001Wrong. Sorry. Just call to order. I'm looking on the wrong meeting. All right. All right. So, calling this open session to order. We had the pledge of allegiance. No student volunteer this evening. So, we're on our own. Okay, we need a motion to approve the o open session agenda for July 17th as presented. >> Motion >> second. >> We have a motion and second. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. We have no public comment this evening. Nobody signed up, so we will move right on to district comments. >> Okay, quick update on the Reach Samuelson centers. Uh they are both on schedule to open um on time. Reach is set to be turned over November 7thish, I think, is right around that date. Is that the exact date? Uh we
002had a chance to tour that earlier this month and and the facility is going to be state-of-the-art. It's an outstanding facility for those students. It's going to meet all the needs that they need and it's going to be able to expand and hold the growth of the district and and hopefully allow us to educate our students in our own school district. So, we're excited about Reach. Samuelson also is coming along great. Um it's going to be an outstanding opportunity to expand that early childhood education. Again, an incredibly nice facility that'll house plenty of our early early childhood students moving forward. So, those are exciting projects. uh both on time right now and both still under budget. Um other facility updates, Holt sewer project. So we did two phases of plumbing at Holt, the two most
003critical needs. That does not address all the needs that are there from plumbing standpoint, but those are the two urgent needs. The structural work has been done. The finish work is now going on. Um Timberland HVAC is this phase of the summer stuff is close to done. It's ahead of schedule as well by about a week. uh important items are going to be completed in time to resume classes. There will be work that's still going on throughout the school year, but it should have a minimal impact on any type of the learning environment. Most of that's going to be they'll move the classrooms that are needed when they're working on it during that day. Uh Boon Trail HVAC is also ahead of schedule. The additional upgrades that we had slated last year uh and put
004in the budget for this this past summer, including lighting and upgrades, paint, new paint. Uh the building envelope was completely completely sealed and the intercom is now working. If you guys recall when we've talked about that before there the building was built without an intercom. So that is now done as well. West Middle or West Middle, sorry, Wentzville Middle and Heritage Elementary, the tuck pointing and ceiling began last week. Uh it will also be done prior to the start of the school year. Uh and we are still looking as we are starting the project for uh our facility needs. Um, and Honer was awarded that and they're they're going through that part of the project right now and working with us to start. Uh, we'll have updates as we go and move forward on what
005the next projects we're looking at and what the summer upgrade is going to look like as well. School supplies. You can find school supply lists and I know students were it's a little early, but we're getting awful close. It's almost August now, so sorry guys. Uh, you'll find school supply lists on the website under academics. uh school supply list for anyone who wants to start that early shopping. Also, I want to remind everybody we have our annual back to school fair Saturday, August 9th from 8 to 11 at Liberty High School. Stay tuned. We'll be sending out more information on that. If you haven't noticed, we have a new website that's up and running. The link is right there on the slide. It's winsville.k12.mmo. us. Uh please be patient with us as Google is still
006trying to catch up. It will if you search it, it will kick you to the old website. Unfortunately, that's just the way it works. So, eventually it'll kind of catch up, but we're we're trying to get that information out there. It's windsville.k12.mmo. us. Registration forms, again, a sign that's summer is closing, slowly closing or slowly ending. Annual registration forms open in focus on July 28th. Teachers and schedule information will be posted on August 1. Now, an important part of that, if you want to see your schedule or know who your teacher is, your forms must be completed in order to get that. So, if you want to see it August 1st, you got to complete the forms as soon as you can. If you don't get it done by August 1st, as soon as you
007complete them, you'll be able to see your schedule or your teacher. And that's all I have. So, let's keep going. >> Thank you very much. All right, moving to consent agenda. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Motion second. >> We have a motion and second. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Number 11, old business. We need a motion to approve the reision revisions to policies 1300, 1301, and 6260 as presented. Motion >> second. >> Any discussion? All right, we'll go ahead and vote. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, number 12. And new business. We had pulled the approval of the student and staff acceptable use policies. Um we that had been in consent for approval. So, we need
008a motion to approve the student and staff acceptable use policy. >> Motion. >> Second. >> And Renee, I believe you have pulled this. >> Yeah, I did get my um questions answered. Um did you still have questions, David? >> Well, the only thing I'm really curious about, and you know how my memory is. I mean, I don't remember doing this last year. I mean, how this looks like a lot of partic per uh specific couldn't think of the word specific information for parents and students. How do they get a hold of this and is this going to in any way be new to them? >> No. So, this has always been given in the board. Um, we haven't always brought it to the board or it hadn't always been brought to the board before that.
