Board of Education Meeting - August 6, 2025

001Okay, I've got uh officially 7 o'clock. We can't start until exactly 7 o'clock. Not on time. Uh so if you would all join us in the pledge of allegiance, we will begin the meeting. Okay, welcome everyone. Uh before we get started, I just acknowledge our new superintendent joining us for her very first board meeting. Welcome You'll hear from her later. Uh but right now please welcome our deputy superintendent to introduce new administrators. Good evening, President Todd, Vice President Hopper, Dr. Schneider, Mrs. Stover, and members of the board of education. It is my pleasure to introduce you to some of our new administrators for the 2526 school year. First, Mr. Matt Fero. Matt joins the Parkway leadership team as the new director of facilities. He started his career as a HVAC technician and has spent nearly

00220 years working in K12. Matt has extensive experiencing experience managing capital projects, facilities, and operations. Matt has hit the ground running with our facilities and operations teams, and we are looking forward to seeing our teams flourish under his leadership. Welcome, Matt. [Applause] Serving as a new principal at Puremont Elementary is our very own Dr. Christy Laney. Christy is beginning her first principal ship after serving as assistant principal at Barretts Elementary. Christy has also hit the ground running with her staff and school community. Her knowledge of the district, understanding of teaching and learning, as well as her commitment to building strong relationships and service to kids has been welcomed by our Paramount community. We are looking forward to Christiey's continued growth and leadership in her new role. Welcome, Christie. [Applause] Next, I'm excited to introduce Liz

003Mallaloy. Liz joins us as a new principal at Shannondoa Valley Elementary School. Liz is a strong instructional leader who places strong emphasis on relationships and equity in her service to young people and her school community. We are excited for her leadership in the SVE community. Welcome, Liz. [Applause] One of our newest short horns is Dr. Gretchen Morrison, who will serve as a new principal at Claymont Elementary. Gretchen started her teaching career in Parkway, and we are excited to welcome her back as part of our leadership team. Gretchen brings a great deal of excitement for teaching and learning as well as building strong relationships with the school community and staff at Claymont. Welcome, Gretchen. [Applause] finally serving as a new principal at Central Middle School, Miss Loretta Smith. Loretta is also returning to Parkway after beginning

004her teaching career here at Central High and South Middle, as well as a facilitator for the work led by our equity and action team. Loretta is a driven leader and has invested her time in learning about the Colts community. This summer, like many of our new administrators, Loretta has focused on building relationships and working with her team to welcome our middle school families back in a couple weeks. Welcome back, Loretta. [Applause] On behalf of the superintendent's cabinet, I'd like to share with you that we are truly excited to have this group of leaders who have been working with us all summer and um just cannot say enough about their dedication already and the commitment to our young people here in Parkway. Thank you. Okay. Uh, next up is additions, corrections, and/or modifications to the agenda.

005Those include 7.01, addendum to agenda item 11.08, approval of personnel items. 7.02, addition of agenda item 11.26, approval of corporate partnership team express. And 7.03, addition of agenda item 11.27, approval of campus reports. Uh next up is public comments. Um it's during this time that we provide an opportunity for citizen comments in an effort to maintain an open and respectful dialogue with our community. Public comment session is not the appropriate forum for addressing individually identifiable student and or personnel matters. Therefore, due to privacy laws protecting students and employees, comments about these matters should not include personally identifiable information about particular students or employees. Members of the public, staff, and students are encouraged to utilize established policies and procedures for offering suggestions or addressing concerns and complaints prior to bringing the issue before the board. Please

006be mindful that the meetings of the board, including your statements at the podium, are broadcast. You are responsible for any public comments you make. In le of a public statement, you may choose to submit your comments to the board in writing. Also, due to time constraints and the need to complete primary responsibilities of our meeting agenda, we cannot respond during the meeting. So, you will receive a response from us in writing. We were always available to have an open dialogue outside of our meetings and can be reached by email or phone using the contact information on the Parkway website. Uh tonight, I believe we have two speakers. Um and each of you will have three minutes. Uh please introduce yourselves and uh state your affiliation or relation to Parkway. Um and we'll begin with Ryan

007Bant. Hello, my name is Ryan Bant. I am a parent uh teacher, coach, alumni at Parkway, also a member of the PNA. I'm here today to talk about uh concerns with the upcoming discussion over our benefits. Um, as a member of the Parkway Central community through a lot of different lenses, I am concerned. I am very concerned over the last couple years how we've handled some of the issues with our staff. Whether it was a member of our staff that had a barn dropped on him and had his coach's pay taken away from him in a week and a half or the fact that we had uh some of our women in our school district who were getting in trouble for potentially missing too many days um to see doctor visits after getting pregnant. took

00814 months to get that adjusted out of our contract to getting letters that were kind of aggressive in their language with having too many sick days or recently um some of our staff potentially getting demerits on their evaluation for taking the number of sick days that are actually available to them in their contract. So, we are concerned. I am concerned. I am a brain tumor survivor. I have type two diabetes and Crohn's disease. It is very important to me and to many of the other staff members in our school district that you get this right. We know that insurance everywhere is topsyturvy. We know that budgets are being crunched. We also know that there's 40% reserves. We also know that there are other opportunities to try to work things out. And I know that you've

009had community conversations where we've had information go back and forth about what your feelings are about the benefits, but at some point our concerns are when are we going to get back to the Parkway School District that can do all things providing great education for the students, providing a great uh environment for the educators, and supporting them in the moments when they need you the most when they are sick. and how that affects not only them, but this insurance could affect their family members, whether it's their children, their partners, their husbands, or their wives. This is something that really needs to be considered, especially since this is a year where soon we'll be negotiating contracts. I don't want people like myself to have to think about how do I plan for my brain surgery dependent

010upon the time in which I can do it. Am I going to have my coach's pay taken away from me because I can't be there? Am I going to be able to afford the brain surgery and be able to facilitate things for my children whether, god forbid, they get sick with something very serious? Um, these are things that are worrisome to all of us and I hope tonight that you think about it fully and address it fully amongst the members of the board. I know you guys don't like to talk about it in a public forum. We like to show unified front, but I hope that there is some back and forth between all of you. Thank you very much. Next up is Wayne Hartman. The administrators left. Okay. I wanted to come in tonight.

011Uh my name is Wayne Hartman. I'm a Parkway resident. I wanted to come in tonight and welcome Dr. Schneider. Miss Stove, thank you for my list. I appreciate it. And the board, good to see you as we start the new 2526 year. Tonight, I'd like to take a minute or so and speak about DEI. Earlier this year on March 12th, the district honored its teachers of the year. I want to congratulate you all as well. Parkway's teachers are dedicated to educa educating their students. This district has highlighted students with perfect or near-perfect SATs. By these teachers example, students are picking up on their dedication to their own education is seen by their academic achievement. Their dedication to their sports they play or robotics or music or whatever else they choose to do. These students are

012different from 20 and 30 years back. teaching styles have changed and that makes me feel old. I can see that these students believe if they dedicate their time to education, what their school days and when their school days come to an end, they will have the intelligence to go out into the world and be successful. One, be dedicated to what you're doing. Two, be educated to have the confidence you need. and three, so that intelligence will help you make the right decisions. That's my vision of DEI. As the new year begins, I look forward to sitting in these chairs and hearing about all Parkway students and what they will aspire to. Thanks for the time. >> Uh, next up on our agenda is the approval of the agenda. We have a motion and a second

013to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of the board of education is scheduled for August 6, 2025. Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries 6. >> The next regular board meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025, beginning at 7 p.m. here at the Park Welcome Center. Uh, next up on our agenda is 10.03 board and superintendent reports. However, before we do that, um in in an effort to model the expectations that we have for our students uh this coming school year, as is directed uh to us by the state of Missouri legislators, uh we're going to ask Miss Stober if she would come collect our cell phones for the duration of our meeting. Cool, man. >> Okay. Now that there shouldn't be any interruptions or certain board members won't

014be checking sports scores, uh, Matt, would you like to start something? >> Sure. Um, I'll just share two things. One, welcome to Dr. Schneider. We're really excited for this upcoming school year. Glad you're here and it's like it's been a long process. I'm really glad we're finally here to your first board meeting. And then from number two, just the fact that for us, we're going to have the Shimmer family return into Parkway South. We have a foreign exchange student coming. And I'll say it's just been fun not knowing her and learning what she likes and what her interests are. And just really exploring all the classes that we offer, all the activities that we offer, all the sports that we offer. It's been really eye opening because you have your own kids. you know what

015they like and you kind of direct them that way. But with an foreign exchange student having no idea on their background, it's been really fun to explore the breadth of what we offer our kids with a core education and with um electives. So, I'm really kind of fun to going through this process and learning getting her viewpoint on Parkway going forward. So, thank you. >> Uh also like to welcome Dr. Schneider. It's as Matt mentioned, you know, we it's it feels like you've been here already uh but this is your first official meeting and we're happy to have you. Uh, hope everyone had a great summer. Um, I hope everyone's energized, ready to go for a couple of weeks from now where we'll be starting school. I know my kids are not ready to start

