that as a district for these kids since we don't know what's going to happen? like what what are we going to do like what do are we going to have in place? Yeah, the school the school lunch program I don't know if you mentioned Dr. Kelly and that that is one of our larger uh federal programming pieces but uh we believe that that in this first year if there were something that were substantial that's where our fund balances and other things that would uh we would bring back to

078you to say this is what we're seeing. Uh we believe that we want to make sure that our kids are taken care of and that we uh you know help those gaps where they they happen. Um again we're uncertain about the uh impacts there right now. uh we just don't have enough information. But it's similar to where we've had other places where we know of uh particular programs and or other things that be may be shutting down or something like that in which we are putting things in place to make sure that they're continuing services happen for those kids and families. And uh we'll keep you posted on that, but we're we're watching it carefully and we want to make sure that we are putting kids in a position that is uh of no fault

079of their own. uh and and especially our students that are um uh free and reduced lunch. Thank you. It was like the school lunch program and the department of agriculture. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yeah. The Yeah. And we're just again the uncertainty piece there is uh not knowing exactly I haven't heard that one particularly either. So, we're planning on that being uh part of our our budgeting, but at the same time, back several slides ago, when you talk about uh planning around fund balance and those other pieces there, that's exactly why we do that so that we have in case there is something that is completely, you know, uh unforeseen that we then have to address and then we make sure that we take care of our kids. Yeah. The last time if you were to

080go back in time on that operating fund balance that it fell between outside that 18% was when the governor withheld the state foundation formula from the school districts. And so it's exactly why we we have a fund balance. um we would never, you know, want that. But that's exactly why we maintain what we do is to be able to at least uh bridge um you know to if we have to make substantial changes to a program at least we can maintain those for a year or for whatever uh period of time so then we then have time to adjust. It's a very good question. Thank you. Any other questions for us? Okay. Well, thank you. Um and we look forward to expenses on I guess next board meeting. All right. Um All right. 7.2 is

081our English language development program and seal of biiteracy um update. Uh Dr. Kim, Dr. Bridewell, and Miss From. I'm going to turn it over to uh Dr. Bridewell and Miss Prom here in just a second. She is our director of intervention services and uh we wanted to just do program updates here around some of the things that have been going on, some things that we're seeing and some things that I've heard uh from you as asking for a little bit more information. And so we wanted to provide that uh for you tonight. And we're going to talk about our English language development program and seal of biiteracy. Dr. Roa. All right. Um, we are excited to share some information with you. As you are aware, we added a new position, director of intervention services, which

082came at a perfect time because, as you will learn, uh, we've grown a lot this year. And so, Mrs. has worked diligently to do lots of innovative approaches, improve programming, and really meet the needs of our students um, in our schools. So, I will turn it over to you. Thank you. Good evening. Um, thanks for the opportunity to be here tonight and tell you about um, our growth as well as all the, uh, really amazing things that our staff is doing in the program. So, um, hopefully I can run this technology well. So, um, our department is working mainly in those, uh, two lanes of academics and culture. Um, and so that's what we're going to show you a lot about tonight. Um, I'm going to start with just a little bit of an explanation

083about what ELD is. As you know, in the world of education, there's lots of um, shortcuts and acronyms for things, but EL stands for the English Language Development Program. Um, and it's a program that's designed to help our English learners um, acquire and improve their English language skills while accessing the content. Um and so the program focuses on four main strands that are tested um through the WEDA assessment. It's a state assessment that DESIE requires us to give. Um we test listening, speaking, reading and writing. So that's what our teachers concentrate on when they um work directly with the students. Now they also support access to the content for all the other things um while students are trying to learn those English skills. Um, English learner status is federally protected. A lot of people don't

084know that. Um, it entitles our students uh to protection from discrimination um and access to all those educational supports that all students receive in our in our district. Um, eelss are a really diverse group which I think a lot of people don't know as well. Um, students may be refugees from a variety of countries. They may be migrant families that are here working. Um they may have limited or interrupted um education. Some of our kids come to us and haven't been in school for a few years um because of things that have been happening in their in their native countries. Um our students can be gifted. They can be students with disabilities as well. So we have quite a variety um of needs that we're addressing within the program. um you do have to qualify

085for our program just like you do for many programs within the district. And so um that starts with the language use survey that is um given when a student enrolls and they indicate that there's another language spoken in their home. Then we do that language use survey on enrollment and if they are identified as a potential English language learner then we have to do some type of screening if they don't have a WEDA assessment from another district. We have to do that screening within the first 30 days after they enroll. Um our staff is trained to administer that. They have to be trained every year. um they will administer that and if the student is determined eligible then we have to write a plan for them. Um before writing that plan we have to notify

