001and it always results in the least punishment you were sending a very clear message that you don't care my request my asks that you either stick to your policy or you do not tolerate discrimination or admit that you do and that not every child matters thank you Don Loney good evening I am Donald Looney uh stand before you today a proud dues paying member of UAW Local 2250 and I'm here tonight to stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in the w&a reason why because when I started my own School Board campaign back in 2021 said that our teachers needed adequate training and adequate resources so they could deal with all of the students in this school district but one of the current board members probably two of them maybe three and a whole
002bunch of other people demonized me as a race baiter said I was only out to promote critical race Theory and all of these other things and took the message away from supporting these Educators and getting them what they needed and if you've heard the testimony of some of these teachers and some of these parents that lesson is here those chickens have come to roost y'all made your bed you're G to have to lie in it oh I got more time you're gonna have to address the inequities across this District you're going to have to address how certain buildings have certain things that other buildings don't you're gonna have to address how you don't have a policy that speaks directly to racism and discrimination because I'm here to tell you today that is very different than
003bullying and harassment I'm going to say that again racism and discrimination is very different than bullying and harassment deal it not at the student level but that's why some of these Educators need training because inadvertently they say things and do things that hurt students more specifically black and brown students and I don't believe that any of these Educators come into these buildings with that is their intention I don't think they're coming here to be uh inappropriate to groom or to teach students to be inappropriate and things of that nature but they may need some training and some understanding so they can avoid those kinds of situations however the six board members that a lot of these people talk about that how they so proudly voted for them so proudly sit here and cast votes to
004block these teachers from getting that much needed education block the votes that allow these teachers to have the flexibility in the classrooms to teach those lessons and if you don't stop you're goingon to be in trouble I got about 10 seconds left so I'mma say these uh six letters that make a lot of y'all shiver just because I'm Petty like that d e i and s e l solidarity forever next up Alicia tuto good evening my name is Alicia tuto and I'm a parent educator in the Wentzville School District I have the privilege of working with the reading curriculum team in the past year our team has analyzed Missouri standards and planed to begin developing our curriculum aligned to these standards our curriculum writing process abruptly changed Following last month's September Board of Education meeting
005we must now make a curricular resource decision from the two Ela resources that desie currently endorses as I listened and prepared to add my input on what I believe would be the best choice I couldn't help but think of my process when planning instruction for my students I begin with the end in mind what do I want them to know and how will I teach and guide them to that end goal from that point I designed lesson plans by considering my students individually to address whole group small group and individual instruction a purchased resource needs to be a wellth thought out purchase that supports our written curriculum and Missouri learning standards to rush this type of decision is to skip an essential part of an educated decision an educational researcher Robert Marzano has said the
006number one way to raise student achievement is a guaranteed and viable curriculum our students deserve a rigorous and Rich curriculum the teachers on our curriculum team need time to develop the curriculum and research resources to make this critical decision our next step would be to Pilot the resources across grade level classrooms by teachers who daily address planning and instruction for student learning tonight I ask that you reconsider your timeline consider what you are asking of our teachers those who must make this decision as classroom teachers we are people who will be implementing the curriculum with this resource impacting thousands of students my children and the children of those who are here and listening and for years to come wizville school district has Educators who are among the best in their profession and put students first
007every day trust us to be the best when making decisions as important as developing a well-written curriculum and choosing an appropriate supporting read Source thank you for your time tonight next up Brandy voling good evening my name is Brandy Bing and I've been a resent parent and and teacher in this district for the last 23 years tonight I want to start off by thanking all levels of our Administration for their hard work and dedication when it comes to serving our students and supporting our staff although I'm pretty sure that what I have to say will fall on deaf ears when it comes to many of you on the school board I'm going to speak anyway because I teach my students that change only comes when you're willing to stand up and speak out for the
008last few months we've sat back and watched Schoolboard members push their own agenda while hiding behind the idea that it's what they're constituents want the harsh reality is that these meetings have become the equivalent of a three- ring circus with very little Focus being placed on the most important components of the equation our students for decades Behavior academic achievement and mental health have been at the Forefront of our concerns our staff has worked tirelessly to test and Implement programs that address all of these issues in order to increase the Student Success yet in the past few months many of you feel that you know better than our highly educ ated staff and have made it your mission to dismantle much of what we've worked hard to build most of both members of both the community