016school. Uh, they were gone for a month this year for summer camp and we just got them back and then they'll be going to school pretty soon. So, um, everyone just have a great summer and, uh, ready to get going. >> Welcome, Dr. Schneider. I'm the new guy on here, so you know, I kind of feel know what it feels like to be uh be new to the to the das here. Um I can't believe how fast summer's gone by uh that we're already in August and schools just around the block. Um I just want to take a minute to uh say big thanks to all of the uh teachers, staff, directors involved with the Parkway Strings Camp last week. Uh so my youngest attended that. Um he's he started playing violin uh private lessons

017but decided to switch to uh cello this year. So first time he played the cello was Monday last Monday. And uh by the concert time he was playing scales and songs. And it's just it's amazing uh that we have that program here in the district uh for all of the arts. Um and again just a big shout out to everybody involved in that program. Um thanks for what you do. So appreciate that. So, this is a tough meeting for our uh board reports because usually we talk about all the things we've done and you know we're at the end of the summer. None of us have done much in the way of Parkway. Uh so, we all try to think of a interesting and fun way to say we're excited for the new school year

018which uh I am and as much as I was not excited about putting myself in that basket and missing out on the world for the next couple hours here. I do think uh it was a fine idea by Matt and I am excited about what our schools will look like in the coming year without the distraction of cell phones and hopefully, you know, it's a smooth transition. is easy on our teachers and helps our students to focus and learn. Uh I also want to give some welcomes. One is uh this is the first week as a parent that my wife and I have had both kids out of town for the week, which is why my wife Aaron is attending her first ever school board meeting. So if you're wondering what the seltzers do when

019they get a night off for their kids, uh here it is. Uh and of course also want to welcome uh Dr. Schneider. Uh you know, I've been thinking about, you know, a lot of times you change leadership when things aren't going well, which has not been the case here. You know, I think we've had a pretty, you know, up with, you know, ups and downs, but by and large, things are going well and now we have a new leader. And I kind of think of it as, uh, you know, my favorite TV show is Cheers. And, you know, the Diane years were great and then they came to an end and then the Rebecca years started and those were great, too. And so, that's kind of the analogy I'm working with here for Parkway. >>

020Well, welcome Dr. Schneider. Um, it is nice to be back. Um, we have had a nice break which has been very uh well accepted right now. Um, I will say that I'm going to be a little um bittersweet this year because my daughter will be a senior and for all of those who have tiny young children, it goes by in a flash. So, please enjoy your young children and all the experiences that they have um while they're young because before you know it, they will be shipping off and looking at colleges. Um so, I'm looking forward to this evening's um meeting. We have a lot of important um information to listen to and decisions to to make and um so we understand the um the heavy burden that that places on everybody in the district

021right now with that. So um we look forward to all the different communication and feedback and uh welcome opportunities to talk. >> Uh welcome extend my welcome as well. Um in the last even though it's been summer there have been a lot of things going on. Um there have been um a number of things happening throughout the summer. I've been fortunate to be able to greet different groups of individuals, employees that are that are coming to work in Parkway. Some for the first time, some are coming back. Um, new administrators, new teachers. Uh, this morning I greeted the uh the board, the budget liaison team. Uh, those are the people in each of our buildings that that are really responsible for making sure every penny is spent appropriately. Um, and um, and it's great to

022to see returning faces that are coming back to the district, but it's been also nice to to see some people that are coming from other districts and being in Parkway for the first time, and they're just elated. They're the they several of them have told me, one was this morning, a couple of them were at new uh, new educator orientation the other day. They said, "I I've been waiting for my, you know, the last five years or the last 10 years to finally get an opportunity to be in Parkway." Um it's just been great to hear some of those stories. So we're excited for for everybody that's joined us uh in a new capacity this year. Um I also wanted to u mention we had wanted to thank Chartwells uh again this summer they provided

023free meals to students a couple of days a week uh for uh some period of time this summer where students could just show up and and get a free lunch. Um and so we were really appreciative of appreciative of that. Um, and then again, all the all the people, Tiffany mentioned it, but all of our administrators and everybody that that isn't a uh an August to June employee, everybody that's here around the clock around the the entire year working. Um, we know that you've been working hard this summer, just like every summer, but maybe even a little extra a little extra hard this summer. So, we appreciate everybody uh pitching in and uh doing everything that they can to get our buildings ready, to get our classrooms ready, and um get us off to a

024good start. So, now it's your turn. >> Wonderful. Well, good evening everybody. I am excited to report that this is just a little bit over a month since I began serving as your superintendent. July 1st was my first day. And while the summertime is a quieter time certainly for school districts, there has been a lot that I've been able to see and visit. And I wanted to share a few of those things with you tonight. Um, in no particular order, I was able to go to our new administrators orientation. So, uh, the folks that we introduced tonight, I was able to see back then and be able to speak with them and and welcome them, see what kind of, uh, materials they were being presented with and oriented to the school district. I'm very proud

025of how we onboard folks in the Parkway School District. I also spent some time at the facilities end of the year picnic and that was a time when I saw some of our busiest workers in the summer talk about things are perhaps not as busy at the schools but in in facilities and operations things are very busy in the summertime and we deeply appreciate um the crews that are working out in the heat and keeping the grounds and repairing buildings and making sure that they are beautified and ready for our students to walk into on the first day of school. So, that was a nice time to be able to get to know those folks and spend some time with them. As many of you may have seen, I visited our strings camp last Friday

026and some video footage was captured of me playing my cello with the students and I was an orchestra student myself and it was brought back a lot of memories and to um to um other board members had mentioned that they've went there uh as well. Were you at strings camp? You were not. No, but but um remember uh excuse me. Um John Kilper was there and his son or his son was there, right? I think maybe I played the cello with your son. I'm not really I was right in front of him. Okay. Um sorry for stumbling on that. I I I knew I was there with him and and that is really cool. I'm just putting that together right now as I speak. Uh band camp. I also uh visited the band camp concert.

027Again, the kids were spending 15 hours with each other in the week and then they played these concerts or they played full scales. They did things that I couldn't think could be done in five days of string camp. uh all admin which is all administrators coming back for their professional development days. And we had two days in which uh the first day I was invited to be their keynote speaker. And I really enjoyed telling stories about uh my my past experiences in education, some personal stories about myself and connecting with those who were in the room and then spending time learning with them the rest of the day. We had some wonderful sessions planned there and new educator orientation. That was something that uh President Todd and I visited just recently and it is a

028day when our brand new teachers as well as those who are coming to Parkway from other school districts are oriented to the Parkway school district and it is just so neat especially to see our very young teachers who are fresh out of college and this is their very first teaching job and it brings me back to the day when I still remember my very first day of teacher orientation and it's seems like a long time ago but seeing them so full of excitement to greet the kids and start here makes me it was thrilling. I was excited about that. Um, a few outside events that I've been able to attend as I've oriented myself from Colorado to Missouri's education system. I spent some time down at Lake of the Ozarks at the annual uh Department

029of Elementary and Secondary Education and the um the Missouri Association of School Administrators conference. Was able to network and see uh several people who are my fellow St. Louis uh county colleagues as well as others from around the state. Uh had a wonderful meeting meeting uh man Manchester city officials and spending some time getting to know them. Uh and that that was that was fun. That was just the other week. And lastly, I have some new information for you all. Uh is I will be convening a budget task force this year as uh one of my priorities for the Parkway School District is to be able to convene a group of employees who are uh represent diverse roles around the school district to inform how our budget is um going to be looking short-term and

030long term. I look forward to getting input to having an interestbased conversation to learning together around how school finance is uh is done and being able to make informed decisions and invitations for that task force will be going out tomorrow. So, more information on that coming soon. Uh there's more I could report, but I've had a very enjoyable last month here and I thank you for the warm welcomes from the community and from the board uh especially tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh moving on, we have our consent agenda next. Uh we have a motion to approve the consent consent agenda as presented in the August 6th, 2025 board meeting material move. >> Second. >> Is there anything to be pulled to action or closed? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any

031abstensions? Motion carries 6. Next up, we have uh several work sessions. So, we'll start things off with Carrie Nun, our CFO, and talk about the 2026 benefits recommendations. Good evening everyone. Wrong direction. Okay. So, what we are going to cover tonight in our working session together is we're going to define what a self- insurance um plan is and how it works. We're going to talk about our current state of our self- insurance fund. Um we're going to talk about the benefit advisory committee and the work that they did this summer. We're going to look at the options that the committee came together and um then what the committee actually voted on and our recommendation to you tonight. So, what is self-funded insurance? Self-funded insurance is actually a type of insurance that the employee sets aside

032a pool of money instead of an to an insurance company and then we pay our employees and their benefits medical expenses directly. And so how that works is, as I said, we set our set a pool of funds aside so that we can pay directly to u to to pay for our employees and their dependents medical bills. Um, and we do not pay directly into an insurance company. And the reason why we want want to do that is because we have lower administrative fees. Um, and then we also have plan autonomy. So, the fact that I'm even standing here tonight coming to you with options or that we even have a benefit advisory committee is because we are self-funded. If we were not self-funded, we would be at a table one of many voices. Even

