001welcome to a virtual board meeting which we haven't had in some time but uh appreciate everyone's uh attendance and viewing uh apologize for being a few minutes late we're dealing with some technical difficulties but uh we think we got those resolved so we'll go ahead and start the meeting uh if you would join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay I will call R Mrs Hopper here miss Matt Franklin Mr REI here Mr Schindler here Mr Seltzer here Mr Spectre here and Mr Todd I'm here may have a motion in a second that the Board of Education enter into a closed session on February
00219th 2025 following the regular meeting um originally scheduled for the parkway welcome center and now uh on Virtual but uh for the purpose of considering one legal actions causes of action or litigation involving the district in any confidential or privileged communication between the district or its representatives and its attorneys 610.021 do1 two hiring firing disciplining or promoting of particular employees by the district when personal information about the employee is discussed or recorded 610.021 3 three preparation including any discussions or work product on behalf of a public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups 610.021 n and four individually identifiable Personnel records performance ratings or records pertaining to employees or applicants for employment 610.021 one3 so m second that and then I will call rooll for this Mrs Hopper yes Mr REI yes
003Mr Schindler yes Mr Seltzer yes Mr Spectre yes and Mr Todd yes motion carries 60 again this closed session will take Place following the regular meeting uh so now we will uh proceed with our regular meeting agenda um first on that list is special recognitions and unfortunately uh being virtual we have postponed the recognition of all state music uh students uh until we are back in person so we look forward to recognizing those students at our next regular scheduled board meeting um next up is 7.0 additions Corrections Andor modific ations to the agenda they include 7.01 addendum to agenda item 11.10 approval of personnel items and 7.02 agenda item 11.17 approval of Northeast Middle School pre purchase of eight air handling units have been pulled from the agenda next up uh is public comments uh
004it's during this time that we provide at each meeting for citizen comments in an effort to maintain an open Earth respectful dialogue with our community the public comment session is not the appropriate forum for addressing individually identifiable student Andor 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 be mindful that the meetings of the board including your statements are broadcast and that you are responsible for any public comments you make in Lee of a public statement you may choose to submit your comments to the board in
005writing also due to the time constraints and the need to complete the primary responsibilities of our meeting agenda we cannot respond during the meeting so you will receive a response from us in writing we're 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 paraga website uh tonight I believe we have uh four we originally had six uh speakers uh two of them have uh have removed their names from the list so uh we have the uh the following four people uh CC bayans meline legler Michelle hoopt and k westrich um so I will uh I will have Sam welcome you into uh the room or the meeting um once you have uh entered the meeting please uh reintroduce yourself
006and share with us your affiliation uh with Parkway and then when you're finished uh please exit the meeting and then you are welcome to rejoin the live stream available to the public so um again we will begin with CC bayans Sam just letting you know we cannot hear you I know you're trying to say something Jeff judging by the attendees in our Zoom I believe she's not on so if you want to go to the next one I think that's what Sam might have been trying to say okay uh next one is meline legler hello can you hear me uh yes is this meline yeah this is meline hi um hi uh good evening members of the board and superintendent Marty um I first off wanted to thank thank you for your continued uh dedication
007to our students and for your hard work um especially in these challenging times I am meline legler and I am a mom of Parkway students two have graduated and one is still at West I'm here tonight to express my concern regarding the potential impact of recent executive orders on our history curriculum I've been consistently pleased with Parkway School District's commitment to providing comprehensive and balanced historical education it is vital that our students learn the full spectrum of our nation's past the triumphs and the failures the inspiring moments and the difficult truths this isn't about assigning blame or shame it's about equipping our children with the critical thinking skills necessary to navigate a complex world I understand and respect the need to comply with state and federal laws however I believe that we must find Creative
008Solutions that allow us to maintain the Integrity of our history education we cannot allow fear to dictate our curriculum Banning books or erasing challenging topics does a disservice to our students denying them the opportunity to learn from the past and build a better future I urge the board to work collaboratively with teachers parents and community members to develop strategies that ensure we uphold the law while preserving the essential content of our history curriculum let's find a way to teach history that respects the legal requirements while continuing to Foster critical thinking and a deep understanding of our past again uh thank you for your service I recognize the difficult position you are in um but I hope that by working together we can find a path forward and I was also hoping to ask two quick