009and the Schoolboard have expressed outrage when it comes to how and what we teach our students some very vocal individuals believe that social emotional learning should be taught by parents and have tried to remove leader and me and the majority of our outside Counseling Services others want history to be taught through a single lens and attempt to censor what our children read some even believe that it's the parents who should get to decide what their children learn in the classroom and for your information that's called homeschooling these ideas these ideas led me to dig deeper into the origins of public education and do you know what I found I found that in the 1600s public education began because families wanted their children to be properly socialized literacy and math were not added to the public
010school curriculum until the mid 1800s and when the department of of Education was created in 1979 its main goal was to preserve the Democracy of our country and in order to do that they knew that they needed to create an education an educated population that could understand political and social issues participate in Civic life and vote widely to protect the right and freedom of all they understood that building character and virtue were essential to shaping good citizens many students come to our classroom with hate anger and the inability to compromise which isn't much different than all of you the seven habits taught through leader and me are designed to help our students and staff become better versions of thems which ultimately reduces the amount of time teachers spend counseling and dealing with inappropriate behaviors do
011you know what that equates to and increase learning in our classroom instead of focusing your energy on removing these highly effective programs I would recommend that you all take some time to read the book The Leader and me or participate in a leader and me training because there are three key ideas that could change the directory of this school board and allow our students to thrive for decades to come the first key idea is to begin with the end in mind this is one that teachers learned from the start of their teacher training have any of you taken a moment to consider what we want for our students at the end of their public education because I'll tell you what the majority of us want we want students who Thrive ones that are more than
012just knowledge workers we don't want students who just regurgitate facts but ones who have strong analytical critical thing when students who were interaction together to assemble facts and derive Solutions ma'am can I have you wrap up real quick yes please so in other words the other one would be seek T first to understand and then be understood and then in addition think win-win when we think win-win everyone benefits My Hope Is that you all decide to make the conscious decision to do better if not then I'll just have to have faith that our current students will one day be ready to take over because the majority of them have greater insight and abilities to run this show next up Jenny [Applause] McBride good evening my name is Jenny McBride and I'm the K12 Ela content
013leader in the winville school district I'm here tonight to address several concerns I have with recent board decisions firstly I am concerned with the board's decision to move up the purchasing timeline for the K5 Ela curriculum resource despite the advice of the curriculum professionals within the district this decision prevents us from piloting which means we will ultimately be spending 2 million doll of taxpayer money to purchase a new car we were not permitted to test drive vice president stoy when we addressed this she said she simply did not care while she may not care I do and I know many people within the community care as well additionally I would like to air my concerns about several revised policies that went through a first reading at the September meeting namely policy 6242 religious and controversial
014issues and policy 6310 School libraries the revision to policy 6242 added VAP language about what and when topics that have been deemed controversial or sensitive can be discussed this policy revision undermines the professionalism our teachers demonstrate when discussing such topics in their classrooms more concerning though is that this policy does not address what topics are considered controversial or sensitive or who is responsible for determining such topics however after reading the proposed revisions to board policy 0340 in which the board removed their code of ethics and instead explicitly stated that their new role is to control the Affairs of the district it would be safe to assume that the board would have complete control of what teachers and students can speak of the approved topics being determined based on nothing more than the personal and political
015agendas of board members this is by definition indoctrination of our students Additionally the revision to library policy 6310 altered the section which stated that both district and classroom Library should provide diverse and inclusive literature to instead say that districts and classroom Library should only provide materials that relate to and support the district's curriculum and that comply with Missouri law our school and classroom libraries are already in compliance with Missouri law but removing the language about the need for materials that reflect diverse and inclusive cultures and ideals is both ethically and morally alarming the students of the winville school district have the right to intellectual freedom and your own personal beliefs regarding diversity equity and inclusion should not restrict restrict our students rights the students students of wiswell have the right to access a wide array
016of literature if they so choose including but not limited to books written by and devout black and indigenous people of color members of the lgbtqia plus community and those of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds moreover our students need and deserve to have Equitable access to inclusive learning environments experiences and materials by removing or restricting access to books and access to topics for authentic learning you are failing our students you are failing to allow Educators to prepare them for the diverse and Ever Changing world and life outside of K12 public education ultimately these revisions to board policies are inequitable and discriminatory they are a direct result of the personal and political agendas of several sitting board members it is blatant overreach and it is indoctrination by moving forward with these changes this board of education will