033if we got invited to the table, we wouldn't get to decide what our coverage was going to be, what our plan premiums were going to be, those would all be directed towards us and we wouldn't have a say except for maybe a vote. um there's some trusts in the area that you can participate in and that's exactly what they do. They bring the trust to the table and everyone gets a vote. And so because we are self-funded, we are the director, we are the captain, I guess you could say, of our insurance plan and we get to make those decisions and we get to have input from our benefit advisory committee, our cabinet, from our board. So, maybe you're like me and you need to see a visual and you need to see, okay, you're

034like, those are words, but how does that actually work? So, we're going to talk about our self-funded insurance as a bucket. So, think about it as a bucket of money. So, how does money go into our bucket? Well, that's called revenue. And we have a couple of revenue streams within our self-funded insurance. So, the revenue streams are our employee premiums. So those are the amounts that we withhold from our employees checks each time they get paid and we put it into that fund. We also have our district contributions. So every time we pay an employee, not only are we withholding money from their check to put into this bucket, we are also taking money out of our operating budget account to put money into that bucket as well. We also get reimbursements or rebates. So,

035for instance, we have a contract with ESI that is going to based on our spend give us rebates of about $3 million this upcoming plan year. We also have interest income. So, when we have this money in this bucket, we actually invest it. And so, it does build money based on the size of the bucket. So, if you don't have any money in the bucket, you can't invest it and you can't make interest income. But if you do have money in that bucket, then we invest it and we do make a slight profit with the interest income that we put right back into the bucket. And just per for um for perspective into the bucket for plan year 25 based on our forecast, the district will be putting in $30.6 million into the bucket. The

036employees and retirees will be putting in $8.3 million. So, the district puts in 64% of our revenue this year. The employees will put in 17%. And then we also have those um the revenue, the rebates, the interest income, those all equal about n uh 19% which is right at um a little over $9 million. So then that's how the money goes into the bucket. So how does the money come out of the bucket? That's called our expenses. So we have a couple of ways money comes out of the bucket. One of them is through our claims. So that is when you know we've in this bucket we've set it aside so we can pay our medical claims for our employees and their dependents. So that is our biggest expense of when we reach into that

037bucket and we're pulling money out. We also have admin fees, some slight admin fees. So those admin fees would be to United Healthcare. So United Healthcare helps us to helps us with our plan in that they they are the go-between with to the hospitals to us. So we still pay directly the bills, but they are the ones that issue our cards to our members. So that way they have an insurance card. they are the ones that are giving us the costs straight from a hospital or a provider to our self- insurance so we can pay those. So there is some slight administrative fees. We also have consulting fees. So we do use an insurance broker um MMA and so they help us to determine what is going to be happening in the insurance world in

038regards to medical. So they are they have a large access to a book of records. So like the what's happening in the in the healthcare in St. Louis and also in on a national level. Um so they consult with us, they advise us. They also have actuaries on staff. So that way we can utilize their actuaries to run through scenarios of if we did this model, if we if we changed this slightly, if we added this, if we enriched our plan, how would that affect our plan over time? And then we also have stop-loss insurance. So stop-loss insurance is our insurance for our our insurance. So because we are self-funded, it doesn't matter if you our employees or their dependents go and have a claim that's $5 or $5 million, we have to pay that.

039We are going to pay that. Um so what our stop loss insurance does is it helps us from catastrophic events. So, if we have an employee or a dependent that goes and has a catastrophic event, anything over $375,000, our stop-loss insurance kicks in and helps us pay for that catastrophic event. But that insurance does come at a cost. And so, we do pay for that stop-loss insurance to help us um protect as much as we can from catastrophic events. So after we know how the money comes in, how the money goes out, we never want to be in a situation or we're trying to avoid being in a situation where we reaching into that bucket and there's no more money to grab. So what we want is a reserve. Um, and in in the spring

040of 24, the benefit committee did vote for us to try to maintain a 25% reserve, which is roughly about 12.7 million. Why we want this reserve is it helps us from again those catastrophic events, but it also helps us to always be able to reach in and grab money because there's certain times of the year where our revenue es and flows. So, for instance, when uh we pay all of our teachers their summer pay in May, we have a big influx into our revenue that's going into the bucket, but then there's no there's no checks. There's no money coming in for that for that period of time when they're in the summer. So, we have a significant decrease in revenue in June and July. And so, we want to keep a reserve there to help

041us maintain those ups and flows to our revenue. Um, and also to garnish to help us prevent from a bad plan year. So a bad plan year in the past was about an 8% increase to your medical expenses. That's unfortunately become more closer to the norm of your increase that we're seeing in claims, if not higher. I've heard multiple stories across St. Louis from different CFOs in the area where they've seen 17 to 25 or more percent increase in their claims costs. We had a bl a bad claim year in 24. So this is our claims our balance our self and fun our self-funded insurance over the core since 2005. And so you'll see in 2015 or 2015 to uh the end of the plan year 2024 with two forecast years of 25 and 26.

042So you'll see in 25 through 2020 or 2015 to 2020 our our fund balance was slowly increasing and then after 2020 it started to decrease and we were losing roughly over a million dollars every year until we got to our plan year 2024 and that was what I would call a bad plan year. We had a 14% increase to our medical expenses and our plan lost over $6 million in that one plan year. So if in our current state if we do nothing then we would end the plan year 2025 which a plan year again is January 1st through December 31st. So it does not follow a school year it follows a cal a calendar year. So, if we end the year in 2025 based on our projections, we'll only have um about $2.8 million.

043This is the chart that we used for the benefit advisory committee. So, that way we wouldn't stay in this spot. We knew we needed to move. We knew we needed to act. And this is something I know that isn't new to you because I've already come to you um and actually asked for money from the operating account to be put into our self- insurance fund. So I know this that I know that you all are aware that we needed to act. So we used this chart as our as a point in time. So this chart was developed in February of 25 and we brought this to our benefit advisory committee and said we need to find savings of $10.4 million. So this was this is where we are and where we're going to go if

044we don't do anything. So we knew we needed to chase the 10.4 for and this is a mo a snapshot in time again February. This shows our actual 2025 plan year. So the dark blue represents actual fund balance every every month. The light blue is projections. Um, and the projections are based on a expecting a 12% increase to our medical claims. Um, which I thought was a conservative estimate, but they've been averaging for our for our actual months of the January through June of 18% increase. So, my my my projections were not as conservative as I thought they were. So, you'll see that the board interjected money um into these months in we injected $2.5 million into the April balance. So, you'll see that the April was $7.7 million. The board put $2.5 million in

045that month. You'll also see then later in the July, um it's not showing there yet because it's not actual, but the forecast is there. The 8.6 six represents a $5 million um onetime contribution from the board from our operating account as well. So even with putting in $7.5 million extra revenue for plan year 25, we anticipate ending the year with $1.8 million in December. And again, that's with a assuming a 12% increase to our medical claims. Um, and maybe that will stabilize and that will happen, but if it doesn't, we may even have to interject even more money depending on how the actuals come in. So, knowing all of this information, where we were going, where we were at, and where we needed to go, we brought this to our benefit advisory committee, and we

046are very honest about where we were. Everything I shared with you tonight is is not new information for our benefit advisory committee. We shared all of this. We're very transparent and open about that. Of our uh with our benefit advisory committee, we have um 31 members. Not all of them are voting members. So, our members represent um certified staff, operations, nurse, principles, district administrators, our retirees, some retirees, our benefit department um and our MMA insurance brokers. And then this is a picture that um we have that we'll be discussing here in a minute, but this was a bucket exercise because we were talked about buckets and how our self-funded insurance is a bucket um that they went through together. The benefit advisory committee did. So of our benefit advisory committee, 23 of them are voting

047members and they represent 11 certified staff, four operations, one nurse, one principal, four district administrators, and two retirees. Um, and we do have some open positions on that committee. Um, and we do our best to make sure that not only does this committee represent and reflect our staff makeup, but it also reflects um our our regions as well as the levels in our school buildings. So, I actually we're very fortunate tonight to have some benefit advisory committee members here. And so I'm actually going to invite up Moira and Mel um and they're going to speak to you guys for just a few minutes. [Music] Thank you. Um so uh I'm Moira McCracken. I'm president of Parkway NEA. We are the union that represents our certified staff uh within the district here. Um I am part

048of the benefits advisory committee. in my current role. We also have, as you could see, there were 11 uh additional members of uh PNEA that were part of that committee. In fact, I' I'd like to extend a thank you to our benefits department. Um when we went into this um this process, there was this the thought that because we are the largest employee group um in the the um district that it was our representation was not proportional to our u our size. And so, um, Deb reached out to me and Don worked with me and some others to to add some PNEA members to it so that our representation within the advisory committee was, um, more representative of our number of our um, our certified staff. So, I appreciate that. Um we had several meetings