009So in this case, this was just us making the board aware of here's what the staff and the student acceptable use policies look like or the procedures look like. So it was reallyformational for the board more than anything else. It is not anything new. Students and staff both have been given these for a long time for acceptable use. So >> just I think some of the language was just um cleaned up. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> And this is a law, correct? All right. parts of it are law. Not all parts of it, but yeah, a lot of it is law related to. >> Any other discussion? Okay, >> we have a motion in a second. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. All right, 12.2. We need a motion
010to approve the CIP as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. And we any any discussion? >> Probably. >> I do want to talk about it. I apologize. I was distracted. I have a son who's going to play in a district playoff game for baseball and I just got an update. So, I I apologize ahead of time. Um, we're excited to share the SIP updates. Our why in the WSD is summed up perfectly by our mission statement. champion excellence in education, creating a student- centered community where all are empowered to thrive and grow. And that really truly is the focus of what this entire CIP was. Um to that end, we created our vision, identified the three strategic priorities, which are academic excellence, belonging, and resources. And so I'm I asked each some of the cabinet members
011to come in and talk about specific areas that they oversee and they work with. Um I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Brett Schneider now. She's going to give an update on the goals centered around academic excellence. It is important to know though that some of these goals we don't have the data yet. The state hasn't released like testing data and stuff like that. So this will come back with that data as soon as it's officially released. So this is really the data that we have right now that she's going to be talking about. >> All right, we'll go ahead and jump in. Um in the area of academic excellence, we focused on four goals. um attendance and engagement, curriculum and evidence-based practices, achievement and growth, and college and career ready. Um we worked
012with our buildings this past year to write goals in those areas. Um and so as we get further into our work with administration, we'll be reflecting on those goals and their progress towards those goals in our upcoming retreat. As far as attendance and academic um and attendance and engagement, um our proportional attendance rate last year to end the year was 82.9%. We do not have the final attendance percentage. It is coming in. Jill text me um just tonight and she's like we're getting close. Like it's it's almost here. So we should have that soon. So that is an ongoing goal. Our goal was to get to 90% by the end of the cycle. Um which is a is a pretty hefty feat. Um and so we're working on those things daily. In curriculum and evidence-based
013practices, our goal was to have 100% of our curriculum updated within the six-year cycle. In 2024, we had 117 out of 325 curriculums updated, about 34%. And this year, we increased to 170 out of 32 325. So, we're about 52% of our curriculums are updated. Um, now with that is writing the curriculum, adopting resources, and implementing the curriculum. So, it's a lot of changes. Um, and so we we're we're trying to go as slow as we can to get good results. Um, but go fast enough that we start to see them. So, um, those teams are working very very hard. Um, academics, academic achievement and growth. So, we have some data that's coming in. Um, our goal really was written around um, staying at target on our APR report, which is that report we usually
014do in the winter. Um, but we preview some of that data in the fall in our program evaluation. Um, so last year, um, you can see our baseline scores in for APR and ELA, math, science, and social studies. Um, in ELA, math, science, and social studies, they are listed as the status. Um so that's just um uh proficient and advanced levels and then growth. So that is how much growth our students showed last year. Our current data will be available this fall. So we don't have our state testing data yet. We are ongoing with that goal, but we will have that information to you as soon as we have it. Another part um requirement in the state to our achievement goal is um to increase reading proficiency. As you know, we made a lot of
015changes in the area of reading this year. Um, our teachers were expected to teach a complete opposite way than they had ever been trained to teach before. They have been rock stars and they have done every single thing we've asked them to and work so hard. Um, so last year to end the year, we had 63% of our students met their growth goal and 66% of our students were proficient at the end of the year. I am um happy to report that this year we do have our I Ready data from the end of the spring that we had 61%. So we went down a little bit in growth but we maintained proficiency which really when you're asking teachers to do something completely different is is a really great thing. Um so we're excited about
016that. um we have some baseline NWA growth um that 64% of our kiddos are at 50th percentile or higher for the average growth percentile and 76.5 of them are at the proficient level for NWA. So NWA is a high school assessment that we give um in our EOCC tested areas. So we track that way and we will have more data there soon. Um last year for MAP ELA we were 54% proficient in advance. We do not have those scores yet, but as soon as we get them, we will we will get them to you. Um, college and career ready. So, we also measure this by our APR report. We were at target in both levels for grad followup and success ready career teched expansion. And our data shall be a should be available this fall.