086their parents that they're eligible for that service and we have to notify them in their native language. So you see all the reasons that all the translation pieces come into play. Um they our students always have to have a current plan. They're updated yearly. Those plans have goals and services on them as well and we have to mark progress towards those goals on a quarterly basis. Um the district also has to have a uh language instruction plan and we have to update that every year. Um and it's part of our application to the the state which in turn to the federal government for um the funding that is behind the program. Um, if you have more than 20 English learners in your district, you are required to follow the state student teacher ratio recommendations. We

087have well over 20 students in our district. Um, so a little bit about our kids and their families. Um, we have 68 languages that kids and their families speak within the Park Hill School District. Um, it's really hard to break those down because many of the languages there's just a few students who might speak that. I've listed our top eight here with Spanish being the largest of those eight. Um, but you can see how small those percentages get in in the rest of um the languages. 60 languages make up 35% of our population. So um it becomes rather challenging to uh get everything translated and um and and meet all the needs of all those languages. I wanted to share a little bit with you about our growth over the last um I I chose

088seven years. That was the best strongest data that I had was the last seven years. Um, and you can see that we were we had like these three-year time spans where we were pretty steady for three years and then they'd make a little jump and then we'd be pretty steady. Um, over those first six school years that I'm reporting on there, we had a 19% increase. Um, you can see what happened this year. Uh, we started the year the first day of school we had 700 and this is just active kids. We have another 300 kids that aren't included in these numbers that are on what we call monitor status. So once they meet certain language proficiency standards, um they move to monitor status and for four years the staff has to um track them

089and make sure that they are still achieving at a high rate. So there's another 300 kids that aren't included in this. But you can see and as of this morning that number was 886. We've continued to grow. Um in the first month of school, the number went from 700 to 840 in the first 30 days. So we were um scrambling. We've had a 27% growth this year um from last year. Um the majority of those kids are located in our elementary schools. And I thought this was really important for you to see um from a just like where are we going in the future uh standpoint. Um 558 K of those kids of those 879 that I counted when I did this um presentation or the slides um are in our elementary schools. Um we

090have three elementary schools that individually have more kids in them than our high schools do. So that's a lot of instruction happening. Um our middle schools, we have 161 in the four middle schools and then 160 in our three high schools. Um the students that we got that came to us this year, the majority of them were what we call newcomers. Newcomers are students who have been in the United States 3 years or less. And so I just wanted to compare last year to this year for you. Out of those approximately 700 kids that we had last year, 12% of them were newcomers, met that status. Um this year it's 27% of them. So what that means for our staff is that newcomers get a lot more minutes because we're trying to get that English

091um acquisition as quickly as possible so that they can be successful in the classroom. And so that's a lot more instruction that has to happen, a lot more support um for students when you have that high of a percentage of newcomers. Um I also just compared to the district growth and so over the last seven school years, our department has grown a little over 50% of students. Um and in comparison to the districts maintained a pretty level approach. which I think it was a 6% when I used Dr. Kelly's numbers from his March presentation. Um that the district stayed fairly flat, but EL has grown by 50%. So does that mean if the district didn't grow, but our EL did that our newcomers? We got more newcomers, but we lost other people that had already

092been here. Is that what that is that what that means? So, that's the data behind our program for the last few years. I wanted to share with you what we've been doing in our department to address that data. Um, and translation has been a huge need. And so, the very first thing that we did was streamline translation services. Um, we had a lot of different companies providing access and um, some of them maybe not quite as reliable as what we needed to get that instant access when you have people who don't speak English that are standing in your school office. And so we trans we streamlined translation through um, a company, a local company that's called Propio. um and that they are taking care of all of our telephonic, any virtual translation and any written

093translation materials that we need. Um they are extremely responsive. It takes less than 7 seconds is our average for connecting to a translator um in most of our languages. Obviously, the common ones are quicker than some of the less common ones, but our average is 7 seconds to get someone who can translate for us when we have that need. um their turnaround for written materials is one day. Um I had something translated this week for one of the departments and it was a one-day turnaround. That's so they're very responsive to our needs which has been really helpful. Um, we purchased iPads through um, our funding um, for all building EL departments so that they would have the translation tools right here to access with students. Um, when a student is maybe having a a behavior

