001[Music] um good evening um I call the call the February 27th 2025 meeting of the Park Hill Board of Education to order uh Miss Bolan is attending uh via conference call this evening please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al 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 thank you for uh silencing your phones tonight um I would like to remind the board of our Norms uh be prepared be an active listener be Mission driven stay in the role of a board member embody Integrity be respectful and of our district vision statement building successful Futures each student every day uh board members any announcements this evening Miss Barnes um good evening uh
002just um the tomorrow's the last um day of Black History Month and FYI the Negro Le league museum has free admission which is being paid for by the Kansas City Royals and tomorrow is the last day to participate in that if um you never been before it's a wonderful and awesome experience and I would encourage um you to go to that that's it all right thank you Miss bars uh Mr Todd none tonight thank you uh Mrs Woodley just wanted to highlight the um HBCU fair that was um posted at Park Hill South but it was put on for by Park Hill High School as well as Park Hill South um it was an amazing event being there it was uh well attended compared to the years before so um Park Hill is getting a
003reputation of being very inclusive and U doing things for all of our students um there was like 175 folks in attendance there and there were people from other districts there were representation from different HBCU schools it was just an amazing event and we were on the news of course so it's just good to see that um wanted to also for the Deb Forum Community forums we had in a in April it's February in February the 18th and 24th it was just another event that was a great turnout we had over 100 people on each Community for um the participation from all the different schools with parents students and of course um staff that were there and one of the the parents was saying that they it was resonated with them the um a picture that
004was put up at the beginning that said diversity is a fact belonging is an outcome and belonging was talked about a lot in almost every single uh group breakout group that was um presented there was um a parent that talked about the importance of communication not just in the schools but to go beyond to the and to the parents and to the Guardians because they're getting interested in learning what their kids are learning and it's starting to spread so we hope that that continues and we continue to see the growth in our district within um belonging for all of our students all right thank you Mr Woodley Mr Mones Noone thank you uh Miss Barber no thank you Miss Bolan do you have any announcements tonight no thank you okay um I have a couple
005of announcements um first I would like to congratulate the uh back-to-back state champion Park Hill South girls swim and dive team um fun fact um both last year and this year second place scored 168 points um this year the girls scored 300 or 337 and a half points and last year they scored 303 points so uh those are two convincing back-to-back state championships so congratulations and I'm sure we'll have them in the boardroom here uh shortly to uh celebrate with them and then I have another announcement um I'm excited to announced that as part of our annual superintendent evaluation process the board voted unanimously to extend Dr Kim's contract through the 2027 and two 2028 school year um Dr Kimbrell started his role in July of 2022 and was immediately managing the 2022 Bond Bond
006projects that are updating almost every school in the district um you facilitating um the design and implementation of the 2023 to 2028 CIP uh championing and pushing forward our diversity equity and inclusion equals belonging goals and our Park Hill 2034 long range facility plans and that's just hitting the highlights um and those are some big big highlights um so the board thanks you for your vision and your leadership and congratulations thank you [Applause] all right now do you have any announcements tonight thank you okay all right all right then now we'll need a motion and a second um to adopt the February 27th uh 2025 agenda as presented so moved second all right I have a motion from Mrs Woodley and a second by Mr Todd to adopt the agenda as presented uh Dr Kell
007are there any any modifications none tonight thank you uh board do we have any modifications all right all those in favor say I I I I any opposed say nay any abstains all right motion carries 70 all right we'll now move on to recognitions and awards and M W turn it over to you hi good evening if I can have our project Adam certified School Representatives come on up you're in your t-shirts come on you're going to come stand right here next to us and then we're going to talk about your recognition hi thanks for coming all right and Tammy sailor's with him as well thanks Tammy so tonight we're continuing the honoring of our project Adam schools and as a reminder Pro Adam is a certified magical Emergency Response Team and they've implemented emergency
008response drills in their buildings again we're on track to have every school in the district a project Adam certified by 2025 this month we're honoring Hawthorne Gren rener Hopewell in line Creek so going to have you introduce yourselves and your role at the school and then I'm going to have you talk about um Hopewell and your CPR certifications as well okay first um I'm Tina hos the nurse at rener elementary um I'm Leah Stafford the nurse at hopeall elementary um and we would just like to add we recently have 40 staff members that are now CPR certified and um we are just offering extra courses for that as well uh I'm Lindsay Bodwin and I'm the nurse at grade in elementary I'm Liz Martin and I'm the nurse at l Creek I'm Heather Robbins and