017be sacrificing the social emotional and academic well-being of our students simply because they want to play politics and and launch re-election campaigns the education of our students within the wizville community should be the primary focus of every person on the board not their personal agendas next up Ali Bergman good evening my name is Ali Bergman and I am a district instructional coach within the academic Services Department 368 years let me repeat that 368 years of educational experience lies within your academic Services Department of 20 people 368 years of hard work and late nights away from our families to attend to the families of our students 368 years of educating ourselves to do more and be better at what we love to do 368 years of holding hands hugs laughter and tears and always fighting for
018what we know is right and standing up for what we believe in more importantly 368 years of always and I mean always doing what is best for our students we have master's degrees doctorates in education yet there are members on this board who have stated they don't care about our years of experience and exclude our professional opinions from decisions to promote a political campaign I stand before you tonight as 23 of those years appalled and astonished at the recent proceedings that have taken place within these board meetings in my world I have the opportunity to visit 12 of our 13 elementary schools and work with over 168 teachers every day I get to see the collaboration cooperation and kindness they exude all while helping shape our students into decent respectful educated humans I have witnessed
019firsthand students who have complete meltdowns every Friday because they know they have to go home for a full weekend without a place that gives them a warm meal and lets them feel safe which is their school the Educators that you see before you stand together as a voice that sends a message loud and clear listen to us we have poured Our Lives into our work and it has become our passion some of our board members are leading with the intention to Drive our district into destruction solely to satisfy their own personal political agendas I ask you to pump the brakes and listen to my colleagues who stand before you tonight not only listen but hear what we say this is our passion this is our work and we must have a say imagine walking into
020any other profession and telling them how to do their job undermining the extensive training they endure to become a professional guess who gave them those trainings teachers we would love to stop whining and do our jobs if we were given the ability to do so stop rewriting policies to stifle the educational experiences of our students so we can do our job the blatant disregard of humanity and lack of respect I have seen within these board meetings is disgusting hearing grown adults Heckle each other while we are given the opportunity to speak our peace just highlights the ignorance of uneducated citizens who clearly need more social emotional learning themselves the role of this board should be to collaborate with the Educators you see before you and do what is good and right for all of our
021districts not continue with your gross overreach and rewriting policies without any consultation from the [Music] experts next up to Maya Neighbors does this work okay good evening I'm a senior at Tima high school and I didn't want to speak up today but I'm forcing myself to face my fears and address the main issue with the district about discrimination against black black and brown students I've had a situation where I was called a racial slur on the bus on my way to school a student yelled I hate anywhere multiple times at that moment on the bus I felt very frustrated angry and sad I dealt with something like this before last year but I thought some things would change I wanted to say something but at the moment felt like if I spoke up nothing would
022happen I would be labeled as the angry black girl I put my head down with my headphones in on full volume to try not to listen to it but I heard it again then I take my headphones and he yells it out again please be informed I am one of the fewer black girls on the bus to me personally when I first walked in and sat down and heard that it felt directed to me at that moment no one said anything and did nothing I was hoping the bus driel will respond but I did not expect him to because he let that slide before and made me feel unprotected out number and alone I want to speak out because I want the voice of who dealt this to be the voice of who dealt um
023for those who dealt with this before Above All I Want Anyone anybody listening to know you are not alone and sooner or later Justice will be served it's important to students who look like me to feel comfortable to express their feel and seek support when dealing with such heartful experience they deserve respect and dignity as much as anyone else who is dealing with similar issues I don't usually do stuff like this but as a wise woman once told me I should speak up for myself I just want to go on with my day and I have to deal with any people ignorance it's very upsetting and we are sick of nothing being done thank [Music] you next up Tammy Braun oh it's hard to follow that sweetheart good job thank you for having me good
024evening my name is Tammy Braun I have three Wentzville graduates I'm super proud of them super proud to be a parent and super proud to be a school counselor so so thank you for having me I'd like to quickly revisit the social emotional needs of our onville students and our role I will start by quoting what is on our website listed in our wsd strategic plan our mission our vision our values and our CIP the wsd portrait of our learner is a resilient healthy safe communicator and Problem Solver in our mission and vision we are equipping students with skills and knowledge to ex excel in a changing world the following goals we have listed in our strategic plan related to the supporting supporting our social and emotional needs of our students number one recognize and