017And now Jerry is going to go with belonging. >> Can I ask a quick question? >> Sure. Sure. So, you said in the fall, have they given you like a month or a week about when we we can expect >> preliminary data is coming out. We just can't really do anything until it's official. Um, typically November is when um we see that become final. Um so, we have some of that data for our um program evaluation. Um we have the past two years. So, um individual scores are being released here and there. Um it's just when when all of it's out is when we can go. >> Okay. Yeah. >> And corrections, they let us submit corrections and stuff like that. So >> Okay. Yeah, that was that's good. >> So hopefully very soon. >>
018David. >> Yeah, Dr. K. Um >> I think this is a question that it goes to you because you spoke about the reading. So I really struggle with saying that 66% out of a hundred is doing great. I mean, if that was a grade that we had for our students, what would be the the rating or the grade that the student would get? I know it's totally different. I don't mean to lump everything together, but I mean, a lot of people look at it like that and say, how do you say it's great? And and when we just blow I'm not going to say that. When we when we just give real positive results and don't talk in anything about how we're going to fix the fact that we're only at 66, it gets very
019frustrating. And I for one am frustrated about we haven't been able to move it up. So I apologize at stepping on toes, but I think that's I think that's very important to our parents and and the the students that are out there that we need to to do more because somehow we're failing at some level 34% of our students. So that's all not a question comment. So, I I do want to kind of clarify just a little bit when Dr. Brad Schneider said it was great. I what she was referencing is teaching a brand new curriculum and a new style of teaching and being able to keep our target where it was right there at 66. For us, we absolutely want to do a better job with that and expect that number to go up
020next year and continue going up from there. The challenge is anytime you take it how you're going to teach reading and you're telling the professionals this is how you're going to teach it after they've been put into the Lucy Caulkins mode and all that stuff for years and years and years and now to flip it and and go to what the state's asking to do. There's a transition period that occurs there from learning the resources and everything else, learning how to teach the resources. So, I think our thought on that was we're happy that we were able to continue at that level and not go below that level with the new teaching strategies. None of us think that 66% is where we need to be. And I'll just say that in public. We all believe
021that number needs to go higher than that and will go higher than that. And I would tell you our teachers agree with that and and have the same thoughts. So, >> I appreciate and it's important that that those points get out so everybody hears a full story. I just think, you know, we've changed a lot of things and it's always the answer is the reports are coming next year. So, we really need to produce and show that the all the money we spent and the training, everything else pays off and this is this next year as far as I can tell. Thank you. >> All right, I'm going to shift into the belonging focus areas. And we know that academics is the main function of the school district. you know, it's it's what our job
022is is um to make sure that our students learn and grow academically, but we do know that the building blocks of that is resources, which are sometimes financial, sometimes physical, and then also that sense of belonging. Making sure that students have um those innate resources and feel like they are in a safe space so that they can be successful academically because that is the overall goal is to um grow them academically. So, four of those focus areas that we looked at in regard to belonging were community engagement, relationships, student and staff well-being, and a collaborative climate and culture. In looking at that belonging and community engagement, we know that um our community wants to be involved. They want to know what's going on. They want to have a voice. They want to be able to
023provide feedback and then be an active part of not only their particular students education but also um the education of the community and the growth as a whole. And so our goal was to increase community event attendance. And again COVID was 5 years ago but that was a pretty um instrumental impact on schools and communities across the nation and the world quite frankly um in regard to families not being able to physically be in those spaces. And so coming back from that, really trying to make a concerted effort to make sure that families and students know that they're welcome. We want them in our spaces. Um so just recreating that community engagement bond and making sure that families know that that's a priority. Um so we wanted to increase the event attendance and quantity of
024survey responses by 10% each. Um and we have lots and lots of different types of events that we have. We just picked a couple as sample sets. and then also increase the positive responses on the family engagement survey strand of the measurable results assessment. We've talked a little bit about the MRA or the measurable results assessment that went out in the fall of last year and also the spring because we wanted to set a baseline and from now on we'll give it once a year. It'll be every spring. Um but that initial first year we wanted to have a first and last bookend to kind of get um a baseline. And so in that MRA assessment that asked uh I think it was nine questions to families about their thoughts on community engagement in regarding
025the school. And this is one of the first times that we've had actually numerical quantitative data from our families about how they feel welcome and involved in that school setting. And we can drill down specifically to those questions to know where we need to work building by building on what our families need and want and expect from our school system. Um so pieces of that you can see the community event attendance. Um one of them went up uh exponentially 200% increase another 58 and a half% increase on the community partner lunch. That goal has been met. We need to continue to sustain that. We'd love to see uh not only 10% growth over the life of the CIP which is 5 years but year-over-year 10% growth would be great. So to continue to see families