094crisis because behavior is communication and so um, when you can't communicate sometimes that does occur. Well, staff now has access to iPads readily to be able to get the translation to go right there in the situation. Um, we purchased 140 iPads, I believe, this year. Um, technology has been great to work with me. They also purchased an iPad for every school office to have just to house in the office so that when parents come in or guardians come in, they have that access. You don't have to call a teacher to come bring you an iPad. It's just right there. Um it's helped with our online enrollment process this year. Um another thing that we're doing is we began to tra to trial some AI translation devices that do real time translation in the classrooms because

095what we were seeing was we we were holding kids back from content because they couldn't speak English. Um and that seems very unfair. So, um, this little person in this picture here was one of our first students that, um, this is an elementary student who we tried, um, taking the NWA district assessment in math because we're not testing his English. We want to know what he knows in math. And he was using his iPad for the NWA. It was reading it orally so that the translation device could pick it up, which is the other iPad, and then it translated into his home language so that he could work the math problems. Um, we've triled this in elementary, middle schools, and high schools so far. Um, the kids are begging us for the devices because it

096allows them to access the content. Um here's an example of another student that we tried um a device with where when she took this assessment in winter and this is her math assessment. Um she had been in America for 2 months. So she had very little English and she was a very good student in her home country. She took this assessment in English the first time because we did not have the AI devices yet. Um, she scored in the 12th percentile, which is honestly pretty good when you've only been speaking English for 2 months. Um, in the spring, we trialled it with the time kettle device with her and it translated the math content into German for her and she scored in the 54th percentile because we were not testing her English this time. We

097were testing her math skills. So, I've asked Maria Rusbolt and Jess Elfrank from Graden who have been working on triing some of these devices to just give you a real brief overview of what they have seen with students who have used these devices. Hello, I'm um Maria Rusbolt and I teach fourth grade at Graden Elementary and this is my student. Um the time kettle tool has been incredibly helpful in strengthening my students understanding in classroom content. We use it daily for whole group instruction, small group and one-on-one conferencing um to enhance her understanding and increase student engagement. Um for example, in fourth grade, we do a reading, writing, and social studies unit on American Revolution. This can be a challenging um topic for students, especially if you do not have um a ton of background

098on American history. So, the time kettle has become a part of our daily routine to introduce new vocabulary, to explain project expectations, to assist in assessment, and to um keep her engagement. I have one moment in particular that I always think about. I had done my reading lesson and I was sending students off to do independent work and my student came up to me and she said, "I I don't understand." And this was kind of in our early days of using the time kettle. And so I tried it out and I reexplained the contents of the lesson to her and and the assignment and her face lit up with understanding and her confusion turned into confidence and um it's been really helpful for her engagement. This tool has not only helped break down language barriers,

099but it's also created a more focused and productive learning environment um for my classroom. It's been truly a gamecher for my student um an incredible support in building a more inclusive and accessible learning environment. Thank you. Um can you hear me? Okay. I think I'm getting a cold, so I apologize. Um Jess, I am an ELD teacher. I am also the ELD district facilitator. Um, but I'm going to put the teacher hat on for a minute. I've been doing this a really long time and some of the changes and the innovative things that Debbie has brought to the department in her short time here is like a breath of fresh air. Um, when you see students I want to talk just a little bit about the social emotional side of learning a language. When you

100work with students who are learning a language, there is a lot of frustration, a lot of scared feelings, um feelings of inadequacy. Um and the example that I have, I actually administered that assessment. Um that student gets very anxious. It doesn't have to be an assessment. It can be um something she brings from her classroom that she needs help with. And because she has such a great understanding of content in her home country, she knows that she's not doing well on an assessment here. She gets very frustrated. When she took this assessment, normally it's triggering and it's um she's upset. She might cry. Um she gets mad. When I told her we were going to take this assessment, she did, you know, she was upset. And I said, "But we're going to take it with

101a time kettle." her whole demeanor changed. Her body relaxed. She smiled and we worked and you could see what she did. So, I'm grateful for this tool to be in our district to help our students and to really show what they know, to meet them where they are, to think of them with their assets, not their deficits. So, I'm grateful. It's a great tool and I really appreciate it. Thank you. So outside of translation, there's a few other things that we've done this year as well. Um and one of that is to try to bridge the um gap between EL and special ed. And so at the beginning of this year, um, we trained all EL staff, all process coordinators, um, reading interventionists, and some administrators in what's called the English language learner critical data

102matrix. Because when students are acquiring language, sometimes it is hard to tell um if it's a language issue, if it's a learning issue, um just what exactly is going on because as you can see from the picture in my slide, social language comes much quicker than academic language. So a student may be communicating with you and you feel like they have English, but the learning part is not coming along quite as quickly. And so it's really hard to make those decisions about whether we should um go into intervention for a student, whether we should just continue what we're doing or do we suspect that they might have a disability. And so we did this training um and it's it's been very helpful in MTSS meetings to talk about kids um using this data analysis process.