009I'm the nurse at Hawthorne [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Tammy is our director of health services and is here to support her crew tonight congratulations to each of you thank you for caring about health and well-being and safety of our students the certification certainly shows that thank you guys for being here and the board would love to shake your hands yes congratulations yeah we're going to go in a line all the way down congratulations thank you conratulations and then Tracy Todd Murphy will take your guys' photo out in the hallway all right Tracy your photo guys back in the um hallway congratulations again thank you for being here okay Jessica grer come on up you're next hi Jessica this recognition is really special for Miss grer tonight um and this is why we are Park Hill proud
010of her uh she's the library media specialist at Park Hill High School former teacher at Park Hill High School and she's been accepted into the prestigious American Library Association emerging leaders program this is a highly competitive program that connects Library professionals from across the US and Canada fostering collaboration networking and engagement in library advocacy through this opportunity Jessica will join peers at advocacy work to further contribute to the advancement of Equitable and Innovative Library services for youth through the young adult Library Services Association and the association for Library service to children just congratulations we can't think of anyone better I'm just excited to work in a district that supports Library so enthusiastically and I want to thank Janice kooch our cordinator and Christina Courtney and I don't think my principal is here but Brad kinow
011has been a mid support to me and helped me get this award so thank you going to shake the hands with the board now congratulations again big deal for Jessica she gets to travel to meet with her associations Advocate on behalf of children in library Services we're so proud of you Jessica be ready for this and we have one more recognition tonight that I will be doing uh from here and then we need to make sure that we get a picture at the end here um but the Park Hill School District Board of Education uh member Brandy Woodley SE seated just to my left has earned distinguished board member certification from the Missouri school boards Association to earn distinguished certification board members must earn essential Advanced and master certification complete current year msba refresher training
012earn at least 62 credits attend two msba core meetings with at least one year one in a current year read one book from the msba book list for reading requirements and submit reading reflection observe a school board meeting in two other districts and submit board meeting observation forms this is quite a course and complete eight activities in the last two categories of leadership advocacy and presentations in the most recent three years I looked up the application and it is a 10-page application that you submitted and congratulations uh msba has their cert certificate for you so like show that and present you with [Applause] that great and that's it for recognitions and War okay all right we'll move on to item four public comments um during this part of the our agenda we will receive public
013comments from patrons who pre-registered by the noon deadline today and we had uh zero patrons uh pre-register for this board meeting all right now we'll move on to our consent agenda uh before I call for a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda are there any items that need highlighted Dr K I am going to highlight just a couple uh the first one that I'm going to highlight is the item that is 5.9 approval of bid packages for aging facilities this is a reminder to the board that we are in the process of doing all the bid package uh acquiring and U making sure that we have everything in place for our summer work that will take place in our bundle two schools which is from the 2022 Bond proceeds these schools are
014chin English Landing Line Creek Lake View and Southeast and I'm bringing that up simply because that is a very large package that you see and uh similar to last summer when we had five buildings that we were doing that much work in over the summer you have um a bid package here or 78 bids for bid packages here totaling $19.6 million so I want to make sure to point that out that that we're putting that into our schools this summer the other one that I'd would like to point out is that uh let see the number here is 5.21 uh this particular item was an inform information item last uh board meeting we are asking for your approval it is for the summer school information we do understand that uh we are working through winter
015weather and how we will make up those days and yet we need to get these at least um planned and working forward so we can start hiring and getting summer school uh type processes in place and if we need to flex on any of the start days in there we will bring you an amendment at that time those are the two that I have uh to highlight i' take questions on any others at this time all right board any questions seeing none I'll need a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda items 5.2 through 5.21 as presented so moves seconded all right I have a motion from Miss Barnes and a second by Mr Todd to approve the consent agenda as presented any further discussion Court okay all those in favor say I