026coming out um to those events, community survey participation, that MRA survey, um I will tell you when I first started in cabinet in 2020, so right prior to that, we had um 3,000 4 thou thousand families participating in those family satisfaction surveys, that did drop for a while and we were down in the low couple thousand maybe 700 once in a while and we are getting back to where we used to be. So that fall survey was 3,400 families participated and in the spring we had over 4,000 families participate in that measurable results assessment. So we want to make sure that when we're telling you this data that it's not such a small sample size that it doesn't even matter. We want to make sure that we are getting a large snapshot of our community
027and getting their feedback so that we know which direction to pivot in order to meet the needs of our our families. And that was a I believe 16.3% increase there. So again, wanting to grow, the overall goal was to grow 10%, but if we can grow 10% year-over-year, that's ideally what we'd like to do. And then finally, on that actual family engagement questions, there were nine questions. Um, we want to uh to gain a 5% increase, not 5 percentage points, but 5% of that 73.22 baseline, which would be 76.88 um over the next five years. And so we did move up to 73.7. In these next slides, you'll see some kind of grow, some lose a little bit, could be implementation dip, could be time of the year that we gave the survey, but over
028those five years, we want to have steady growth. Um, and we're looking at a 6/10en of a percent increase in that family engagement. Not a huge move of the needle. Um, we're going to need to grow more than that in the next four years to make sure that we are gaining, but we've got some initial feedback and hope to make a bigger impact as we move forward. I'm going to jump in real quick because along the lines of the community event, um you see the baseline was 10 attendees. So when we did meetings at feeder patterns in 2024, we had 10 attendees that usually attended those. Not very many more than that. When we had the bond issue meeting this year at Holt, we had 30 attendees. So a 200% increase sounds great. Ultimately though,
029we need a lot more and we want a lot more people to come to those events. So, we're going to we're going to have two more again this year and we're going to really push that we get the community out there to hear and see what's in going on in the buildings and things like that. So, please know that when we if we're inundating with emails about that or sending you information or putting a blast out here in the public, you know, whatever it is, we really want to have the community in the buildings to talk to us, talk to our leadership teams and things like that. So, I I'm glad we had an increase, but 30 is not enough. So, >> absolutely. Oh, go ahead. >> Yeah, Dr. Jay, question on the numbers and
030the increase. Can that be pulled in and correlated any way to measurable increases in positive events in the students? I mean, it's great to have more people engaged, but is that going to drive and are we seeing results with the ultimate goal passes getting people there that we're seeing positive events? I would say there's national data that says that when families are involved in their students education that the students do better. There's also data that shows when students are involved in extracurricular which is a lot of times family attending those events, sports, clubs, plays that students actually have a higher GPA. Um that actually rings true for a lot of our students who are in clubs and athletics as well as we track their GPA. So I would say do I have a specific data
031point in this presentation? No. Is there a lot of data that could support that? Absolutely. >> Thank you. You're welcome. Um, also belonging and relationships is our next one. So that was our our second area of focus. Um, we wanted to strengthen those relationships by creating those supportive environments. Again, while this is essential for us to do our main work, which is um, educating our students academically. We wanted to grow these areas 5% for staff and 5% for students over those next five years as measured by that MRA. Again, being able to measure this statistically with numbers and quantitatively is um is a is a game changer to be able to actually see what our community is saying where our cracks, gaps, and craters are and what we're doing. Well, um so staff voice had
032nine questions. Those were asked of staff members across the district. We did move the needle there. Uh 1.1% increase. Again, that's a 1.1% of the 79.83, 83 not 1.1 points but 1.1% of that baseline number. Um we are making progress there. If we continue to grow at that rate we will meet that goal. Uh and again hoping to um exceed that goal as well. Students and belonging. We asked four four questions of our elementary students and six of our secondary in that belonging um realm. We did have a little bit of a drop there. So, we don't know if that's we asked them in the fall and then we asked them in the spring and they're tired and they're worn out or whatever or it's time to get out of there or, you know, somebody's
033had a bad situation, a bad day. We don't know if it's an implementation dip. I do know that as a professional sometimes I'll take a survey or a self-reflection and I'll rate myself like here and then after I actually learn about something like, "Oh yeah, I wasn't as good as I thought I was and I rate a little lower." So, it could be an implementation dip. Um or it could be that we're not delivering where our kids need us to deliver and we're going to continue to dig into that. We would expect that these numbers will go up next year. Our buildings have goals on making sure that students feel connected and belong and um we absolutely have our expectations set on gaining back that traction and making that 5% in five years. Um and