103Um the other thing that we are doing is we are training we have already trained all ELD staff in the test of English language learning which is a progress monitoring tool because the WEDA is our only real data point for English language acquisition and it's a once a year test that we take in February. We don't get the results until the end of the school year and so it's really not actionable data from February until August. And so we need more current relevant data. So we're going to start progress monitoring um our students who are in those newcomer and beginner phases or maybe have been in English language development classes for more than 5 years. Those are called long-term eelss and we will have two data points a quarter moving forward with them. Um, right

104now staff is getting baseline information and then we'll start in the fall with that progress monitoring. Um, and the last thing that we've done I'm sorry. Sorry. So the WEDA is a state test. Yes. And it's computerized. Yes. Is that right? Yes. Is it multiple choice or what are the answers? Answer that. Do you want me to go? Y. Okay. Um, it depends on the level. There's a kindergarten assessment and it's paper pencil and it's we're testing speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Um, when you go beyond that from grades 1 through 12, it's online and there's some paper components for those earlier primary grades. Um, it is not multiple choice. Um, there's when you're speaking, you're being recorded. Um, when you're listening, you get to choose different answers. It's interactive. Um, it's it varies what

105it is. So when you're writing, you're actually responding to a prompt in writing. Um questions. So the WEDA Mhm. they must have people that grade those. Is that what happened? I would assume that's why it takes so long. Um because we give it at the beginning of February and like I know last year they my businessman had on they told me they got the results on the last day of school. Similar to the way that uh we complain about map testing all the time. The map test is multiple choice though, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's that one doesn't make any sense, but well, there are some open responses pieces and yeah, but being a state assessment and and this has been something that's been in place now for years in the state of Missouri

106that uh with the WEDA assessment, it's it was an improvement because we had actual data points on students and their acquisition and it was helping us know what level they were at and how to move students through that. But uh what our teachers and Miss From have done uh looking at more actionable data is to try to get these progress monitoring tools and things that are uh that we do with all of our students and and and do that on a regular basis. The WEDA is a just a starting point. Yeah, it's a it's a test point of of each year uh to see where they're at. But um the but we don't get the the delay on it is unfortunately it's unactionable thing. Yeah, slow action. There are a couple of parts that are

107multiple choice. It depends on which domain you're talking about. Um, are you married to a lawyer? Because you're I'm just I appreciate an architect. Okay, that makes sense. So, the test that that we are giving them, are they these proficiency evaluations? Are those manual? Um, no. So it's on the computer and it aligns directly to the WEDA. So it's supposed to be a good predictor of how they're going to do on that. Um it measures the same four domains. Um but it gives us more current data on are we making progress or not. We can measure it twice a quarter and then we can change our instruction based on that data versus this one time a year data point um that we can't act on. So, so to go along with that improvement, my last

108point is just that we have written a K12 beginner newcomer curriculum this year that you have as a first read tonight. Um because we needed to address um this this population that had grown on us and we are also going to pilot a curricula or pilot a curriculum resource in conjunction with summer school. We're starting it um and then we'll carry that on into the school year as well. So any other questions before I turn it over to Dr. Fry? I just have a question. this I mean so just like this is great but also just like the social and emotional and just like with the parents as well just like basic things of understanding like some of these people are coming for countries like it doesn't get as cold as it gets here where

109they live like just explaining to them like the basic needs for their children and what all the cuz those things affect how well you do in school too right like how warm you are and like if you have hats and coats and gloves. So, do I know we do this for the kids, but are we using this to help communicate like those kind of things to the parents and trying to make sure that they get everything that they can get for their child? We use an app um that's called Talking Points that we communicate directly. It translates into their native language and so our staff can use that, our social workers use it, our counselors use it, our nurses use it um to help address all of those other needs that our families have outside