016any o sorry Janice uh any opposed say nay any abstained all right motion carries 70 all right we do have a couple of action items tonight item 6.1 is the approval of administrator contracts for the 2025 to 2026 school year Dr Kimbrell and Dr Dylan I'll turn it over to you yeah this is just a reminder to the board that this is an annual uh process that you do at this time each year uh it starts off with our hiring process for uh the season and our first list of uh employees that we bring to you is our list of school administrators that we are recommending for a one-year contract for the 255 26 school year that con or excuse me that particular list is attached to your board item so you can see that
017there uh we do have uh some that we have already hired if you remember that I had been making announcements of some that were new to a district um and in other positions that we made announcements about at previous board meetings and so that would be why you wouldn't see potentially somebody's name there but I take any questions from there all right see done um we need vote on this right yes okay all right then I'll need a motion and a second uh for the approval of administrator contracts 2025 to 2026 so moved second right I have a motion from Miss Barber and a second by Mrs Woodley for um approval of the administrator administrator contracts of 2025 to 2026 all those in favor say I I I I any opposed say nay any abstained
018all right motion carries 70 all right we'll now move on to item 6.2 approval of the payment of estimated expenses for the April 8th 2025 General municipal election Dr Kell this item uh as you know the board approved uh the propositions G and proposition o as going to the ballot and we had that certified with the pla County Board of Elections that was at your J or excuse me January 23rd meeting from there uh they uh bill us for the amount of services that they would be providing for this through the April 8th General municipal election and that total and estimated expenses expenses document is included in your packet I'd be happy to answer any questions any questions for Dr Kell board okay then I'll need a motion and a second for approval of the
019payment of estimated expenses for the April 8th 2025 General municipal election so moved second right I have a uh motion from Mrs Woodley and a second by Mr Todd to U approve for approval of the payment of estimated expenses for the April 8th 20125 General municipal election all those in favor say I I I I any oppos say nay any abstained all right motion carries 70 all right um we'll now move on to our information presentations item 7 . one which is our 2025 Special Education data and program updates um called Dr Kimbrell Dr Bridwell and Mrs Kelly yeah so uh as we have our presenters making our way to the presenters table here we have Miss Adrien Kelly and uh Heather Heather King who are uh two of our special education staff um Miss
020Adrian Kelly is our new director to uh our academic services department and and so maybe a new face at least for you as a presentation I'll be turning this over to Dr Bridewell but just to set this up and to give you some background you'll remember that last board meeting one of the key pieces around budget assumptions was how we were looking at our special education Staffing and parts of this is to provide you with context around what uh that entails why we would need to be uh adding Staffing in that area what type of data we are seeing in this programming and essentially what you're seeing is 10 years of data of this program continuing to grow in case loads and uh student need and so our professionals here are going to uh go
021through that and talk not only about the data but also some of the great things that we've been doing with our community connections and being able to connect our families uh to our special education programming to help their students Dr bro all right thank you um I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Miss Kelly all right building our successful Futures each day each student every day so I'd like to first talk about um what is special education um special education encompasses um programs that serve students who may have mental physical emotional um and behavioral disabilities um it is governed by um the individ indviduals uh disab with disabilities Education Act which is um we know as idea um which guarantees a free and appropriate public education for our students with disabilities so
022this law mandates a maximum extent for appropriate students with disabilities um to be educated with their non-disabled peers in the least restrictive environment idea also ensures that our parents and our Educators um have the necessary tools and materials um to ensure that we can improve um educational outcomes and also um system activities um to ensure that our students with disabilities get what they need so this would include um providing training to our Educators and making sure that all of our educators are um get the information that they need have the tools materials to um ensure that our students with disabilities um are able to succeed in the classroom and also exceed in their least restrictive environment so how does a student qualify for special education so we look at three prongs to our eligibility which
023is how we qualify students for special education so these three prongs are connected to our standards and indicators which are connect connected to our Missouri state plan which is connected to um align with our federal government that governs our um uh students with disabilities which is idea so we look at this through our criteria to see if we if our students actually meet criteria um for special education and so this is actually aligned with our standards and indicators that all districts um within our state utilize this is Kelly can you um the microphone can you kind of point it towards your yes I think sorry about that oh no no problem Miss bolan's on the phone can you hear me now sorry carry um we also look at how um that impacts our students with