034then the last one on this slide is students and trusted relationships. four questions of elementary students, four questions of secondary of do they have adults in the building that they can count on, that they can trust, um that they know have their best interest academically um at heart. And again, a little bit of a dip. Um do we know why yet? No. Um we we don't dig into specifics other than situational if kids have conversations and ask questions, but could be implementation dip, could be time of the year, could be that we're missing some things. And so again trying to go building by building seeing where our hot spots are, which buildings are doing well because we can disagregate that data um which buildings are not doing well and then beg borrowing and stealing from
035the buildings that are having success and implementing that districtwide. All right, three of four here. So looking at um student and staff well-being, improving the well-being of students by 5% and staff by 5% within the next five years. I think you guys probably see a trend in what we're looking to do here. Um, again, using that MRA and their specific strands for the staff, we're talking about their personal effectiveness, how they feel as an educator, if they feel like they're prepared, if they feel like they are in a good spot personally to be able to deliver to the students to their best of their ability. Um, do they have what they need and are they supported? Um, our staff did grow 2.9% again percent of 78 not percentage points. Um, well on our way to
036attaining that goal. We are, you know, three years into a fi we're one year into a five-year cip and they've already attained three years of growth in that particular sample set. So hopefully we continue to make good progress there. And the students well-being took a little dip. Again, I think it's interesting to watch that our staff and our families are growing incrementally fall to spring and our students are sliding. So, I think that's a trend that we should watch. Um, again, not any huge alarm initially, but something we want to watch and be cognizant of and make sure that we are um pivoting and providing our what our students need throughout the year. Um, eight questions for the elementary kids, four for the secondary um and lost 1.6%. looking for an 85.8 of a 2029
037target there. So, just trying to make sure that our students have what they need as far as uh positive sense of well-being so that they can be um the best students academically that they can be and the best versions of themselves. Final slide before I hand it over to somebody else is collaborative climate and culture. Um, we want our students to belong. And again, that's kind of the theme of the whole strand here. Um, but we looked at questions that spoke to students and staff. So, 5% each, again, in five years, feeling welcomed, valued, trusted, respected, and understood. Um, and when we looked at that, we asked um about the school climate for staff. They grew almost a full percent. And then student empowerment. This one we did not lose as much, but again we
038lost in students, which I think is kind of kind of wild just the way that that was trending. A tenth of a point. Um, but again, our goal here is to gain those five% in five years. So, we need to figure out where we are with those students. Talk to some of those student interest groups um what we need to do to meet their needs to make sure that they have the endurance to last all year. Maybe they're coming in in September and feeling really good and by the time they're looking at this in April, they are exhausted and they are done. Um, so what can we do to pour into them for all of the months and make sure that they are um mentally and physically well so that they are performing the best
039that they can? Um, just like Katie said, when when we're doing those state tests, that's in April, that's in May. And if our kids are feeling maybe more worn down at that time, how can we continue lifting them up so that they are performing at their best academically as well? So I think that's a trend that we should notice and take attention to. So thank you. >> Yeah. I just going to So you said this this was done in the spring or I'm sorry the fall and then the spring. Is that going to be the same this year or just one time? >> It will be. So the first year we did it twice because we wanted a real quick baseline out of the gate in the fall. From here on out it will be
040every spring. >> Yeah. I I mean it's great that we're doing this. I think it's it's really hard to tell anything from two data points. I think we're really not going to see anything once we get to like four or five and ongoing, but from going from not having anything like this to having this is uh important and and should be helpful. So, >> and the last thing, if I can just put a plug in, if you guys um have filled this out, thank you. If you haven't, um please consider doing so or encouraging others to do so because we really are looking at it. Um, we're trying to find out where we need to meet our students and our families because we want our kids to have every opportunity they possibly can to be
041academically successful and we feel like this is a foundational building block. So, um, please know that when we ask for your feedback, we're pouring hours into it to see what we can do better and what's going right. All right. Next, we're going to move to the resources focus areas. There were three, staffing, finance, and facilities. And I'm excited to talk about the staffing piece. Um the goal was to create and sustain a positive work environment to attract, develop and retain highquality staff as measured by employee retention rates and employee satisfaction surveys. So the goal on here is tied to the employee satisfaction surveys. Um you see the first column was uh staff voice and the baseline was 79.83. We're excited that this year uh we had a 1.1% increase. So that goal is ongoing but
042we met it for this first year. um with that 1% annually increase. And then the second part of this was the employee satisfaction survey of collective eth efficacy. So is everybody able to pull together and do what we need to do for students and make sure we have that um great working relationships in our buildings and in our departments. The baseline data for that was at 77.48 and while we did have an increase of 77.74 wasn't quite met this year. Um, and some things we're looking at is looking at a different tool as we send out to our stu our to our staff to kind of just make sure we're in sharing that feedback loop. We want everybody to be able to participate, share the great things that are happening every day as well as