110of education. Um, we just had EL uh family night rebranded. Um, and we had a great outcome at that and we had booths for all those different things set up so parents could access resources as at that as well. Thank you. So, I appreciate all this. Do you have an ask? I mean, you're sitting in front of the board. We're the ones that control the resources and the flow. are do we have enough of these devices? I mean um so you very graciously gave me seven more staff members for next year to meet the demand that we had for for to teach our students. Um we have used our federal budget to purchase the iPads um and the these AI devices. We just ordered a hundred units of those to roll out into all the

111buildings for next year. Um, at this point I I don't have an ask, but if we grow another 186 kids next year, I may have some more asks next year. And I think that that's part of the budget assumption process. So, as we worked with Dr. Bridewell and academic services department and we were identifying those needs. So, one of those places that we saw a significant increase using this very data was to say we're going to need more resources around technology and we're going to need more resources around our human resources relative to uh teachers. And so that was part of what we presented um with our budget assumptions. Special education was like that as well as we've uh seen um that particular uh population change. Tonight was an opportunity I think to just uh

112provide more context and to be informational relative to as we prepare our budget and you see increased uh uh allocation in these areas that these are the reasons why it's it's that we have students with uh these needs that are becoming more unique and we have tools now that we can put in teachers and office staff and other people's hands that are going to you talk about belonging, right? That's what we're trying to get to in this whole uh process is that we want students that are in Park Hill to be in a have that sense of belonging and and language has to be. I can't even imagine like what that type of barrier would be. And so, uh our teachers, our staff, uh they're doing a great job with it. Thank you to the

113board for considering as we move towards the budgeting season of of continuing these processes. and we wanted you to see what some of those things are because I think it's a misunderstood uh program in some ways if we don't provide the right context. I just want to stay for myself. I'm obviously fired up about this and when you're talking about your student and all the frustration, but then gets a chance to use a translation device and her demeanor totally changes and she excels. that is setting up that child for success in the future. Whereas if she were somewhere else, she might go the other direction and so I am very touched by everything you all are doing. Thank you. Thank you. I agree, Mr. Monsters, and I thank you for that comment about the ask

114because I was going to ask about staffing like do we have enough and making sure that we do project that we're able to continue to meet those needs. So I appreciate that. Um, I appreciate the um information about the time pedal and the talking points and the iPad and everything else. Well, iPad is a time pedal. Um, is there anything else related to belonging? Because I know those pieces are big and um, of course, our staff are important and the the debut factor and everything else is great. What else are you guys doing, if you can even think of anything off the top of your head to address that belonging for our students in particular? I think this new um newcomer beginner curriculum that we've written um the staff worked really hard on it and

115it's all about um like how do you do school when you come and and how do you get your need like where do you go to get your needs met? Um giving them the vocabulary. Um, I think that that will help us to cultivate a better sense of belonging for kids because right now, um, sometimes it feels like we're just kind of throwing them out there. Um, and so our our intent with this new curriculum is that when you first come, this is what you're getting, you know, until you master this component. And it's K12 is the way we wrote it. Um, and I think that that will really help to cultivate that that sense of belonging for them at the very beginning. Um, and remove some of the isolation that some of them feel.

116Um, but I think it's something that we need to continue to revisit and think about as we as we move forward. What how else can we cultivate that for them? Have you thought about um I know you said you have still have like the 300 that you monitor who aren't in the program. Have you thought about like shadowing or having the mentors or I'm just thinking especially like middle school and high school level like people who have already been through that process and who are succeeding coming in to to like shadow or be with those people who are speaking the same language and and helping them and to to feel confident in that. We have talked about some of those things. One really cool thing that we did that was new this year at our

117family engagement night was we had um a student from professional studies um who was in our our program for her first uh until middle school she said um she came and shared her uh capstone and shared with parents and then we also had um EL students who are gifted at a table to talk with parents about the gifted program. So, we're starting to to dive into some of that. Um, it it just hasn't been big enough yet. I mean, it it really blew up on us quickly this year. And so, we're trying to get our feet underneath us and then figure out all those things that we need to do. So, we also surveyed the parents. Jess, could you just come on up so I can hear you on the on the microphone? Hear you

118on the YouTube? I was just going to say that we also surveyed the parents before our family engagement night and we've done that for several years to hear what's working well, what do they need, and then Debbie was key this year and really like looking at what do they say in those results. And so we've tried to address some of those needs that came out in the survey. Um and then when we had our family engagement night, we also had um a presentation much simpler than this one um where we shared with them some of the things that we're doing um and asked them for feedback. What's working? What questions do you have? Um Debbie had in-person translators there. We've never had that before. And so we want them to feel like they belong and