024disabilities um what is their what is the adverse educational impact how does the disability impact them in the classroom um we also look at services and does the child require Services um special education services and do they require specially designed instruction that supports them in the classroom and able and enables them to be able to um be with their non-disabled peers and be in the least restrictive environment so then with that we look at 16 different categories um these are our eligibility categories that we utilize to look at criteria when we are qualifying students with um for special education and you will notice that um the young child with a developmental delay that is um those are our students that are at gner and so that means that they have to be re-evaluated um before
025the age of six or before that they're they end kindergarten before going into first grade we wanted to share some data about how our department has um grown over the last several years and so on this next slide you will see um our Trends over the last 12 years and you can see the school year across the bottom and then within the orange bar at the bottom of each bar is the number of students that were receiving special education in the fall of each of those school years and at the top is that blue trend line in the percentage and that percentage is the percent of students receiving special education services in the district so for example if you looked at this fall um 11% of students in Park Hill School District receive special education
026services this as of excuse me as of this fall um so even though there's a couple of years with a little bit of dip in there you can tell that over the last 12 years we have been on an increase in students that were serving in our department then from there we kind of wanted to look at so instead of just looking at individual years what does that look like over let's say the last decade so for us 2014 to 2024 there has been a 42% increase in students within our special education department receiving Services while the district has increased 11% and when we look at this we're kind of like oh what what's going on so you know that's not just something that's happening in Park Hill School District that's something that when you
027look in districts across the State and districts Across the Nation we are consistent there's several reasons for that for starters Educators have become better at recognizing when students need support and we are referring and evaluating students and targeting the right students that need that help and support um over the last 10 15 years there's become less stigma of needing support and getting that support and so some of our families that may have been resistant to that in the past or less resistant now and when they see their kiddos struggling they are asking for that support and we also have better recognition and diagnoses within our communities of um conditions like autism and ADHD and while those conditions in and of themselves don't mean a student need special education services for many students when they have
028one of those conditions it does impact their education and they do qualify for services with us and that because there's been such a growth in those areas that then impacts our growth within our department um we have specialized classrooms within our school district as many other districts do what our specialized classrooms do is they support our students with our most significant needs those students may have needs due to behaviors they may be non-verbal students um they may be Med medically fragile students and over the last 5 years we have seen a growth in those classrooms a little over 4% those are classrooms that have um High adult to student ratios and they work on things like daily living skills they may need to work on hygiene skills money management skills um meal prep and planning
029and things that um we need to do to help ensure our students can be as independent as possible after they leave us um another area that we wanted to highlight is our students with emotional disturbance this is one of our categories that has also increased um over the last 6 years and again on this chart when you look at the number in the bottom that number is the actual number of students receiving special education services in that category and then the top is the percent of students receiving Services who are in the emotional disturbance um category and again this is a trend that's not just specific to Park Hill but when we think about um mental health supports again that's something that has had less of a stigma over the last decade over the last
030six years and especially since the pandemic we have a lot of students that because of the pandemic um have had some mental health crises have had developed anxiety developed depression that has impacted them academically and therefore have um gone through that special education evaluation process and are now receiving special education supports and services all right we wanted to can you hear that okay uh we wanted to share some of the work we've been doing with our special education Community Council this year um so we have formed a parent and guardian group um of student of parents and guardians of students with special needs um and really working through our chart of work with the drivers and narratives about what does that mean to our special education Community um when we talk about creating a safe