009questions um one is are there any plans to change curriculum or band books and the second question is have you noticed any shifts in our community's culture such as what happened in Rockwood okay thank you very much uh next up um I will go back uh Sam and ask if CC bayans uh was able to join no not at this time okay all right so next up uh we will go to Michelle H let see her online Michelle are you with us I am okay go right ahead you have uh you have the floor thank you thank you to the school board members and Dr Marty who allotted time for parents to speak my name is Michelle hopt and I'm a Parkway parent for nine years and I'm also a Parkway kindergarten teacher tonight I'm
010speaking to address changes that need to be made within the fourth grade classes at sento Springs Elementary I can only speak for myself and numerous other F but I can't speak for other numerous families who have had challenges this year this year the fourth grade classes went from three sections to two which we did not know about until open house the students were put into classes of 24 and 25 students we spoke to the principal about our concerns with the class sizes we were informed that they were at or under the cap so no additional support could be added we were told that the situation would be monitored but there has been no improvement in fact one of the two SE one of the two fourth grade teachers resigned just two weeks ago which only
011magnifies the a challenge to give you a students perspective our son describes the environment as chaotic loud filled with constant interruptions in extreme behavior and a lack of personal space this is not an environment that is SE successful for learning after winter break resumed our St Sons started to experience migraines and stomach pains after multiple doctor visits it was determined that these were physical symptoms that were caused by anxiety this anxiety was directly related to School in the classroom environment it's become so severe that he's missed multiple days of school and the thought of school leads him to have anxiety attacks with the help of doctors and School staff he's been able to get back into school on a regular basis but this is not sustainable for him or our family our son used to
012love to go to school and that is not the case anymore I am begging you to visit the fourth grade classrooms at sarento Springs we need your support for this school year and next school year smaller class sizes despite those class guidelines we have received little to no support for our children and we want changes I know if your children were in this classroom you would want to do the same thing our family and many others cannot continue at serrento Springs without changes thank you for allowing me to speak and listening to our concerns okay thank you very much uh next up is K westrich hi can you can you hear me okay yes we can go right Parkway board members and Community my name is Kay westrich and I have a daughter in seventh
013grade at Southwest Middle and twin boys that are in fourth grade at sarento Springs I would like to ask the board for assistance in working with Parkway School District HR department to evaluate further the need for a fulltime teachers age strictly assigned to fourth grade as well as a third teacher for fifth grade in the fall of 2025 the current class size at sento in each fourth grade class is 24 kids and while that's within Parkway standard for class size it doesn't provide a calm conducive learning environment for this particular group of kids that includes my twin boys as school started in the fall of 2024 the parents finally learned the larger class size up until this point there were always three classes with each class having less than 17 kids since kindergarten for this
014particular group of kids at that time I emailed Parkway School District HR to find out how this decision was made going from three classes down to two and expressed my frustration that the parents were not given sufficient notice to easily make other arrangements if we felt this was not the best fit for our child I asked over and over again in my emails if anyone specifically considered this particular group of kids and their needs when making this decision I've yet to receive an answer to that question I felt I was given the runaround email after email and I was finally left with the only option of meeting with the new principal of sarento in her defense she was new and obviously didn't know the needs of these particular kids in this meeting my husband and
015I along with another parent questioned how sarento can tout itself as a personalized learning environment with this large class size we question the ability for a teacher to effectively spend one-on-one time with 24 kids on a daily basis let alone this particular group of kids and their related issues I won't discuss these kids issues but their individual learning need should have been evaluated and reviewed when considering this particular class size for this grade level now in February halfway through the year one of the fourth grade teachers has resigned last week on day two with an experienced substitute my saw my son saw the substitute leave the room in tears presum presumably due to the chaos and disruptive environment in the classroom no teacher nor student should have to experience that while I appreciate the staff's
016efforts at sarento to implement strategies to create a calmer environment I implore you to help these kids as they deserve a better opportunity to learn I ask that Parkway make an exception for this particular group of kids to have the very least a teacher's aid for the remainder of fourth grade in addition to a third full-time teacher forth fifth grade thank you thank you okay next up uh we uh once again we appreciate your comments and uh each of you will receive a response from the board um in the uh near future here um next up U the approval of our agenda may I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda for the regular meeting of the board of education is scheduled for February 19th 2025 so moveed second all in favor