049this summer and you know as a part of the certified staff just as a reminder our certified staff don't work in the summer and so our uh staff members our PNA members that were part of this committee um put a lot of time into this because we met four times um over the summer but there was more to it. There was a lot of research. There was a lot of of of background reading um really trying to understand the whole situation um with that. And so I I can't thank our PNA members especially um enough for that just because they really were giving up their their summer. They didn't get any anything for doing this other than just you know being part of that conversation. Um so the four meetings um on May 22nd uh

050we met and we talked about some possible um changes um you know some proposals. We talked about what maybe what we'd like to see um happen. what are things that that we felt were um important um based on not just us but based on the thought exchange. So there was a thought exchange um with uh all staff members and we looked at the the information from that. Um then on June 17th we had our bucket exercise and um this uh you can kind of see there um where we it was like a puzzle. Um, basically we had all these different possibilities of places where we could potentially generate some revenue to put into that bucket. Um, and different amounts like what would happen if we, you know, increase by 5% or 10% or whatever or

051or if the district did this or, you know, like all of those little colored slips of paper were different possibilities. And our goal was within our small groups was to manipulate all these little pieces of paper and put things together to try to reach that 10.4 $4 million um increase uh there or well shortfall I guess is probably a better way to say that. Um so that's what this this bucket exercise was. And then after we had the bucket exercise we met um to talk about some actual possible propos or changes um and really got into it and had some very very rich conversations with that. And then we also met at the end to vote on what we felt was um to be perfectly honest, the best of the worst. U that's that's the

052best way that I can say it. Um I don't think anybody who was part of this committee was like, gosh, this is great work. We really want to be doing this. Um it was hard. It was very, very hard. It was um it was uncomfortable. There were some really tough conversations there. Um, we had to all of us, not just the P&A members, but everybody who was there. We all, this affected all of us because we're all part of this benefit system. And we really had to step outside of ourselves and really look at what's best for other people. Um, and just people in general. Um, I know that, um, I really had in my head thinking about the people who aren't making a lot of money. I'm thinking about our new um, new educators.

053I'm thinking about our support staff. um you know people were this is going to make an impact and and how can we how can we be the best of the worst uh with that. So um that was really really difficult to do. Um I just want to make sure I wrote a few things down um with this. I I I think what's really important for us all in this room to be thinking about is that we need to be doing everything that we can to be helping our staff members. um you know dealing with increasing premiums um or or changes in co-pays or you know all of the things that we looked at um and you know the medical expenses there they are just my my husband works in the business side of the medical

054field I mean the the this expenses are just increasing um and and this isn't just us this is hitting all over the place and um and we're in a difficult position so we just need to make sure that we are doing the very very best with that um so I'm going to turn over to Mel so he can give his feedback back. >> Hi, I'm Mel Schulty, president K Puma. Um, working on a benefits committee that we was tasked with with the bus bucket exercise to be able to come up with the savings of $10.4 million. With all the options that we had to work with, it was a eye openening experience to achieve that dollar amount. I believe that we came up came to a conclusion of a good and acceptable for everyone in

055the district. But like as Marva said, you know, the newer people is going to put a burden on them and we're still trying to the district always said the benefits was a key point to come to the district that we had great benefits and we don't want to lose that to not attain quality personnel. Thanks. So I will say that the work that they did um was was a unique opportunity, something we had not done before and it felt doing being able to do that exercise with them was also the first time I actually got to meet with that committee person in faith like personto person. Um and the camaraderie that we had with feeling like we were working shoulder-to-shoulder together to find a solution was very um was something that I I think I'll

056remember always through this time that we had with them. Um, but I will say like not only was it their work too, but we also really relied on and heard voices from our other me, you know, our other employees and their their dependents. We did do a thought exchange that had 600 people participate. We had 512 thoughts and 14 over 14,000 ratings. So, we we heard from them um and listened to that and took that into consideration as we were doing this exercise. And I'd like to take a moment if you were on the benefit advisory committee and you served, would you please stand so we can recognize you? Thank you all. So, next we want to actually get into the options that came out of that bucket exercise and what the options were that

057the committee actually voted on um at the July 22nd meeting. All right. So, the um the first option after all that hard work, this was the first option that we came up with to vote on. Um I'm not going to go over the amounts because you can see those there, but I'll try to explain some of the plan changes that are listed. So, the first thing is 25% district premium increase. It's pretty straightforward. The second one is 15% employee premium increase. We decided at this point that we were going to add $100 a month to the base plan. The base plan was a $0 for employee only. So then it would be a $100 um monthly, not not every paycheck, but monthly. We also also increased the u out-of pocket and deductibles for the base

058plan and the high deductible plans. And you know the premium plan is not listed here because in this option we would be eliminating the premium plan to save money. Um another thing that we would do in this plan is remove coverage for GLP1s for weight loss only. So those were the um the options for or the plan changes for option one. And then it goes to option four. It's kind of weird numbering, but those were the options that we were working with during the all those meetings, and this is we just kept them the same. So, the second option, which is option four, had the same district increase of 25%. This one had a 20% employee increase. Again, we added $100 to the base plan. Um in this one we did not remove the premium

059plan but in we kept it but we went ahead and added an an 8020 u co- insurance which means that the insurance once you meet your deductible the insurance will pay 80% of those costs and then you pay 20%. And this 8050 that you see up here 80 is for in network and 50 is for out of network but that's how that works. Then we have the same kind of increases for our base plan, premium plan, and high deductible for our deductibles and our out of pocket. Something I did not mentioned on the first one, but with all these rate changes going up, the district would then the increase the amount that the district puts into everybody's HSA would also increase. And it increases by like 300 and some dollars. So I have to Yep.

060391. Um on this one we still have the option to remove coverage for GLP weight loss only. So that was our second option. Then it was in uh like Morris said some of the very tough discussions that we had we we needed an option that kept GLP1s for weight loss. So that's how we came up with option five. So it's the same 25% district premium increase. This goes back to a 15% employee premium increase. Um, in order to cover GLP1s for weight loss, we would have to increase the employee premium another 24%. Making it a total of a 39% increase for employees. Um, we continued with $100 to the premium plan. I mean, the base plan. Um, we're eliminating the premium plan on this one. So we just have changes to the base plan and

061high deductible for your deductibles and out of pocket. We kept GLP1 for weight loss as being covered. But what we did to give a little bit more savings in this one is we removed it from the preventative list. So that means that that would affect anybody on the high deductible plan that is taking GP1s for weight loss. they would then have to pay the amount of the cost of that up to their deductible and then the insurance would kick in. So in that scenario, it would it would save us about $18,000. So these are the three plans that we came back with at the last meeting for our vote. >> And then with those three options on the 22nd, the the committee voted. Um so this we had we had 19 responses here and you'll

062see that um almost 79% of them voted for option one. Um and then we had uh 15 almost 16% for option five and just 5% for the option four. So that means the recommendation um that the committee voted on would be for option one. So again that would be a 25% district premium increase. So that would would produce additional revenue of $5.4 million to our bucket. Um in addition to what we already pay in as a district of that 30 million that I mentioned before, um we would have a 15% employee premium increase um which would generate additional revenue into the bucket of $700,000. we would add a $100 to the premium uh a $100 premium to the base which is currently a free um at at the employeeon level a free plan. Um so

063that would be it would equate to uh $50 per paycheck and that would generate $1.3 million of additional revenue to the bucket. Um, and then we would add we would increase the deductible in network and out of network as well as the out-of pockets for both the base and the high deductible plan, which would then generate a savings to our bucket, which means it would decrease expenses of 1.2 almost $1.3 million. We would remove GLP1 waist uh weight loss coverage. It would still be covered for diabetes, but that would generate a cost savings of $1.2 million. Um, and then we would eliminate the premium plan. So it means the district go from would go from three plans to two. Um, and that would say that would generate a savings of 430,000 which gets us to

064the 10.4. So what does that mean for an employee know these are kind of small so I'll do my best here. On the left hand side is the chart that shows our current plan. So that is what is currently being paid per paycheck um for the base plan. So you can see now in plan year 25 as an employee you that plan would be free. So in plan year 26 starting January 1st um it would cost $50 per paycheck for the employee um to be on the base plan. You would also see that um an EE stands for employee in those charts. Um and then the next column which is ER that's employer. So that would be parkway. So right now for an employee only um Parkway puts in $380 into the bucket for every

065employee that's on the base plan. So in plan year 26 we would put it be putting in almost $475 per paycheck into the plan. So, the district would increase the 25% in the premiums. And on this example, the employees would have the $50 plus the additional 15%. And that carries down all the way through at each level because we have the employee only and then employee spouse, employee spouse plus children, multiple children, and so on. And then employee only with child without the spouse. For the high deductible plan, that would still be free to employees. So we still offering a free option. So in plan year 26, if you're an employee, the high deductible plan would be zero cost. And in plan year 26, it would still be zero cost. So we are still offering

066a free plan to all of our employees that they can opt to choose um for the employeeonly side of it. Um but then after after that, there would be a 15% increase. So, for instance, if you're an employee spouse um in plan year 25, you're paying $67.96 um per paycheck, but in plan year 26, if you were an employee and a sp on an employee and spouse only, you would be paying $78.16, which shows the on the far right, the increase would be $10.20 per paycheck that you would be paying in addition. and that represents the 15% increase to the premiums that you would be paying per paycheck. Um, and again, the employer or ER Parkway would be increasing by the 25% amount. So, these were um these are recommendations. I know we're not voting