119that their voice matters. Um and to learn how school works here. And so I think that also helps to that piece that you were asking about. So that's it. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Now we have Dr. Fry. He's going to talk about the work we've been doing with seal of biiteracy which is actually part of our future ready assets. Yes. So I get the chance to talk about the seal by literacy a little bit different um role in which you're used to seeing me bring a bunch of data up to you. It wouldn't be a presentation without two slides of data. So there is some in here. U but before I get into that I do want to just reiterate what's happening with our ELD program and the translation services. You heard

120her Deb from mention the NWA assessments and the tools that they're using. Obviously that is something that falls under my purview. I had the opportunity to see this in action through our NWA assessments and I have I'm hardressed to find another scenario in which I was more inspired than watching these students succeed in this. It was probably the single coolest thing aside from seeing my own children in school uh occur in our schools. It was just mind-blowing both the time kettle and the iPad use. So I I can't speak enough to what's happening in that program right now. With that being said, I'm going to get into seal by literacy. It is not quite EL though somewhat related. So that's why we kind of paired them together. So I want to explain this to you

121and share where we are going on the path to implementing seal of literacy in the Park Hill School District. So seal of literacy, what this does is it is recognizing our students who speak multiple languages at a proficient level. It says bilingual throughout this document, the documentation from the state of Missouri, but it's multilingual. students have to show that they're proficient in English and a language other than English. And so what this does is it is then putting that information should they meet all the criteria onto their transcript. And as Dr. Bridewell shared, this is a future ready asset. And so we are adopting this into our FRAAS or our future ready assets for the Park Hill School District. It is something that employers look at and embrace. Schools can um post-secondary schools can actually

122accept this as credit toward college credit. uh dependent upon the university. So it's a really beneficial program for our students who do speak multiple languages and speak it proficiently. In terms of eligibility, I hinted at this a moment ago and what this is is it is for any student who shows proficiency in English and that has to be peressi on the ELA2 EOC assessment and then a language other than English on one of really three or four different assessments. One of which being our AP exams in the multiple languages that are offered by advanced placement. The other being our choice of an assessment that they can um show their proficiency on in a different language other than those that are shown in the advanced placement program. Um the other is sign language. We do have

123that available as well for that by literacy aspect. Um certain assessments only allow for certain languages to be tested. So if we have students as you saw how many different languages we have in the district, we are able to tailor that to any language through the use of another assessment or through a portfolio program approved by DESIE. So truly any student who speak speaks multiple languages and shows their proficiency in both are able to earn this seal of biiteracy which is transcripted and goes on with them beyond the Park Hill School District. I meant to emphasize and I apologize. meant to emphasize this is not just our EL population. This is any student. They could speak Italian at home, not be in the EL program, speak English at school, and be proficient in Italian and

124do the same thing. Counts for any language in the district. That's what's just so interesting about this. It's not just our ELD program. Of course, that would be a population which we're looking to support their growth in this as well. Just some quick numbers for you. In the state of Missouri, this is just the number of students who have earned the seal of bi literacy over the last few years. You can see that that has continued to increase and we want to be a part of this growth. We believe that we have a number of students in our district who are going to want to apply to be a part of this over the course of the next couple years. See the number of school districts has increased over time as well. And so we

125are now um as of March we are officially accepted to do this program or implement this program for the 2526 school year and beyond. Desi has approved our application and so we're going to continue to move forward with that process to implement next school year and just as an update is where we are in this process. I want to first share the team and give a huge shout out to these individuals who have been doing a ton of this work along um with letting me facilitate the conversation and it's just really exciting with Lauren Church at Park Hill High School. We've got Amanda Roth at Parkill South, Adam Craft at LEAD, of course, Debbie from is helping lead the way as well. And then as I transition out of this role, Josh Peters who will

126be coming into the director of assessment role is going to jump in and help facilitate this conversation as well. We started this work in the fall when we really got together, started brainstorming, thinking through how do we and what are the requirements for the Park Hill School District to take part in this program. We got our application together which involved really setting the priorities, the criteria that we need in our district. So when it was approved, we could really start moving forward with implementation. actually yesterday when you see that second spring 2025 program development. We spent about 4 hours together yesterday finalizing all the details for what that program development is going to look like in the Park Hill School District, including criteria for students to apply to be a part of this program and