017I any opposed motion carries 6 z uh the next Cal next regular board meeting will take place on Wednesday March 12th 2025 beginning at 7M at the Parkway Welcome Center board candidate filing is next on the agenda and four candidates have filed for the two open positions on the parkway Board of education the candidates in order of filing and as their names will appear in the ballot are Jeffrey Spectre Mia Robinson John kilper and Ally secot the election is Tuesday April 8th 2025 the terms of Robert Reedy and Jeffrey Spectre expire in April of 2025 a board of education candidate Forum will be hosted by the League of Women Voters on March 11th from 7 to 900m at the Parkway Welcome Center uh next up we have uh board and superintendent reports start us off
018mat I'm gonna pass this is too much of a flashback for covid for me right now so I'm not gonna say anything uh well I I I appreciate that this is my first virtual board meeting as I wasn't on yet but um few it's been a busy month um many of us were at state of the district and got to to meet Dr Schneider um it was it was a great evening she did an absolutely wonderful job with the students asking her various questions and being visible and really meeting the community and I I thank everyone who was able to make it um we had a pnaa Communications lab that we attended where we got to meet with all of the uh members of the ne pnaa and talk over some issues um I was
019able to go to the fourth one of the fourth grade strings concerts and had uh had a wonderful uh concert there it's always good to see I was there as a parent last year uh always a great concert and last um as a parent I went to Green Trails passport night uh which is our Multicultural night I know Kevin had talked about him uh he went uh last month and I got to go this month and it's always a great event one of my favorites at Green Trails uh different tables hosting different countries uh and really getting to know uh learn a lot about the countries and eating some delicious food at the same time so Rob I think you're next thanks Jeff um yeah you know looking forward to attending a handful of things
020this month um and the uh appreciate uh that it's Black History Month and take a moment to observe and honor all the diversity throughout our district um both students and staff also looking forward to attending the spirit of Excellence which I believe is next week I'm excited to see that so just uh those are my remarks je Kevin uh so I've been on the school board now I think about seven years and making this about my 90th meeting and Matt I just learned something I didn't know we could pass on this H and so while I kind of echo your sentiments of having kind of flashbacks here uh I guess I'll give it a go and just Echo all the stuff Jeff Spectre said I also attend all those you know I sort of echo
021his sentiments um but I also want to kind of highlight one other thing which is you know this what is it about two months of 2025 has been kind of unprecedented in my experience with Parkway as far as uh just the weather complicating everything and you know we've certainly made some missteps along the way but I also think we you know kind of figured things out on the fly in ways that I'm kind of happy with so yeah I think we can as a district learn from some of the things we've experience but also kind of applaud some of the way we've responded you know this meeting uh being an example of that of you know kind of trying to sometimes play the hand your ad so um you know like I said we we
022there's some things we can learn from but also some things we can be proud of about 20125 and how we've handled a very bizarre weather situation okay thank you Debbie well unfortunately between the weather and getting the flu I have uh had to pass on a lot of meetings or things have been rescheduled I did make it though to the state of the district address which I was most impressed with I was so proud of our staff um who put this on and uh recognize the people Kevin Beckner Tiffany both has Tiffany Holman Bess who um pretty much lead that event uh and then having the student invol M was so impressive um I was very proud of parkway at that time so um you know I I agree with the complications of WEA um
023this two shall pass and we'll uh learn and live and um you know get through it so here we are and happy that we can be together tonight to uh keep on with the parkway business at hand thank you uh and from my uh chair I will just uh again Echo the sentiments uh Jeffrey made um great great events that we've participated in uh as a group um and then uh individually I I've been able to to visit a couple of different schools um I was last month I was at Ross Elementary they had a day called friends at the door where uh a bunch of us showed up uh early in the morning and welcomed kids to school on that day and just it was just a random weekday morning but uh it was
024it was great seeing a lot of smiles and and kids were surprised to be cheered uh on coming into the do as of school so that was fun um and then um uh just uh a week or two ago I I helped celebrate International read aloud day uh and I was invited to come speak at uh at three of the uh kindergarten classes at Henry Elementary so the kids in Mrs terranova's class Mrs gantner's class and Mrs kelcher's class uh were just one a wonderful audiences uh and they they asked great questions and we had a great time uh talking about the reading to them and then talking about the book that uh I got to read so that was a lot of fun um then uh just a couple of weeks ago while Dr