067tonight, but I'd like to open it up to if you have any questions about any any of these plans or options. >> Well, first I would just like to say on behalf of the board, thank you and committee for spending so much time this summer. Sounds like it was quite a bit of time. You've heard from a number of people that uh just going on and on and on and a lot of time as as mentioned research. Um and so we appreciate everybody's efforts uh to come up with these options. Um could you go back? Well, first let me ask a question and then I'm going to to go back. Um, my question is when was the last time there was an increase for our employees? >> Um, we had a slight increase this plan

068year. They had a 2% increase for plan year 25. >> Okay. And just ballpark the last few years is has 2% been around what it's been or >> Yes. So, I believe after since this past 25, the last one was in 21. Um, and that percentage I don't have in front of me, but I can get it for you. But 20, so this plan year 25 was a 2% increase, and then the last increase was in 2021. And I'd have to go back to see what that exact percentage is. >> Thank you. Um, and then could you go back to option one, revenue and savings, and just real quick walk us through the base plan and the the high deductible uh plan and talk about what some of these these uh numbers actually mean. >>

069Oh, you want to? Okay. Okay. >> I think I know what they mean, but I just for everybody's benefit. >> Yep. >> So, this is what >> you're talking about. The You want to know what our current deductible and out of pocket is? >> Yeah. Just out of pocket. OP is out of pocket. >> Gotcha. So, yes. So the base plan um so when it says deductible I inn that is deductible in network and so the first uh dollar amount of the 1,100 is the employee only and then the second part there where it says the 3,400 that's for the family and then the O is out of network. So that would be the deductible for out of network and again employee and then family. Um and then the OOP is out of pocket. So

070that is what the out of pocket is again. Um the first part is for um employee and then it would be um times two if it is uh in net like so the in network number is the 5,000. So the fi out of pocket in network is 5,000 for a family that would be doubled and then out of pocket out of network is that second number that 10,000 would be for an employee and doubled for family. Is that what you were looking for? Did I answer you? >> I have a question. Uh we're, you know, with the option one, we're eliminating the premium plan. How many employees currently are on the premium plan? >> Yeah, that has has our smallest number of employees, our members. Can Do you have that number right off the top

071of your head? >> About three. She said 300 to 350 members. It's from July 8th. >> July 8th. And on the premium plan, there were 230, >> right? Um employees. But was that your number for participants or employees? Belly buttons as we call them. >> Okay. >> Um but as you know, Yes. And so um so it so we can get that number for you, but also it's very subject to change. So we can give you one number today and we can have someone drop an ad um having having a uh life event and be able to move those. So even if I I can So it's more of you have to understand that it's a it could be a sliding scale. So it won't stay the same number from day to day based on

072um who is coming on and off those plans based on life events. >> So what was that number uh the 430,000 what was that based on number-wise like how many employees or how many participants? So when we when we generated that that was after the bucket exchange. So when we did that number that was generated um before I mean that was generated after our May meeting when we thought that this wasn't was an option because we were pull collecting all of our options. So that number was based on if you have that July number, Debbie, that was probably the number we based it on and we can get back to we can get that exact math for you because we have those exact figures with MMA that we we went back and forth with them

073on that. >> Thank you. >> And I'm sorry I was not prepared to answer that tonight. I but it is it is it is information that is readily available on my computer. Does does the premium plan represent purely numbers? Is it is it an advantage for certain individuals to to do that from a numbers thing or is it provide different access to different networks of doctors? >> It does not provide different access. It does have it comes with a higher premium cost to the employee, but it then does have a lower deductibles and lower out-of- pockets. and no co- insurance. >> Um I assume you collaborate with your job alikes and other districts. Is everybody kind of facing something similar to this? And >> yes, we're actually of the ones that I I talked to

074this summer. Um actually I started having this conversations back in February when um when our plan year ended and I was seeing how significant these numbers were even before then December time frame. um we were some of the lowest in rate increases like seeing medical cost ex you know increase I was in a meeting where a gentleman was sharing that they had a 26% increase to their medical costs um and they were the main the main communication from that meeting was this is something that is we all want to fix and we want to handle but we don't know how because we don't know because every every time we fix it it's just going to turn around and happen again because medical costs are something that's kind of out of our control. You know, we

075um we can't control, you know, how are what's going to happen happen in and what's going to get charged. You don't know from year to year who's going who's going to need the care and who's not. Um and so the the best thing that we can do is try to mitigate our cost as best we can. Try to get into contracts with vendors that are the most um cost-effective for us. um and look even for alternative options. Um and so, you know, I'm engaging a lot in the better um better benefit coalition here in St. Louis with engaging in different types of options that we can consider. Um but ultimately um we are subjected to what hospitals and doctors are going to charge us for medical claims and um and we have a responsibility to

076our members to to pay their medical their medical claims. >> Along those lines, where does this put us and you may not have that um information right now, >> but in competition with the other districts? I mean, are we is our deductible higher than others? Will our premiums become higher than others? Because obviously, as was mentioned, >> you know, benefits are what attract, you know, part of the attraction of Parkway. >> How does this put us in relation to other districts? >> We have a very rich program. Um, we we are very generous and we want to stay that way, right? Um, as best to our financial ability, we want to stay that way. So, we do have alikes that are in similar situations as us like uh we're we're one of the last few,

077for instance, that were covering GLP1s. Um there are other school districts that um that that even in the middle of the year had to had to stop covering it and have some contentious meetings around, you know, mid-year changes, mid-plannure changes. Um so we we are still competitive with this. We still have a rich program. There's still there's still advantageous things that we offer. For instance, um we still offer a 50% discount to your spouses and your dependents on our program, which is a very rich uh benefit um that not not a lot of other districts in the area offer. Um but to have a chart of district by district, um we do have some of that information. Um our the the St. Louis community is pretty good about sharing with each other. Um so we

078do have some of that data. It's not comprehensive with every single school district, but we do have some. And um we are we are we are still competitive even with this change. >> Quick question because we all these options look at the $10.4 million. >> If you look at the 2026 that just gets our bucket >> empty at the end of the year. >> Correct. >> There's no reserve there. >> Correct. what are obviously we can't predict what's going to happen in terms of costs going up but this does not put us in a very good spot probably back here again next year >> correct >> doing the exact same thing >> correct um because some of the these changes are significant and so um so for instance like the best place we could be

079is if we have our 25% reserve but obviously coming in and saying we're going to find the 10.4 for loss plus another $12 million to get us to the reserve um is is a burden that I I feel and you probably feel the same too is too severe to put on our employees at and our members at once. So um so with the budget task force this is a significant portion of of deal of discussing how we're going to address this um and what will be the stepping process to get us back to where we need to be. So, but you are absolutely correct. This is just a break. This is this time next year, we will probably be, you know, having the exact same conversations, but hopefully the budget task force too will be

080engaged in those conversations as well, helping us develop a long range plan. >> Carrie, a couple of my questions, that was one of them also. Um, who how is the in network coverage determined for the Parkway plan? Is that something that United Healthcare decides or is that something that you know that they decide that or does the provider decide if they're going to be in that? >> I'm gonna phone a friend on that one. >> Yeah, you can come on up here, Deb. We have a subject matter expert about the very details because obvious try to be in network and if we're seeing too much out of network participation then that's an issue and how can we improve our in network participation. >> So my understanding I'm sorry good evening. My name is Deb Nolan.

081I'm the benefits coordinator. My understanding in conversations with United Healthcare is they have contracts with physicians, um, medical facilities, etc., and they negotiate a price that they're going to pay for services and those physicians and providers um kind of say yes, we'll go ahead and sign on with you. So then there's a list of those persons who are provided on the United Healthcare website. So our employees can log in and they can make a selection from that group. It's specialists, it's G GPS, there's a large group. So it's a contract that they have with those hospitals and the doctors. And we also, you know, one of our one of our best cost savings that we really encourage our employees to use is our clinics, our KETC clinics. They are they're there that um unless you're

082in the high deductible plan, there is there's no co-pay. Um and so we have negotiated prices with them um as well. And so we have a contract with them. And so they are a great tool and resource for our employees and their dependents as well. Um, Don, did you you said >> I had a thought too that might help with that question. Um, we are not a narrow network uh plan and that means that you can go to BHC, you can go to Mercy, you can go to SSM, you can go to any of those. We do not stop PE. We're not out of network for certain plans. I've been other places where it's a narrow network and you can't go to BJC because it's not covered. We are not like that. So out of

083network, I think it would be really hard to find an out of network person because we are very wide open and we should it should be way easier to find an in network person. >> Okay, great. That's that's most helpful. Couple of other questions and two more questions about did the benefits committee consider or might you consider a couple of other ideas? Was there any talk about evaluating United Healthcare as a provider as for health insurance as opposed to somebody else like Blue Cross Blue Shield, like whomever? Has that been in the equation to evaluate? It's always it's always an option, but um we we sign contracts and so we were very focused on plan year 26. And so since their contract would not be up for plan year 26, that's not something we engaged