031and welcoming space what does that mean um how can we deliver that how can we improve as a district with that uh so we have are meeting four times this year um in October we met and we prioritized what drivers and narratives are most important to us and what do they mean and we've been working through those all throughout the year our last meeting will be in April when we cover the last two drivers and narratives um in February we had a great session with impact um in the spirit of engaging in purposeful learning uh conversations um and so impact came in and offered a session there and I'll let U Miss Kelly uh speak to to that uh to the organization but they came in and did a session on the art of advocacy
032um it was a great and that was based on feedback so it was a great session where our parents are telling us we'd like to learn more about how the process of qualifying the IEP meeting how do we improve that um and that ultimately getting us to belonging how do we as parents and Guardians feel like we belong in those meetings and we have a voice in those meetings but how do our students feel like they belong in their classrooms so I'll let you speak a little bit about impact yes impact is an organization that supports parents um they provide training for parents um help them understand the special education process um help them understand um aspects of idea um give training on um different aspects of special education like transition um they help um
033help parents um understand um and work with school districts and partner with them to be able to advocate for their students um they also um um allow them to provide skill or strategies for them um to ensure that they have they're able to communicate and um able to advocate for their students and talk with um their teams and organize their information um so they were able to come in and provide a presentation that was really that they that was wonderful and our parents um um were very receptive to it and um I think we would like to continue to partner with them and to have some more trainings um for our parents yeah and I will say kudos to you they were very complimentary of our school district and all of the work uh with
034our drivers and narratives and how we were connecting that to our special education community so I'm going to pass that along um the next thing uh we''ve received a lot of feedback through our community council meetings and we wanted to share some improvements we've been able to make based on that feedback um and in cooperation with that feedback so the first thing we have a couple of pictures of our playgrounds we're very excited about that uh we wanted to make sure we were getting student voice um and one of the things we're already hearing uh through our lunch and listens so each of us throughout our department and academic services are visiting schools during lunch and visiting with kids about what they like about school what do you wish was different um and getting their
035feedback about teachers um and we hear over and over again about two things lunch and recess very important um but it is important to our well-being and our development um we often kind of don't think about recess but that's a lot of Social Development time and so the work that we've done through our bond projects to improve our playgrounds has been so important um the turf playgrounds allow students in wheelchairs to enter and play with their peers so we talk about uh being educated with our uh general education peers even on the playground that's so important uh so we're able to have zero entry for students in wheelchairs we have communication boards at our playgrounds for students that might be non-verbal or limited verbal ability um and so that has been very successful and in
036the places that we have the new playgrounds they want to talk about that the whole time they're very excited we're not done yet we've been hitting our Elementary classrooms our elementary schools and we'll be headed into secondary so we're excited to hear more about what their feedback is hope we can improve um another thing that we're doing is we will have push button entries installed in all of our schools we're currently working on that um it's quite the process as any project if you done in schools in homes they take a while but we are on that journey and we're very excited and that was something very important to our parents uh We've increased training opportunities for teachers and staff so it's not just special education staff but we're also looking at general education what
037kinds of trainings can we do there so we want to expand uh more engagement and information nights for our families so that's where we want to partner with impact uh that Miss Kelly has brought into our district so that we can have more of these information nights improve our content uh learning about how IEP meetings work who all's at the table why are we all here um and uh that was based on feedback so we're excited to keep doing those um and we want to increase Staffing supports for our schools and students which you've helped us do uh through budget assumptions and approval of these positions that I think will be really important um School psychologists has been something highly requested and we're able to expand that to help support uh mental health um and
038the challenges that our students may have so very excited and we're very F and last uh we want to make sure we're including student voice I kind of jumped ahead because it related to the playground uh but we are ensuring that we are getting out into buildings and speaking with our students and listening to um the things that are on their mind about school and how we can improve we're very passionate about The Learning Experience um and how we can make that better for our kids okay as in um SL one I talked about idea and how um um that government and how they govern um supports how they have um support teachers and ensure that we are providing training for our staff and make sure that they have the tools and materials um that