025Schneider was here uh that week for state of the district we also were had the opportunity to introduce her to uh the our local Mayors and City administrators uh Who We Gather with a couple of times a year and had great conversation with them about what's going on in their municipalities and and sharing what's going on in Parkway with them um and again they got to got an opportunity to meet Dr Schneider and uh and we had some great uh conversations so um and then um Rob didn't mention this but on the 12th of February he and I participated in the student services subcommittee meeting uh where we talked a lot reviewed the policies uh around wellness and character development we'll talk about them a little bit uh here in a few minutes um as
026part of policy review but uh that's uh that's kind of it and nutshell for me so I will turn it over to Keith yes thanks everybody um obviously the weather has been a challenge to us I I'm not sure what um Mr Mr uh suelter met with missteps I think we've been just dealt a different Challenge and we've done the best we could we uh obviously had to make some decisions uh just even the other day on an a late in which actually turned out pretty well I think our tenance was down a bit but uh we had a good um a good day of instruction uh we certainly uh have to continually watch our you know how many hours of instruction we have with AMI and then how many days we have we have
027no days left in terms of traditional snow days so um we certainly hope that the rest of the winter will give us a bit of a break we probably have three weeks or so three or you know to get us a spring break and then hopefully we'll we may be Beyond it but I just want to thank our community for their uh patience and support um I know we've had you know people are very very concerned about safety and we are too but I um you know I think we have responsibility to get the students in school if possible uh as long as our buses are running as long as our schools are warm um and we can get students in uh but appreciate the the patience of support of our staff too who have
028had to be challenged in in classroom and going virtual is not easy we had a of course a uh an AM Ami a virtual day today and uh so we're hopefully uh it's going to be a cold day tomorrow but hopefully we're going to get into uh more predictable weeks here it's been these interruptions certainly are are are disruptive to instruction and learning um I too uh was very very proud of our staff and Dr Schneider in the state of Parkway um it was a great night and um we'll see the future of that event it seems like it's it's a regular event now so I'm very very proud of um of us continuing that and sharing with our community and get the response we are from our community U the um the teachers of
029the year will be honored next month at our March board meeting and of course again at the Appreciation Night later so that'll be a a very special uh event at our March meeting always is very traditional very nice we did have a North High School I want to mention um couple week weeks ago had a science night a carish sh a science teacher in their academy uh planted and she had 40 stations and I know um Mr Seltzer was there for sure I'm trying to think was there another board member um but I I know that uh we spent some time together but it was really a nice night for for families and people take advantage of U of understanding in more depth The Sciences and some of the careers in science stemfest is Saturday
030um at Southwest Middle always a great event from 10: to 2 we got musicals at Central High and North High this week uh Rob mentioned Spirit of Excellence next Tuesday so hopefully the weather won't interfere with any of these and we can maintain that we do um unfortunately could not have the student advisory meeting tonight we'll try to reschedule that because we want to maintain and hear the voices of students uh besides the uh fourth grade uh strings we did have u a a one of our U musical groups our orchest at Central High performed at this the Missouri state music conference uh the last week of January Tim McCarthy and I went down Alicia bont is the orchestra director the kids always do a great job and very very uh great job and a
031lot of positive comments back so um and then besides all that we're watching the legislature and some of the bills going through the legislature and of course this week we have the opportunity to sit down with our legislators on Friday morning and hopefully talk about some of the bills and some of the things that are impacting that education with that Jeff thanks much thank you uh next up on the agenda is our consent agenda we have had an opportunity to review that uh so at this time may have a motion to approve the consent agenda is presented the February 19th board meeting materials so move second okay thank you uh is there anything to be pulled to action or closed okay hearing none all in favor I I I any opposed I I'm sorry Debbie
032were you you voting in favor of approving yeah yes I okay all right all right any oppose any extensions all right motion carries 60 uh we have no action items tonight however we do have a policy review uh which I alluded to before uh that includes 13.01 policy abf.com have specific questions about either of these policies okay uh I'm hearing no questions so these policies will be up for approval at the next regular board meeting uh again if there are additional questions we we certainly can get them answered but uh we'll have these up for approval next month uh at this time uh we have no reports we have no work session we have no special meeting so at this time the Board of Education will adjourn our to our closed meeting so thank you
033all very much for watching and uh we will see you again soon hopefully in person next time thank you all right we are clear okay