084in for this conversation, but every single vendor when their contract comes up, that's something that we engage in. We actually do bidding with and so we make so we compare costs um through all the biders. So for instance, we just finished with our bidding for um for our vision. And so we are We took that to the committee as well. Um, so we're looking at different vision options and it was different vendors and we actually had a vendor who was going to provide us a better benefit um, at the same price and so that was something that you know the the board the benefit advisory committee voted for. >> Okay. And then my other question is has there been any discussion or the this whole idea of a tiered system >> and should there be

085conversation about a tiered system where more highly compensated individuals pay more >> for their healthcare then you know because right now it looks like regardless of how much money you earn per year you're paying the same dollar amount right as >> yes >> everybody's Right. >> Yes. So the committee this time around didn't discuss engage in that option but it is it is something I have had a discussion with our bro our insurance brokers MMA um to find out what what that would look like. Um I do know that it is legal and it is possible. Um I do know that it comes with other considerations. So for instance, administrative and software um has to be able to handle that because if you think about if you think about even just our two plans underneath

086one plan is four strings. And so how many how many tiers are you going to have? So you could explode this you could theoretically explode it to where you have over 30 different options that an employee that that our bene that our administrative team would be would be managing based on how we would break out the tiers. So there's a software aspect, there's administrative aspect. Um and then there's also just we would need to know if there's any impacts in our with our bargaining units or with retention. So I think it's um I think it's a an engaging idea that I think we should ask those questions because we're in a spot where no idea is a bad idea and we need to engage with those. Um but we just want to make sure we

087lift up every stone and make sure there's not um an undue consequence there that we weren't we weren't we weren't thinking about. So it's um so it's a good good thought and a good option and I really think that would be some a good option for um the task the b the budget task force to look into in us to to review and make sure we're not doing anything that we would regret in the long run >> and whether or not that should be something even phased in >> so that like current employees are grandfathered under the old rules if you will and then anybody moving forward would have to live >> get really complicated. Sounds like someone else. >> No, no. It's happened with other >> I think it's a great idea. >> Corporations

088where especially in higher education with tuition reimbursement. You know the at at some point they cannot afford to keep offering 100% free tuition for all employees whose kids want to go to our our college. But at some point that gets cut and it will only be after, you know, for new employees that are starting on this and such date. So everybody else still gets the old the old rule. So we're not >> hindering or hurting, if you will, >> our beautiful, wonderful people that are currently in place, but you know, but we still have our fiduciary responsibility to >> to look at all options and see what what the possibilities are. And it it may not even be drastic or dramatic. >> It could just be a little bit that helps a lot. So >>

089yeah, it's definitely it's a conversation that we should engage in because yeah, like I said, there's there's no idea that's a bad idea right now. Um and I know that's that's something that I said to the committee a lot like just keep coming up with ideas because if we haven't thought of it, maybe you have and we we want to engage in that. But with this particular one, we we also knew we were in a time crunch that like something to that level I think would require a little bit more study um study and research into and not something we would have been able to if we decided we wanted to do that implement it on January 1 or even be able to roll that out for open enrollment November 1st. >> Yeah, absolutely. >>

090I have one final question. So there were 23 voting members only 19 votes, >> correct? >> What happened there? >> Well, actually technically on that chart it was 19 votes. We had one that um sent in a vote because they were on a cruise and so they asked if they could send it in early. Um so we did not have 100% participation at that meeting um just because maybe schedules didn't allow but >> wasn't abstension. >> No, no, no. We had no one abstain. It was th this was the people who voted. Um we did send out the vote ahead of time to all the members. So then that way if they weren't able to attend um that they could send in their vote ahead of time and we had one member take us up

091on that. So, even though that chart said 19, it was actually technically 20 votes that we had. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Next up, uh is agenda item 15.02, technology and innovation program evaluation preliminary discussions. So, I'd like to invite Julian Ber, director of technology and innovation, and Eric Seagler, manager of technology service operations. >> Um, uh, good evening, President Todd, Vice President Ed Hopper, members of the board, Dr. Schneider, or Miss Stove. Uh, thank you for giving us time tonight um to speak about our comprehensive technology program evaluation uh for the school year. Um, some quick introductions. Uh, my name is Julian Ber. I'm the director of technology and innovation. And with me tonight, I have Eric Ziggler,

092our manager of technology service operation. Uh, the technology department plays a vital role in supporting our students and staff every single day, both inside and outside the classroom. uh we we closely work in collaboration with our curriculum department to ensure that we meet the future technology needs of all of our students while still aligning with the district mission and our strategic plan. So the last time uh we actually the technology department under Jason Brooks went through um a department evaluation was 10 years ago in 2015. Um, so obviously technology is a constant changing um thing both in our personal lives and obviously um here in our school district at Parkway. And so I kind of before we dig into um our program evaluation, I did want to kind of talk about a few things that

093have changed in these last 10 years because they're pretty significant. So in this last 10 years, we have launched a student onetoone program with Chromebooks and kindergarten through 12th grade where our students in 3 to 12th grade take the devices home and able to engage in digital learning and resources at home. We've increased our bandwidth 10 times from 2015 um to today. Um, so a lot more devices in our district every day. Um, on when we're in session, we have about 25,000 devices that connect on a daily basis. And so meeting those bandwidth requirements um both inside the classroom while also outside uh providing Wi-Fi accessibility in areas we didn't before, right? um outside of the buildings even uh we inter in installed new interactive flat panels um so kind of the ones you see

094out around here in all of our classrooms going away from um the older smartboards uh with projectors and then uh we implemented a lot of new applications and online resources um online textbooks things like that that our team uh makes sure that students have access to. And then we need to make sure that we're protecting our students online while allowing them to access the resources that are important um that they engage within the classroom um but shielding them from harmful content online. And then probably one of the biggest things um that our team does work on and keeps us up at night is protecting Parkway from cyber security threats um on a daily basis. uh bad actors are targeting K12 district both locally and um nationwide. Um so we make sure that um we stay

095safe. Um so tonight we're excited to share some key focus areas uh for our comprehensive program evaluation and now we'll hand it over to Eric Ziggler who will talk about those. >> Hi, I'm Eric Ziggler. I'm the manager of technology service operations for Parkway. And yeah, I'd like to go through and talk a little bit about what we're hoping to be able to include as part of our evaluation. Uh so we've identified four key focus areas um these four domains that we think are really critical to being able to have a really um robust learning environment for Parkway that uh really relies on um the digital technologies that we have in place. Uh and so I'm going to go through each of these in a little bit more detail and um and hopefully we can

096take a look to see if this really uh aligns with um what you all are hoping to be able to see um out of this evaluation. So first uh we want to talk about the uh technical support and service quality. Um you know a big part about what makes uh technology so important in schools is that it has become woven into the fabric of education. Um technology is no longer an afterthought. Um it's not just a computer lab anymore. It's in your pocket. It's in your backpack. It's every day. And so what we are really wanting to make sure we're doing from a technology perspective is ultimately trying to ensure that we're providing timely and reliable and customer-driven internal customer-driven service. Uh so these four subdomains um really look at a few things. First is

097making sure that and evaluating our service delivery model. Is this the most effective way? Do we have our teams organized in the most effective way to provide uh quick resolutions to issues that might come up? Um further uh are we are we structured in such a way that makes the most sense? Um are we able to better best utilize our resources or can we be doing that in any other any other way? Staffing, retention, um professional growth, these are all um challenges that I know that we've seen. We'd like to get some data around this. Um we we know that turnover can have an impact on um gaps in the learning environment and we want to make sure that we're trying to identify where are we at with this? Um what are we able to

098do to make sure that we are investing in our people and um being able to ensure that they continue to um uh pay it back into uh our work for our teachers and students. Um and then additionally uh talking about performance metrics um we have quite a bit of data that we're able to pull from from some of our existing systems. We'd like to see how are we performing? What's the uh time to resolution for the issues that we experience? Um are we moving quickly and and ultimately are we able to um ensure that we're um providing a good experience for those folks who are using technology every day. And that ties into the last point which is around uh customer satisfaction. Um so when we're looking at uh the work that we're doing, how

099we're supporting uh teachers and students, we want to make sure that we're ultimately we want to make sure we're delivering um a robust um effective again this customer centric service is a really important piece to ensuring that we're providing good support. Um so that's our first area that we'd like to be able to take a look at. The next domain is around the student computing experience. And like I mentioned, the role of technology in the classroom has evolved a lot over the years. Um, as Julian had mentioned a second ago, it's evolved a lot in just the last 10 years. Um, now that we are onetoone, we provide Chromebooks to every student. That means that there are quite a few other things that we have to factor in in terms of how that experience is