127start working through the process to show proficiency in English and language other than English. And there's a third component where they have to um be a part of some cultural event in the community in that language that they are applying for that seal of bi literacy in and a component of reflection on that as well. And so we've developed those. This summer will be kind of a communication campaign and trying to make this make our community more aware, our students more aware, our families more aware aware of this being available and the benefits of this program for their students beyond Park Hill. And then lastly, this fall will be the first year of implementation where we we will accept those applications and then have those opportunities for those students to show their proficiency um in

128their language other than English. And it's just an extremely exciting program that we haven't had the opportunity to provide provide our students. And now we get to do this. And like I said, it's a it's an FRA, something our students will take with them on their official transcript for the rest of their lives. It's just a really really neat program. Well, I just um I just want to say um first of all, thank you for everyone that's presented on this tonight for this information because it's great. I'm very happy to see that we're bringing this. Um, as someone who grew up in a household where um, family members were both bilingual and others barely spoke any English, all I can say is gracious. I'm very happy that we have this now and that um, that

129you're seeing the benefits and that you guys are working so hard on all this. So, thank you. I like to say Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I just like to say uh we s saw this in action when we were in Jeff City um for MSBA and those kids were amazing that we're doing this and they I know you said you're looking for community events and one thing that they said that they did was they went to the do the parent teacher conferences for the elementary schools the high schoolers did or the middle schoolers to get to earn their credit for the community event and like interpret it for those parents for those and they were like telling us the whole story about how and the parents were so amazed because they'd been sitting at

130those conferences just kind of but when the kid another kid a kid like similar to their kid was able to explain it to them the parents were just in awe and I think that there's just a lot of opportunities for things like that in our district where we can those kids can go to different events and speak and and translate a lot of things for for our families. Well, and those kids really expressed the pride in being able to share that with their other students. Like, you could really feel how excited they were for the program. So, it's exciting. I'd love to see us do more of that. For sure. Um, so the way you kind of spoke about it seems like it was um for kids that would come from different language speakers. Is

131this something that kids here would be able to achieve from taking say three years of Spanish at the high school and have we changed our curriculum to accommodate that? Yeah. So it doesn't necessarily well two parts of that question right the first part of the question is any student can earn this. So if I think about my wife for example would have been a candidate for this when she took 5 years of Spanish um through her secondary education um growing up and she if she was able to prove that proficiency through an AP exam um she has does not speak Spanish other than what she learned in school that she would be a candidate for this program. Um so yes any any student can qualify whether they take classes whether they grow up in a

132household um in which those languages are spoken which is what's unique about this program. Um the second part of the question remind me sorry I guess I know but is it realistic to think that coming out of what we offer at the high school that you would be able to pass this and get this? Yeah. So, if we go back to our AP um our advanced placement scores and and the information we have for that, we have a number of students who would accomplish this every single year um and have for years. And so, now we have an opportunity to put this onto um that official transcript to go along with them for for a long time. So, so which AP test are you talking about? There there are a handful of them, the ones

133that we offer. One language. Yeah. So, Spanish um is our most popular with German, French, Chinese is available, Japanese is available as well. I feel like I'm missing one. Italian and Latin are also available. Um but our most popular is Spanish. And should they earn a three or higher, which is what AP deems um successful and mastery, if you will, um they would have the opportunity to apply for the seal of literacy. So to Janice's point about the curriculum does so it has to be AP classes or can is there's multiple opportunities for them to prove that proficiency in the language of other than English AP exams is one of the acceptable assessments and then there's other assessments that DESI has approved for use of proving that language other than English. Um the one that

134we plan on using most widely is called the stamps 4S and so we are currently learning more about that assessment. We've never administered that in the Park Hill School District. Um, but we are working toward understanding that assessment and implementing that next fall. And with Desi being Desi, um, what was the level of the the application? I mean, it shouldn't have been that strenuous if it's an opportunity for students. Is it just about having the things in place to be able to administer the entire program? Yeah, it's it's fairly detailed application where you have to have the proficiency scores that you plan on deeming proficient based upon the research from those assessment whether it be companies or um organizations such as the College Board for advanced placement. But yeah, it's it's not terrible, but it's

135it's enough to where they want to ensure that your program is set up um for success from the beginning. Thank Well, I mean, I do appreciate that rigor because you're going to send these like ideally these folks could serve as interpreters and so you want them to be proficient. You want that the standard of of that, but um you would think the barrier to entry would not be high, but to be able to apply to pass it should be difficult. They set it up for you. Um they give you the list of assessments. They tell you what the proficiency levels are for. So, it's not too invasive. Um, but it is something that they just want to make sure you're following the guidelines. And we're assisting kids as they're applying, I'm assuming, and we have