039are needed so um hearing from our teachers we've heard feedback that um they would like more training to help them in the classroom um to support them and manage um behavior in the classrooms um and instruction in the classroom and so we partner we have a partnership with the regional professional development center um they also partner with districts across Missouri um and so we have sent um a lot of our staff to some trainings there um we've sent them to our process coordinators to the eligibility determination training so that um earlier in the slides when I talked about how students qualify um they were able to get some additional support in um helping them uh guide that through guide them through that process we've also um sent our teachers to map a training um this
040is for our students who may take an alternative assessment um so they may focus more on um um life skills and things like that to support them um we've sent our process coordinators to um postsecondary transition training um to help our students um when they get to that transition age and they're ready to go out into society into the real world um and they're ready to um you know have job training and um go to college whatever it is that they choose to do um we've also um we will also be sending a team to a training um for standards-based IEP training and so that will um ensure that our IEPs are aligned with um the Missouri grade level standards um so that we can monitor where our students are at and try to help
041them get to grade level um and then we have also sent our staff to to um a training that encompasses data and collection um we have sent our special education coaches to a coaching Network to help support our um teachers in the classroom um we have have had um some administrators go to training on discipline and um special education law um we also have a uh new teacher training that we provide in the district and so we have um the regional professional development center come in and provide training and then we have also had training for our par professionals which is our teacher assistants that um help in the classroom and support our students and taking data collection and helping with behavior and instructional items in the classroom so then that leads me to um
042whenever we are able to prepare our staff we want to ensure that we are able to provide quality special education um oops quality education um services and so um we want to provide a Continuum of services um starting with general education and which is in the least restrictive environment and so um we want to ensure that all of our students have that opportunity to um you know be able to integrate into general education um our next um item is resource and so insurance in that some of our students may need um minimal supports but also be integrated into general education we have a program that will be called social communication um that we will support our students and this will be a new program for us and so it will kind of support our students
043who are transitioning um into resource um but may still need some supports then we have our Behavior Support classro which is supports our students um with behavioral challenges cross categorical um this may um include students who may need some supports behaviorally may need some supports instructional in instructionally um and then our intensive support which may be our higher need students and may need a lot of supports um we also have our public day Treatment Center so that's Russell Jones um so that focuses on students who um may have behavioral challenges in a therapeutic environment um so we want to make sure that we're supporting them and then of course we have our visually impaired our de and heart of hearing and then our early childhood special education um whom we serviced at gner um and
044then that leaves us to our 18 to 21 Journey program um and I'll let Heather speak about that so we have um a our goal is for all of our students to reach their maximum potential and we want them to be able to move on to their next phase of life and do whatever it is that they want to do as independently as possible and so for some of our students that may mean that they need support in um learning job skills so some of our kiddos um as they are getting close to graduation they have met all graduation requirements they have applied for and been accepted into our journey program and our journey program is an employer-based transition training program and we have partnered with Vocational Rehabilitation and exceptional humans and we provide this
045program it's actually housed out of Embassy Suites we actually didn't get to finish our last year because we started in 1920 in 2019 2020 so that that year the kiddos didn't get to finish but every year since then we have made it through the year and the majority of our students leave this program with jobs they spend part of their day doing various job tasks within the um hotel and they spend part of their day with their skills trainer through exceptional humans and with their classroom teacher in a room that iny Suites is dedicated for us and they learn how to interview they learn about how to talk to co-workers they learn about hanging out in the breakroom and appropriate conversations and our goal is for them to be able to leave that the end