025provide support to address the growing mental health needs of our students two focus on diverse needs early implementation of character education and development of social emotional skills number three increase the number of Mental Health providers to reasonable ratio right now we're about double what the state suggests number four provide training and resources to students and staff to recognize the warning signs of stress and mental health illness in suicide and substance abuse number five expand character education and citizenship education to middle and high school levels and number six provide professional development that keeps staff informed of current diversity of students resources and consultants for followup just like other programs in education counseling includes grade level expectations we have a state required curriculum and mandates that can effectively remove barriers to achievement the full support of the
026board of education is essential abundant research exists that documents that fully implemented comprehensive counseling programs create positive results for students in schools everyone is familiar with malo's hierarchy of needs we have to meet their physical and social emotional and safety needs before they can learn as mental health professionals we have ethical legal and confidentiality standards that we must abide by daily we get requests from families for outside resources and counseling for mental health we don't share information in an unethical way those outside agencies we partner with and resources that partner with us are helping our wsd families they're helping us meet our CIP our mission our values and our state requirements why is opting out an option we almost voted not we the board almost voted to opt in only for a lifesaving lesson as
027Timberland at Timberland I know that 99.94% of our families are grateful for our life-saving lesson we're trying to save lives on a daily basis I'm up I ask you to support us in this Mission let's work together to save student lives thank you next up Trina peek thanks for having me I'm Trina p I'm a resident of the school district and I had a speech tonight about the Discrimination in the district but I think it'll be better and an email and I'm going to send it I'm going to yield my time I think we need to hear more from these teachers and from these parents about what's going on with the school board thank you next up Amanda kettle hello um I just want to start out by saying the number of times my family
028has talked about moving after becoming involved and coming to the board meetings is crazy but after being here tonight and hearing from these Educators I'm so proud to be a part of this District thank you for coming and thank you for speaking and thank you for everything you do for our kids um okay but I came here to talk about um something that has been happening over the last couple of months earlier this week a post was made on Facebook sharing confidential District information including conversations that occurred dur during closed session board meetings um District policy states that members shall not disclose confidential information and confid and information is confidential if it is communicated during executive session this is not the first instance of closed session information being leaked to the public it has been
029happening for months and as a stakeholder and parent in this District this is extremely concerning to me it starts with a few emails and a few conversations but where does it end how do I trust that my child's conf confidential information will remain private I emailed the board to express my my concerns and I was met with a fairly intimidating response from one of our board members I'm happy to share the full email but I will paraphrase today I was told to take my concern somewhere else I was told that my emailing the board was unethical and then I was accused of slander and Malice I responded stating that it was alarming that the actual issue was just glazed right over um due to the response being defensive and a little bit threatening I informed
030this board member that the leaked confidential information was very serious and that I would continue to pursue resolution due to the defensive response I asked if this board member was the one that shared the confidential information I also asked if she would do an investigation I was responded with please just stop um I'm not going to stop this is important this is a massive issue and it needs to be addressed and rectified immediately I ask the board to investigate this issue I ask for the guilty parties to be sanctioned I ask for you to consider what we can do to make sure that we can have trust in our district again um and finally I'm asking if the board is incapable or any board member is incapable of fulfilling their oath of office and following
031policies I ask that you resign effective immediately because this is really important there's a right and a wrong way to handle Grievances and Report concerns and leaking our District's confidential information is the wrong way and it's unethical thank you next up haly Jano what is the definition of a leader one who inspires confidence in others and moves them to action I ask you now what is the definition of a tyrant a ruler who exercises absolute power oppressively or brutally the behavior we all witnessed Monday with the blatant disrespect and dismissal of director hanky Lewis and Olsen really left me in awe I'm in awe of how our leader can so blatantly disre be disrespectful and dismissive towards fellow board members and why oh because I quote I actually have to catch a flight end quote
032my family moved to the winville school district a number of years ago specifically for the school district this district has a long history of strong core academics thanks to our teachers that provide above average scores we have impressive employee retention and we have a thriving relationship with an Engaged Community I stand here before you today as my daughter settles into third grade and it is sad for me to say that if my family was forced with the same decision we were that number of years ago I'm not certain today we would move back to wizville it has nothing to do with the teachers or the administration in the buildings it has everything to do with the people on the stage before me today the behavior we witnessed Monday paired with the 20-minute dissertation president Goodson
033gave last month at the board meeting and what seems like a personal Witch Hunt against fellow board members is not the behaviors that this community wants and what we call our president which by definition you are no leader I think the board should consider a vote of no confidence in our board president and make a motion to reorganize this board immediately from everything we have witnessed I would say we are dealing more with a one-sided Tyrant than a leader and our children deserve a better example of what a true leader is President Goodson you are clearly not fit for leadership in this District we ask for your resignation next up Lindsay Johnson hello as I came in today I realized you guys will not be responding I ask that you will respond to the questions