043share what we need to look at. Um, and then when we get that feedback and get get that back, how are we attending to it? What are we doing with that information that we receive and making sure we're sharing back out the changes or the directions that we're um changing to make sure that our staff and are really feeling great about what they do every day for our students. Um, a couple other things. I just have to give a couple shout outs to our department leads and our building principles as they have worked through staffing. I mean, I've officially only been on the team for uh 17 days and um they are working so diligently to make sure we're getting the right people in our buildings every day for students. Um, and just seeing those
044recommendations to hire and seeing our department teams and our buildings and our our HR team just work so quickly to make sure those are are happening in a timely manner has been really exciting. And we are still looking for bus drivers, instructional assistants, and custodians. So, if anybody was looking for a job, bus drivers, custodians, and and instructional assistants, here's your plug. Make sure you come let us know. We're having walk-in interviews at call and I'll interview and we'll get you in. So, if if you're looking for a job, we're hiring. >> And be on the lookout because we are going to do a kind of combo job fair coming up on a Saturday. And again, we'd love to get you get you in and get you interviewed and get you working for Winville. Okay,
045I have the uh facilities and finance and uh not a lot of of uh quantitative data here. Um uh or not. Um so I'll go through these uh identifying critical needs. That's an ongoing. We have a goal met for this year. Um we identified roofing, HVAC, energy star, and playgrounds as areas of focus. Uh general growth and expansion of programming. Um, we have the reach center uh scheduled to be completed this December and uh stimulus early childhood in the summer. Uh upgrade and maintain existing facilities. We're continuing to address needs uh within the plans supported by our uh capital budget uh long range comprehensive needs. Uh some of that was delayed due to the failure of Prop L. Um we h we have addressed some of the most critical and and financially attainable Prop L
046needs. um the sewers at Holt High School and and Tuck pointing at Wsville Middle and Heritage that uh Mr. Bishop mentioned earlier. We are uh implementing increasing safety and security. Uh you know, we finished um the safe defend project last summer. Uh we had some plans in Prop L, but uh had to postpone some of that. So, we're still working on those. And then identifying uh and implementing long-range master facilities plans. Um we're working on those targets and then uh we have the completion of our thirdparty facility needs assessment uh to help us with that process for finance. Um and these goals are kind of uh things that you know we're going to need to do every year. Um maintaining a balanced operating budget. We ended uh fiscal year 25 with a a positive budget
047and we have a balanced budget approved for FY26. Um provide balanced 5-year forecast. We had a uh presented a balanced 5-year forecast with a fiscal year 26 budget. maintaining healthy fund balances. Um unodudited fund balance for fiscal year 25 of 29% of operating expenses and uh obtain unqualified audit opinions. Our last audit for fiscal year 24 received an unqualified audit opinion. Uh that process will begin for fiscal year 25 uh now and then effectively communicate financial information to internal and external stakeholders. Uh we have several board presentations throughout the year to update the board on financial information and then we also have the quarterly finance committee meetings. So that's an ongoing process and then actively pursue measures to gain efficiency. We've established bid cycles to ensure competitive pricing on goods and services and have uh
048found some ways to uh provide efficiencies for the district. Any questions? >> Tim, can I ask you a question on Honer? When do you anticipate that report to be done? >> Uh we don't have a final date. We anticipate that uh to be November December time frame. Um but I don't have a final date for that. But uh that's what we're hoping for before the end of the calendar year. >> And director way that's going to drive a lot um of what we're looking at for summer projects for next year. Uh again, we know that we've got some work that needs to be done. They can't wait on the legacy buildings. That'll have to be built into that budget. Um and then try to figure out how to use the information they're sharing as well
049to to to utilize those that money. >> So, we're looking November, December. I mean, what does that realistically put us looking at if we were need to go to the community timewise? I I mean I if we felt like we could just have done it with the operating budget we have right now, we wouldn't have gone for a bond issue. Um so the need for a bond issue is everpresent. As we said when we presented what the plans were next, it's identify the most critical needs. I kind of referenced earlier with Holt, the entire sewer system needs to be replaced, but these were the two areas that were backing up and clogging that when we looked at the the cameras, you could see where they had deteriorated. Um, so we know there's a lot of
050additional needs that need to come with that. So, you know, I think the board will have to make a decision if what our next steps are to address the long range plans we're talking about. Um, from my end, you know, that looks like I, you know, I think you've got to still figure out what are the most urgent needs and have a plan. You know, last year we weren't able to get the prop, uh, and we had already kind of set the budget. So, I think this time we're going to look at the budget a little bit differently and say this is the most critical need. Um, the problem is each year that goes by, it's like home maintenance. Each year you go by, you kind of rob Peter to pay Paul. So you you