136being able to Sorry, I interrupted you. No, go ahead. We I mentioned the individuals on the team. They're actually going to serve as our site coordinators at each of our buildings. So we'll have a um sealed by literacy coordinator at each high school park high school park south and lead at the program level um coordinating and working with each of those individuals to make sure um if they are committed to earning that seal of bi literacy we do what we can to help them get there and earn that. Wow. Okay, that was an amazing presentation. Um, you know, Miss Rom, the agility that you're showing just I I can't believe the the results and what you've programmatically put together in this short time under that pressure with that many new students within that short of

137a time. So, amazing. So, um, look forward to future updates. Thank you. Thank you. Um, okay. Where are we? Um, all right. Item eight, information uh written. We have some information items tonight. Uh 8.1 through 8.6 are relative to biz contracts and agreements. Uh 8.7 through 8.9 are relative to curriculum. Uh Dr. Kimberell, are there any that need to be highlighted? Uh no. I take any questions on any of the items in this category. So um Dr. Kimbell 8.1 and 8.2. I you know I know it says in there that they're going to receive diversity mental health and social emotional learning at least annually. Is that our training or is that just a training that they like go online and and take? No, that is their they have a c a nationally certified trainer. We

138provided this um last year. We can provide it again. Nationally certified trainer. We actually have a copy of all the curriculum and they go through it on an annual basis as part of being an SRO. So, it's uh a really detailed um piece that they go through that we're very confident in what they what they experience. All righty. But it's not our direct training like it's none of our not not the same thing like of our professional development that our our staff goes through. No. Uhuh. However, we have vetted it and uh we again I just taking a note here that be happy to provide that in a Friday report or uh just so that you can see how that matches. Um, this would be also uh earlier tonight you approved the piece with the

139security at the uh elementary in which they will be here uh prior to the year starting to go through all of our training. Correct. No. Yeah. And I mean I'm I'm ex totally okay excited the fact that they're going to do our training. I just feel that these people should do our training as well. I think it should be in our contract that they do our training as well if they're going to be in our schools around our kids. So that's my opinion on that. Okay. Any other discussion or questions? Okay. Uh the board will be asked to take action on these items at the May 8th, 2025 regular meeting. Uh next up is item nine, policies, procedures, and forms. Uh we have seven policies that will will require board action tonight. Uh Mr. Fulgum,

140um you can I I know you gave us an overview of these last time. Um maybe just a quick reminder and uh we'll see if the board has any questions. Sure. Reminder, the general theme is catching up with compliance with last legislative session, Senate Bill 727. uh a couple updates to MOCAP program language and some other things that came out of bills last session. Um so that's the high level but happy to answer specific questions if you have any. Any questions for Mr. Fulton? All right. Seeing none, I'll need a motion and a second to amend amend current policies 9.1 through 9.7 as presented. So moved. Seconded. All right. We have a motion from Mrs. Barber and a second by Mr. Todd to amend current policies 9.1 through 9.7 as presented. All those in favor

141say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. All right. Motion carries. 70. Thank you. All right. Um item 10, board member reports and requests. Uh board members, do you have any reports or requests? Uh Mrs. Barber? None. Thank you. Uh Miss Bolan? None. Thank you. Uh Mr. process. No, thank you, Mrs. Woodley. Um, as we do, if I ever am a school with a walk and talk, I think I would like to see or hear more about the process of a student kind of coming in with the ELD and some of the things that they go through. I would if that opportunity presents. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Woodley. Uh, Mr. Dod, none tonight. Thank you, Mrs. Barnes. Mr. Barnes, none. Thank you. None. Okay. Right. Then I'll need a motion and a second to

142adjurnn to close session pursuant to chapter 610 section 021 of the re revised Missouri statute for the purpose of discussing matters relevant to subsections one legal and 3 and 13 personnel. So moved. Seconded. Right. I have a motion for Miss Bowen and a second by Mr. Todd to adjourn adjourn to close session to discuss legal and personnel matters. Um, Miss Freeman, can you call the role? Barber, yes. Barnes, yes. Bolan, yes. Montes, yes. Sir Williger, yes. Todd, yes. Woodley, yes. All right, board members, uh, please turn off your mics and reminder to remain seated until the live stream phase. Thank you. Let's return at 8:40.