046of that school year with a job so we've got a short video that'll highlight a couple of those students in our teacher journey is our transition program for our students that are 18 to 21 years of age with a special um education plan and uh it is a fully immersed program in a work environment so our students work here at Embassy Suites from 7:30 when they arrive to 12:00 and then in the classroom we call it the training room from 12: to 2:30 and in the morning we work fully on those hard skills so the cleaning the working into the kitchen um the different jobs here at the hotel and in the afternoon we work on soft skills how to interview how to apply for a job how to interact with co-workers and guests clients
047all of that so it's a pretty um wide overview of helping them to get a job certain jobs I've done include house person dishwashing breakfast comp and laundry as a house person I've learned to take dirty Linens off beds and restock housekeeping storage closets for dishwashing I learned that dishwashing includes plates silverware pots and pans and other cooking supplies as for breakfast comp I've learned great customer service like getting tips collecting dirty plates from customers it's kind of like a waiter at a restaurant I working on bacon and do a CH with bacon and [Music] ches D sweep and M I never would have known until actually working with them but it brings them in here um gives them real life work experience um they see the goods and the bads of everyday work um
048and these kids they have grown so much since the day they got here it's just amazing what this does for them I about uh interview skills umin and focused or or you could say um eyes look eyes see people we talking STS and then stay up straight we've had between three and eight students well four sorry four and eight students every year um since come through the program unfortunately that first year we did not finish because of Co but every year since that the majority of our students find jobs uh the whole goal o of the program is by April is we start applying for jobs and the goal is for them to have a job by the time they graduate which is uh the senior's last day of school is when the last day
049of school is for our interns um and we have a skills trainer that provides that support and helps them with the job application the transition the orientation all of that stuff they provide support with and then they provided uh support that's needed on the job up to 40 hours and then after that if they need more support still there is um some labors that we do to help them get that support they're amazing they are a big part of our day and it's not the same without them [Music] Mrs Conor and I have actually been to several districts um around the area lately trying to see what other programs look like for our 18 to 21 year old students because hopefully in the next couple years we'll be able to expand because Embassy Suites Can
050Only Hold so many of our kiddos yes and I also have to make a plug for our aspiring leaders program this uh seed of the idea started there uh with an in an Inspire aspiring leader um and it's just exciting to see that come to where it is today it's great thank you so thank you for allowing us to present and talk about our special education um department and the the the great things that we're doing um here in Park Hill do you have any questions for us I don't have a question I just wanted to to make a note of I know I had asked I think maybe a year ago when the program evaluation plans were coming out and I looked through spread and um noticed that that there was a opportunity for
051um improvement with engagement and with more teacher training and you guys have done that so thank you so much for doing that and working it just means a lot that I mean we have a growing population and so it's necessary that we stay um in step and even ahead for our students and families yes thank you for the presentation well and thank you very much for that data too because it's you know it's it's really helpful to see that even though our enrollment May stagnant our needs are not and I'm assuming there's a an additional cost that comes with supporting all of that um so that could answer some questions that I know I've seen out there about why if our enrollment is staying stagman some of our costs might be going up and I
052think this is a really really incredible presentation to answer that question so thank you thank you um I would say that's ditto those two of like for instance the um I know there's information like why are we putting Turf on our playgrounds and it's C like you see so that all students can participate and so I think that you know people seeing those visuals um are um very important I will say um kudos to the staff because um you know I'm sure that's every day is an adventure and something different and you know um new happening and the fact that the way that you help support them and make sure that they're able to um do everything they need to do for our students is amazing so thank you for for providing all that for
053them and then that program that Journey program yeah we need to figure out like we you know how to help more than eight students like I mean it's amazing but like come on we look let's contact Hilton marott let's get yes I like because I I know that funding has been cut for some of those Journey programs recently and is that impacting our vendors at all or or the people that we're working with or we still okay for now we're still okay for now I think we're still okay for now but we're keeping watch on it so yeah cuz that's such an incredible program so thank you yeah um sorry one more question actually and uh just because I didn't hear I'm wondering if this is a road map thing because I love what you're