051do one aspect of it, but the other two aspects are are another year older and fallen worse behind. And as we all know, we all feel it all the time, inflation keeps going up. So each time that we wait, that cost of that project continues to go up. So, you know, from our end, you know, I think the board's going to have to have a discussion as what our next steps are. Um, and my end, we're going to continue to look and address the absolute most critical needs right now, which means some of the want projects, you know, or some of the maybe not quite as critical projects go away. Uh, for instance, you know, we did Boone Trails intercom system this year. Uh, there were probably more pressing needs, although I would argue Boon
052Trails intercom system was a safety issue or lack thereof. So, that jumps higher up on the priority list for me. But if you're looking from a facility's need standpoint, an intercom systems, not the inner workings of the facility. So I don't know if I answered your question, but all right. What are our next steps? It's it's continuing what we're doing. So work on goals and strategies uh into building improvement plans. We have administrator meetings next week. uh what you saw us do, we're going to have them do within their own individual buildings and look at the data points that they have right now and start building those out. Uh and then talk with them about what next steps are to do to improve. If their student, you know, belonging has gone down, then we need
053to talk about how to get that up. If it's gone up, then we want to talk about how did you get it up? How did you maintain it? How did it stay up that long? So, we're going to continue to work as a team um and collaborate on successes and if we're struggling in a certain area, we're going to figure out how to fix it. Uh, and that's a big part of what our meetings are about. Next week, uh, regular check-ins on goals, strategies, actions throughout the 2526 school year. Um, our cabinet team has really laid out a strategic plan for how we're going to work with buildings uh, with built-in mandated uh, meeting times to talk about and look at the CIP goals and how we plan to improve those and what are the
054check-in points that we're looking for. Um, and and be much more attentive to those that part of the information. And the goal of all of that is to champion excellence in education. It's to absolutely provide our students the best learning experience they can from an academic standpoint, from a a facility standpoint. Um and and that's that's what we're all committed to. So, >> thank you everybody for the presentation. Any other comments, questions from the board? >> Okay. So, we had a motion in a second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Quick question for the board. That is not the the approval is not a required item. It's just something that's been done historically. It's required for us to present it. It's not required for you to take a vote
055to approve. Do you want to continue to take a vote to approve or would you prefer us just give you the presentation and move forward from there? I think what we've done in the past is like our our motion is to acknowledge that it was shown to the board. >> So, we can keep doing that. The difference is there are some things that look like acknowledgement that we do have to have a you have to accept uh like bus routes. You can't just acknowledge those. They have to be approved. Uh this can be same thing. We can put it on there and just do it as we want to do it that way. I'm just asking what everybody's thought was. You know, if you want to do the acknowledgement, we can do that. is that
056aspect or we can just do the presentation. >> I mean, personally, I like to go ahead and do the acknowledgement just so it's on record that it was presented. We acknowledge that we saw it. All right. Any 13.1 board action items, any updates or adjustments anybody wants to make to that? No. Okay. 14 board member comments. Anybody have any comments? >> You know I do, Julie. Kind of some pre questions and then some that came up during the presentations today. I don't know who the person to address this is, Brian, but with the recent passage of the cell law, we've got a new document that we had to to create and update to match the law. But I mean, I've heard different stories to where you're not going to have any cell phones in the
057school period to well, they can have it, but it's only in the locker room to well, as long as they don't use it in the room. And then I saw one of the comments that were in the write up said that or if the teacher says they can use it. I'm I'm confused about where we stand and also how does and if this does impact iPad uses. >> So, we were waiting for MCE policy update. that didn't come. But so you're going to see something that's coming to you for the next board meeting and prior to that actually where we're going to ask actually to pass or to forego uh first reading, second reading because we need to be compliant with the law. Here's what our basic premise is going to be. It will be
058there are no cell phones allowed from the the time school starts. So when the the official start time is to the official end time. I want to clarify though when we say cell phones because that's a big shift in the law. The law says uh personal communication devices. So that means smartwatches, that means cell phones, that means the virtual glasses people are wearing now that you can see text messages on. That means personal devices that maybe were allowed to bring in before like a tablet or something like that. It does not impact schoolprovided electronic devices. Those are still allowed. So if at the elementary level the iPad's allowed at the secondary level, the the Chromebooks are allowed. The other exception isn't the teachers get to decide if it's that. A teacher can apply and ask
059if they have the ability to allow students to use a personal a communication device like that. um it will be hard for us unless that's something that we can't somehow give on a Chromebook or an iPad to grant a request like that. It really wouldn't make sense. The other exception will be with students with 504s and IEPs. If they're their plan has something about a personal communication device, then we would have to that the law allows for that to occur. So that's really kind of a short version of the the how we plan to implement it. >> Thanks. You mentioned about the bus and the challenge that is ongoing. Can you give us an update how many opens positions versus total something that gives us way to measure? >> So we hired 13 bus drivers.