100working out for them. Um, and so we want to use this as an opportunity to find out are is our Wonder W program, these Chromebooks that we implemented about five years ago. Um, is this delivering? Is this uh is this being effective for for classroom learning? Um, are these devices reliable? Um, are they accessible? Um, are they uh innovative enough that they're uh capitalizing on really the the high expectations that we have for learning in the classroom? So, we want to take a look at that. Um we want to be able to um also look at uh components of again classroom integration. Uh what are the things that are are being most used on those devices? Um are we able to use that data to be able to make informed decisions in any sort of

101way? Uh that also ties into equity. Um equity and accessibility. We want to make sure that every student has uh equal access to the tools and resources that we provide. Ultimately, it's about um really trying to make sure that the everybody regardless of their background or ability can participate in the digital learning environment that Parkway offers. Uh that's a a big part of that. And I'll mention as it pertains to this program, this is something where uh the technology services department which works inside of operations is going to lean heavily on our partners at SSD to be able to make sure that we're getting the data we need and and identify if there are opportunities that we can be um trying to um um improve upon. Uh and then uh finally uh talking about specialized

102curricular areas um you know business um CTE with STEM courses, art, special education. These are all areas where technology ex exists in some capacity. We'd like to be able to review that and identify what we can be doing um to ensure that for one that that uh how it's being used but also then what we can be doing better in that space. Um we'll uh the technology services team again part of operations will um partner uh significantly with uh Dr. Beckner's team, Bill Bass um instructional technology to be able to uh identify and learn a little bit more about uh what opportunities we have in this space. Talking about technology infrastructure, um really this comes down to talking about the bones of our digital environment. Um what we're really wanting to look at is making

103sure for one talking about network reliability. Are our connections stable? Is it secure? Are we um do we feel like uh what is dem um the demands of the classroom and and operations in a district? Are we fulfilling that? Are um really trying to make sure that everything is fast, it's stable, it's available. Um data center uh network life cycle management. What that's referring to is really just making sure that our um looking at our hardware, uh looking at our data center where we have all the equipment that powers the district, making sure it's all uh running smoothly. Are there things that we need to be looking at with regard to replacements or planning, maintenance, upgrades? These are all things we want to factor in making sure that we have a roadmap for when that

104needs to happen. Future readiness. Um technology has evolved again significantly in the last 10 years in education. We need to make sure the network and all of our um capability is there to keep that moving forward. And then finally, uh core systems and services. We want to make sure that all of our main um essential systems are up to date, that they're running effectively, and that they're meeting the needs of the district. Uh and last certainly not least, is cyber security and data privacy. Um we're looking at a few of these subdomains. First of which being that um I think it's just worth an acknowledgement that as education over the last several years in particular has become more and more digital it also means that there has been more and more of a focus on

105the importance of cyber security in this space. So when we're looking at um a few of these areas first is just evaluating our effectiveness at being able to mitigate threats. So um looking at the tools and services that we have in place uh additionally uh really just our cyber security posture overall. What can we be doing better and what do we need to look at in terms of how we're doing right now? Um additionally we want to do an audit of our student data privacy process. This has been um something that has become a focus in K12 education a lot over the last several years. Um what are we doing to making sure that we're protecting student data confidentiality? Um are there any things that we can be doing better? Uh and then additionally just

106making sure that um the uh sorry user training awareness, incident response, essentially just making sure that we're prepared um for the future. We want to make sure our users, our teachers, our staff, and our students um all recognize and are able to recognize, hey, what is a fishing attack? Uh how can I make sure that I'm protected? Um that's uh something we want to try and get some data around. And then finally, just again making sure that we're prepared as we go forward. Uh so ultimately it just comes down to what can we be doing to really ensure the continuity of learning and operations of the district. Uh so those are the four areas that um we intend to review as part of um this program evaluation. I'll turn it back over to Julian here

107and we'll take you to the next part. All right. Um, so to kind of close this up, uh, for our program evaluation timeline, um, so we're here right now in August, um, doing the initial kickoff, initial board conversation with all of you. Um, sometime this fall, we'll be doing a board subcommittee, um, some from additional feedback and looking at some guided questions. And then we're going to be doing our work um getting all the data and looking at our recommendations and presenting our findings and recommendations uh back to you at a board meeting sometime in the spring of 26. And that is it. And we're um open to some feedback and questions if you have any. Well, first off, Julian and Eric, thank you so much for your very comprehensive uh outline of your intended

108work. Um, I just have one question and that is what stakeholder groups are you including in this work? Obviously students because you talked about student experience um and I presume possibly uh different staff. Um any other stakeholder groups? Um, I mean, we're really trying to get feedback and input from all of our, uh, community, right? So, uh, we're going to be working with, um, Nathan Tyson on doing some surveys and maybe some focus groups, but the classroom experience is definitely one of the like students is very important to us, but we also do want to get teachers and principles and operation staff like and our community. So, that could be parents. We're really trying to um kind of have a wide range of um everybody that's interfacing with us. Um as a technology department, we're

109really touching every piece of the district in one way or the other. Um so we kind of want to make sure that gets reflected as a department overall. >> I was glad to hear you mention parents because I know there's a good chunk of parents that are dealing with the Chromebook at home issues questions. I have a question. Um, in the past we've talked about the idea of doing some kind of off out of district data system that could serve as backup for in case there's any kind of disaster that occurs here. Um, is that going to be part of your evaluation at all or might that be covered under your incident response? Yeah. So that would be part of the incident response plan. >> Yelcome forward to hear from you next. >> Thank you.

110>> Okay. Last work session item of the evening is special assignment program evaluation. Just a preliminary discussion. And I'll tell you, it's one one item I forgot to mention in my uh board report is we Dr. Mat and his team did have a uh over the summer uh student services subcommittee meeting where we talked about this. So yet another department that was hard at work this summer. >> Right on. Yes, we did. And thank you for that. It was a great time and I appreciated the feedback. So, uh Mr. Todd, uh Vice President Hopper, uh esteemed board members, Dr. Schneider and uh Mrs. Stove, thank you for having me today and have this opportunity to speak about special assignments. And Mr. Todd, thank you for the warm welcome and and yes, the the subcommittee meeting

111that we had prior to today. So, some of the information I'm going to go over was already reviewed by our student services uh board subcommittee. Um, and so just an opportunity today to talk about the targeted review that will be coming up this fall and just to get your feedback and what questions that you may have for us and as we get into this work um coming forward. So, as you know in our district, thank you. Um, wrong wrong direction on the button. That was they told me to be quick. So, uh, there you go. Yes. Uh, and and now we're done. Uh some expected outcomes of our targeted review is to identify the areas for improvement within special assignment framework. Uh to ensure alignment with district policy and the value of community and neighborhood

112schools, to establish transparent and consistent procedures, and to provide the board of education with actionable recommendations for policy and practice ad adjustments by December of 2025. So just some history um is we have special assignments that goes along with our board policy of JCB.AP2 and we allow special assignments first. We also have a policy in the district that talks about that we believe in the community school, the neighborhood school of which our students reside and making sure that that is the primary place where we want our students to to go to school within the Parkway footprint. And we also understand and recognize that there may be some times of which our students may need a different placement within the district. And so we also have the policy JCB.AP2. And with that then the parents could

113request within the school district to have their children go to another school within Parkway um with that. And so there are some specific things that come to to to mind in this one. One one case could be the social emotional or phys physiological or physical needs of the student could be a request that could be made for a family that leaves Parkway uh school for another Parkway school and they want to finish the year or maybe finish the next couple years. It may be a third grader going into fourth grade. They don't want to upset the friendships and the social emotional needs of that student and they're moving from one school to the next or it's a seventh grader going into eighth grade. We would we would they would request a special assignment to be

114able to stay in that school and then maybe transition from 8th grade to 9th grade, move into their their local high school that their that footprint would be in. It could be before after school care uh potentially to where especially at the elementary schools where a family is living in one elementary school area within our district but yet the the child care provider is in another part of the district on their way to work. and that just makes it easier and that that maybe that childcare provider can get them on a bus and get them to school or maybe they have transportation from that child care to that school as well. Those top three are really the top three that that we see the most request uh come through and that comes through my office.