054doing to educate parents that have students with special needs and I love that you talked about how um one of the reasons that we're seeing that increase is because there's greater um ability for staff to to identify um students with those special needs are there resources for parents in that first phase where they don't necessarily what's go know what's going on because they're first getting diagnosed like what kind of you know what are you guys doing for those parents right now yes so when impact did their presentation um they had some really great visuals to help parents kind of organize themselves and kind of you know write down things and information that they need um so they would actually walk them through that process help prepare them here's what an evaluation is um here's um
055the things that you will need to have um here's the things that you may talk about you're going to talk about different areas of the um revie review of existing data and so you are your you are the parent of this child and you are the advocate for them so you know them best and so you can you know um contribute to that um their needs their adaptive needs their instructional needs um their behavioral needs their social needs and so um so yeah so that they can support with that parents great thank you um I have a thought or maybe it's a question um Staffing um you know we we have proposition G on the on the ballot in April 8th um you know I guess generally speaking Staffing in this our special educ teachers
056it's you know there's higher turnover and there and there's less of a pool is that those are both accurate statements right that's true yes yes and and and uh yes special education is one of the most difficult areas to uh find teachers and then also re retain um it's a very very demanding uh position um our special education teachers go above and beyond and um that it's something that um we just are seeing a shrinking pool and so uh certainly um with our staffing model we're trying to continue to recruit um and then once we get people in here uh retain them through different uh training support and other things that you saw in this presentation great thank you one things tieback which you mentioned about in the training and um going over the drivers
057and narratives at The Forum one of the parents spoke about being uh very concerned and almost fearful of their student going to school and not having the support that they needed and getting calls about that student you know having issues Behavior or whatever else when they said they have just been overwhelmingly surprised not surprised but just um happy with everything they don't get any calls and their student is doing great and so again kudos to you that everything is tyed together for what we're putting in place for our families and our students thank you any other questions thank you so much for your presentation right we'll move on to uh item eight information written uh we have information items tonight uh 8.1 through 8.3 are relative to bids contracts and agreements uh 84 and 85
058are relative to curriculum uh Dr Kimel are there any others that want need to be highlight highlighted uh no highlights these are first reads so they will be brought to you at our next meeting for uh approval I take any questions if you have any any questions board okay um we'll be asked toh take action on these items at the March 20th uh 2025 regular board meeting all right item nine is policies procedures and forms we have eight policies that have been submitted as information items for tonight uh Mr F will you provide a brief overview of these at this time good evening yeah there's quite a few on the agenda as information items uh for you this evening but almost all of them are kind of Under the Umbrella of I think fairly straightforward
059updates to bring policies into compliance with recent changes to state or federal law so one example I can give you is um a relatively recent change in federal law a new law the pregnant workers Fairness Act um our policies needed some language updates based on those you see that in ebbc which is lactation support and GBE staff health and safety those are two policies that had language on that topic that just needed to be updated largely no practice changes but just making sure we're compliant with the language and those policies so um that's most of what's in here but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about them any questions board all right well the board will be asked to take action on these uh or policies 9.1 through 9.8 at the March
06020th 2025 regular meeting thank you all right thank you Mr F all right next is board member uh reports and requests uh board members do you have any reports and requests tonight uh Mr Mones none thank you uh Mrs Barber n thank you uh Miss Barnes um I would just say um there's so much um going on in the news and different things that are going on federally and locally and so I would just say um pay attention to those things and if you have questions or concerns about those reach out to your representatives and let them know how you feel and how that would affect um the school that your child attends thank you thank you Miss BS Mr d none tonight thank you uh Mrs Woodley none thank you uh Miss bowan none
061thank you all right um then we will now adjourn to close session I'll need a motion and a second to adjourn to close session pursuant to chapter 610 section 021 of the revised Missouri statutes for the purpose of discussing matters relevant to subsection one legal so moved second have a motion from Miss Barber and a second by Miss Barnes to adjourn to close session to discuss legal matters uh M Freeman will you read the role Barber yes Barnes yes Mones yeser yes Todd yes Woodley yes right