060Uh I wish I could say that would fill us. It doesn't even come close to filling us. So that number when you look at it when we when we show you like what are our open buses right now? We have 30 open drivers. We hired 13. So we're still at 17. However, that doesn't mean we're 17 route short. And that's that's where it gets a little bit tricky. It means we have 30 allocated positions. They may be floater drivers and different things like that. We have intentionally more drivers than routes if you have a full group. I do not know off the top of my head with these 13 if they all make it through how many routes we would have open at that point. I'm not sure what that number is. The other challenge
061is when we get to say we have 13 drivers we hired. That's great. Except if they haven't passed the CDL exam yet or anything like that, then you know they still got to go to it. There's still an onboarding period. There's still a processing period. And unfortunately, it's difficult. They wash out before they get to that point. Fortunately, and I don't know, Dr. Neil, if you know, we were able to hire some drivers with experience that already have CDL, so they can go right now. Um, we are currently devising routes. my and it means more drivers, but one of the biggest issues we had last year was looping, uh, which is necessary and have a shortage. So, that idea that you're going to loop back and go get the next school, I don't want at
062the beginning of the year any routes to have looping. And so, they're developing routes that don't have looping, but they're also developing a fallback plan in case we're not ready and we don't have that number yet. So, that's a quick update on where we're at. Um, you know, there's while we're talking about transportation, I think it's an important plug right now for everybody to hear. We have what's called the Stopfinder app, and that is going to be something that I absolutely need everybody to download if your child runs it. One of the biggest complaints we got last year about communication was it wasn't timely. This app now has the ability if a bus is running late, the app triggers and sends a message to anybody who subscribed to that on that specific bus. So, it's
063a real time immediate alert that comes via email and text message. So, as long as you subscribe to that, I can't force you to be a part of it. So, we can't say you're we can't just plug you in. So, the community is going to have to opt in and go to the app and download it and opt to get that information, but then they will get actual real time. The other side that we have now is we have something called zonar which it will allow our building administrators to in live real time monitor where the actual bus is at through a GPS. Um and so if a parent calls they'll have the ability to say here's where your bus is right now. So those are some of the uh the improvements we've made with
064communication. Uh we piloted both of those this year at ESY. Um the the the feedback was incredibly positive. uh people like that they can get the immediate instead of that window of 13 or 15 to 30 minutes or whatever. It's more like your bus is this many minutes behind. And so that's those are kind of the upgrades that we're trying to look at. >> I appreciate that and I know people like hearing that. A couple more things. Um and Dr. Tim, have with the with a clearing by the Supreme Court with the Department of Ed and layoffs and reductions, do you see anything yet how it's going to from a federal perspective impact the school district in the next coming school year? >> Uh we haven't seen a lot of clarity yet on on what
065that is going to be. Um, right now the only thing that the only impact we're seeing is some withholding of funds. Uh, title two, title three and four, I believe those funds were withheld. Um, don't know what that's going to end up being. The if they'll be released. We anticipate they should be released uh because they are on this fiscal year. So, they are appropriated by Congress um and are available should be available to schools. But, uh, that's the only impact that we know as of right now. So, uh, if you're asking me to guess what's going to happen, I have no idea. So, >> that's all we know. >> Okay. Thanks. I'm almost done, guys. Sorry. Is Brian, is there any plans or is there already in place classes concerning digital currency? Our world
066is going there. And I I feel like that's something that we need to be careful not to stay in the old world when the young kids all do digital. I'm going to have Katie help me answer that. Are you aware? I mean, we have personal finance. I don't know how deep it gets into digital currency. Um, I would tell you again, I'm four years removed. We definitely at that point weren't looking at digital currency. So, if that's something that we want to look at as a as a board, and I don't necessarily disagree with it, it could be an interesting way to look at it. Uh, we would have to implement that in. Uh the other part of that is it would either have to be measured as an elective course or the state would
067have to kind of rewrite the curriculum. I don't know that it's in state curriculum either, but it's something we could offer as an elective if we want to look at that or try to em ingrain it or embed it somehow into personal finance courses. >> Yeah, I think it'd be really good. I mean, we know where it's going. So, last thing, Brian, and maybe this is to the leadership. We're we're always we're having discussions about taxes and where it's going to come from and is it going to stay the same and what are impacts of law changes and that sort of thing. That's still in the process. I know we talked. My my my thought that has been reoccurring to me is just like with the city, they're struggling to keep up with the growth.
068We're having to build because of growth and all that goes with it. Why don't we create a SID like tax for new homes that they pay over 5, 10 years, whatever, in order to them to help cover the cost of the infrastructure for the school district that that is being created by them moving in. >> I I'm going to speak honestly here. I can't tell you our ability to create a tax like that. I don't think the school district has the ability to create a tax. All we can do is ask for a tax increase. Um, I can't get into why government would or wouldn't do something like that. Um, I that to me would probably be a good question for our local politicians, but from my understanding, we don't have the ability and Tim
069jump in, but we don't have the ability to create taxes. We can just ask >> for an increase in the way the tax the tax brackets are already set. So, we're funded by specific tax things. As you know, we don't have the ability to create a new tax bracket or a new taxing item on our own. That would have to be something that the state would allocate that would fund us. Am I accurate with that, Tim? >> That's correct. our our taxing authority is granted to us through the uh state constitution and and we're not we only have the ability to to uh levy property taxes >> and it's the city I don't believe can create a SID for the district and then the funds come to us. >> I don't think so. But I
070don't I don't know. I'm not I'm not well versed in that. >> Yeah, I hear you. It just bounced around my head. It just seems like it's quite a gap that you know when you have issues the city does it all the time. you're building this new subdivision, you got a SID to pay for the infrastructure, build the support. I I think it makes a lot of sense if we can figure it out. And that is all I had. Thanks for the patience. >> Thank you. Anybody else with any comments? >> Welcome Dr. Neil to the uh the board table. Thank you for being here. All right, with that we need a motion to adjurnn open session. Motion to adjurnn. Second. [Music] >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Director Hanky. >> Hi. >> Secretary Bismouth.
071>> Hi. >> Director Way. >> Dr. Lewis. >> I. >> President Scott. I. >> Vice President Walsh. I. >> Motion carries.