115The request the way it works is that the the the homeschool principal gets a form sent to them electronically from the parent request. They read it. They either say yes, it meets one of the requirements as listed here per this policy. It then goes to the receiving school. That receiving school then says yes or no, that building principal. Then it comes to me as a final person to read through it and say yes or no that we do this. And anyone on special assignment or anyone that requests special assignment, I read all of those and have to approve or deny each one every single year. So it's quite a process uh that we go through. Another request could come for specific programming. So, if there's a school that offers a specific program that another school

116doesn't have, that might be a request that we would want to consider. Um, and then this number five, this would be through a uh the discipline review committee um DRC. Potentially there may be a major discipline issue to where that student may not be allowed to come back to that school and we would have them go to a potentially a different school within Parkway uh for the remainder of their their schooling. And then there's some times where there's some severe family problems such as divorce or separation of which we need to consider um the student being in a different school. Uh special assignment then the note on the far bottom right is not automatically approved there. Some of these were where students may fit multiple criterias. Um and we want to work with the families

117to have the best outcome. But we also are finding that there are times in which uh maybe these um maybe people are know how they write this and so that they can maybe school shop, maybe they're trying to figure out where their kids could go so their friends are going to school with a couple of their friends, maybe it's sports related. There's other things that are starting to bubble up and we're seeing some patterns that are happening where certain schools are losing more kids and some schools are gaining more kids. some of our some of our classrooms are getting a little bit more crowded and there's certain areas of which we are saying no more special assignments are allowed due to class size. I'm going to show you that here in a minute. Now the

118board also um in July of 2020 in the middle of COVID we realized that we because of a lot of considerations and I came to the board with this proposal in this addition of having non-resident staff allowing our non-resident staff to bring full-time staff whether it's Parkway or SSD full-time staff allowing their staff their students to come to Parkway and that's been wellreceived and it's and it's really been a very nice benefit to be able to have um those. So here's the here's the the language of that and this would also be under this review and this targeted review also. Um we also if schools are closed to special assignment for residents residents it's also closed for special assignment for our staff as well. It is it is the same for both. Just wanted to

119make that clear because sometimes I get the call and saying well but I work here but if you're at West Middle and it's closed as special assignment for our community it is also closed for special assignment for non-resident staff as well. So schools that are not accepting currently special assignments, Bel Reeve, Craig, Claymont, Henry, High Croft, Mason Ridge, Shannondoa, and West Middle. If you look at this list, mainly those are the ones that are closed because of West Middle's overcrowding and the shifting that we had to do with boundary changes with Piermont. And so as those numbers are starting to look and change, maybe it's time in this targeted review to come to the board and say maybe there's some things that we might be able to open up some areas of of allowing more

120special assignments and enrollment. We also see here potentially um other areas where we we had to do recently some shifting and some minor adjustments with Craig Elementary and some other areas that that we've had around that with special assignment. people could send their kids to Highcoft or Mason potentially, but then they would have to commit that their kids would go to Central Middle because West Middle's closed because that's those are schools that are um that that are split, right? So, so these things are all complications in different parts of which um creates some division and some consternation of families saying, well, why can't I go here and I want them to go here and we do have some significant or maybe they have child care in that area, but we have to say no because

121those areas are closed. Again, in this target review, I want to be able to encompass all of these ideas and these these things. The timeline of this review is in August through November. It's a tight timeline because we typically start to receive our processes in January and February renewals so that we can get the best numbers to HR as we figure out staffing in February and March of the ones that are going to be renewed that we know which students are wanting to continue their special assignments and renew those. so that we have the proper staffing for the upcoming fall. And then in March and April and May, we start to get new requests in. So we if there's going to be recommendations and some changes or some phase in of a couple of changes

122maybe over the next couple years, we want to have that by December so I can send a memo to the board in December of what those recommended changes would be and what that phase those phases could look like in in the stakeholder focus groups. uh first and foremost is getting the opinion of those principles that are in the trenches in this daily um asking and getting the questions from the principles um and and I'm going to go through some of those questions and feedback and doing focus groups with Dr. Nathan Tyson to gather those that feedback. We also want to survey some of our families who are benefiting from special assignment that have had those requests. What are they seeing? Why is this so beneficial for their kids? because I want their feedback to know

123what are they choosing and why are they choosing that and what are they seeing within their children because I think hearing from our parents and and and seeing that I think is essential and very beneficial. So those are the two areas that we want to hear from um in this in this in this part. We're also going to look at the data. I think the data of how many students are moving, where they're moving from, which schools are moving from, the demographics of our students that are moving and the reasons and rationale why they are moving uh from those schools and into other schools and really digging into that data set as well. The questions and in the in the o overarching pieces that we think we want to look at and this where your

124input would be very valuable and I shared this with our subcommittee is one is we want to understand the policy's impact. What are the benefits of our current special assignment policy for students and families and schools? So what are the current benefits? We also want to know what are the current challenges. So what are the challenges or drawbacks of our current special assignment policy for students families? So what are the benefits? What are the challenges? Very simple. Next thing we want to look at is balancing access and enrollment. So we had two questions, Mr. Todd, uh when I went through the subcommittee, but I added two more that I think are very vital in this. uh how can we reduce obstacles to special assignment to have more students can participate and benefit because I do

125think we have to look at this is there an access issue for some families that that may not have the opportunity or know that this is an opportunity for them. On the flip side of this we also want to look at the reverse of this. To what extent should we potentially limit special assignments to maintain enrollments of the assigned schools? Because remember we have a policy that says we believe in the community school in the residential school that there's kids that of which they live in. And then I think this next qu two questions get to to some of our equity pieces. Who are the primary beneficiaries of special assignment? And that that may be the students, the families, could be the schools that are receiving, the schools that may be um shifting and changing.

126What are those demographics? What does that look like? What are the programs that they can have offer and maybe the programs they can't offer because of of large shifts of change in enrollments? Right? So, but also what are the primary challenges created by the use of special assignments and for whom? Also addressing specific needs and varying information. If a family requests a special assignment based on specific needs, should there be required documentation or proof? I receive hundreds of a request, hundreds, about 500 or so. I can give you that exact number. And we approve several hundred per year. Most of them are renewals. Um, and many of those, you read the comments, you hear that the principles know the situations. In many cases, some cases they don't. And but some cases I have to say

127yes I need I need more documentation or more information. Do we need to do that for all students? Do we need to do that for some? Where's where where is that line? So that's what this question is is getting after the next one is if proof is required what would be the most effective and effective and equitable way to collect and review that information and what types of proof would be acceptable? And then policy for non-resident staff. Are there any aspects of our policy or practices regarding non-resident staff members, children attending Parkway that needs to be review or revised? We've had this now for five years. How many students are we talking about? Are there any are there any fiscal uh uh pieces to this? How is that going? Reaching out to those families that

128are are impacted and and how how are they feeling about that? and getting some feedback from them uh regarding the non-resident uh staff members and and their um and and their feelings around um having their children in Parkway as well. So, those are the questions, those are the themes that we're going to want to to to gather information from different stake stakeholders within the district. Um and then from here in December, once I gather that, take a look at the data, review that data, working with Dr. Nathan Tyson as well. I will have a a very um detailed synopsis of where we are as well as uh the information that we learned with some recommendations. And I would say this more than likely a multi-year um plan to move forward with any questions. >> Uh

129yes. So first of all, I really appreciate that you're doing this. This is something that John and I are both North Area's graduates and I think disproportionately this anecdotally but disproportionately this is a North area issue that I've heard highlighted by various people in the district who I've talked to. Um you touched on the equity part of it. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't already know but you know as I've talked to different people in the north area. I know that you know one of the qual one of the uh uh criteria of the four was request to participate in a specific program that is not offered in the home school and I just know from having talked to administrators and teachers that North has a lot of students that leave sometimes

130for different reasons and sometimes for that reason but it's also self-perpetuating you know if there's a program that's not offered in a specific school so kids leave that school to go somewhere else it's never going to get offered there so I guess what I'm getting at is as we go through this to really really get into the weeds with where the kids are leaving from, where they're going, and how we can mitigate that as an issue and keep the equity component of this, you know, front of mind because, like I said, I think this disproportionately affects that part of the district to its detrime bit, >> right? Absolutely. And when we get into the data, I think we'll see some of those pieces and and dig a little bit further into that. And that's where

131some of the questions that we have on this slide, I think will be able to help us uh reveal some of that information as well. And I think it does also talk about what does a comprehensive school look like and and and the offerings that we have and when you have a disproportionate number of students moving from one school to the next, what you can offer and what you should offer uh does have an impact. I'm also hoping that um your process will capture situations like for students that have to have a wheelchair or have some mobility issues because there are >> instances where students can't go to their home school because it's not ADA compliant school. >> Thank you for bringing that up. That is a a separate process outside of special assignment. We

132have an admin placement process and then we also have our process of placement for students with IEP specifically based upon um what their specific needs are and if our schools are not ADA compliant uh due to the age of the school or what the transportation needs are for that student or their their their needs within the school um those would be dealt with separately for the individual student. Yes. So that's a whole different process from special assignment. >> That's right. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> And to follow up on my previous comment, I was sort of thinking of this as we're talking and um I don't know how this uh relates to each other, but it does feel like this and the facilities 2050 might be something to be considered together.

133Just how these numbers impact, you know, our the next couple decades of how we uh you know, are planning buildings and whatnot. And just to give you one more thing to think about and do, >> I draw the line including Dr. >> That sounds like Jason just joined our team. Nathan, would you write that down? >> Just for clarity, can you share how we handle transportation special assignments? >> Thank you for asking that question. Uh transportation is provided by the parent. >> So we do not provide transportation on special assignments on this type of special assignment request. So any family that that would want to ask for this they would have to provide their own transportation. >> Uh anecdotally have we seen a decrease in the number of the out of district u employees bringing

134their students uh since 2020 given you know few people are getting back into the office and things like that. I have not seen a decrease in that, but I could get you more solid numbers and I can make sure that that's in my report. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you for your feedback. >> All right. Uh we have no further items on our agenda. So may have a motion, a second to adjourn the regular meeting. >> So move second. All >> in favor 6. Thank you all for attending.