034I have to the minutes that will be added onto this day's meeting will that be allowed are you asking for more time in no I'm asking if your response to my questions can be added to the minutes so that it is all clear are are you just looking for board response to your statements here this is a oneway street is how this works unless the board disagrees but this is a one-way communication okay I ask if possible later in time if you guys can agree or disagree whatever you need to do to get it add it would be great so let me start with what is the district's policy and guidelines for clean dry and safe schools for these kids and staff what do you all consider clean dry and safe if you are not
035sure what clean dry and safe is no I'm not talking about what you think in your home I'm thinking about water intrusion roof leaks busted pipes as well as how dirty these schools are these children are coming home constantly with reoccurring infections it did not happen a couple months ago before school let's look around in this building right now in this room and I can show you where a lot of dirt is coming from guess what we're all breathing that in how much toxins is in that that we are breathing in a little kids's immune system to that and they are going to continue to be sick over and over second thing what is the policy on the use of drugs at the schools or on the buses per Missouri law the schools are still
036in charge of the bus actions who do we be who do we consider to be negligent when this is not addressed thank you I just have initials here LP good evening Board of Education um I first want to say that I do have the utmost respect for every teacher educator and administration in this District I have two 13year olds and have been in the district for nine years now and I love every one of you and I appreciate all the hard work you give into our children every single day however what I'm here to talk to you about tonight with the board is a completely different matter I am going to tell you my timeline of what I wrote based on facts since nobody seems like the ones that are online April 18th the newly
037elected board members henky olssen and Lewis are sworn in May 1st Pat Brazil is named chief general counsel of the wivi School District with earnings of 151,000 per year June 14th Andor July 25th the alleged close session meeting took place around transgender student restroom usage an objection was made as this was in violation of the Sunshine Law this conversation allegedly moved forward even after objections were made September 26 the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the Wentzville School Board for viol VI ating the open meeting law when it knowingly excluded parents from policy discussions October 16th Wentzville School Board retains mixo tool to represent and defend the attorney lawsuit attorney general lawsuit while President Goodson did address the conflict of interests on Monday's special board meeting he did not address my question of the ethical
038conflict of interest which is defined as ethical problems that may arise between parties with a pre-existing relationship that being P Brazil was employed with mixo tul from December of 2018 up through his employment with the Wentzville School District at some point during the discovery process depositions will take place I would think that they will depose everyone involved in that closed session meeting referenced above which in fact includes Pat Brazil that is a conflict president hson advised music The District's insurance company recommended retaining mixo tool my entire career has been with a third party administrator with programs Just Like Music they would have provided you with more than one recommendation especially if there were questions surrounding a possible conflict whether legal or ethical it was discussed at the September meeting the need for a policy Committee
039in adding statutory language on our policies as we updated them this brings us to tonight's agenda item 15.11 approval for the Missouri consultants for Education policy services this is a $155,000 proposal to revise existing board policy by providing statutory references where applicable why are we hiring this company to revise our policies what happened to forming a committee made up of community members teach Administration and the board to update our policies even though we disagreed we were all under the impression that the updating policy was part of Pat Brazil's job duties so now we're paying yet another company why one last thing to complete the circle the proposal from the Missouri consultants for education is signed Thomas mkis with mkis ool who is in fact the attorney we hired to defend the board or at least
040half of them I request a motion to substitute Council be put on tonight's agenda based on this ethical conflict the district should be elected to retain should have elected to retain an attorney with no attachment to the staff Administration or School District I also ask that the board to not approve agenda item 1511 I strongly believe the community as a whole can update our own policies by revising them and submitting them through the board to be read in Open Session and voted on Dr tala you are the superintendent of this school district the state of this direct of this district is a direct reflection of you you have nurtured The Divide within the community our schools the board parents and taxpayers enough is enough I sit with no side I sit with my kids who
041are at home you have ruined this District in the year you have been here [Music] next up Jill CLA Smith good evening president Goodson Dr tra members of the board my name is Jill Clon Smith I'm so very humbled and proud to serve as the Director of assessment data and school Improvement for the amazing teachers behind me and of the entire wizville school district have you heard of the icon of the Seas it is Royal Caribbean's newest luxury cruise ship scheduled to set sail early next year it is the world's largest cruise ship the ship can hold approximately 10,000 people with passengers and crew our district which is now the fifth largest District in Missouri and currently holds over 19,000 students and teachers not to mention the countless support staff that keeps our ship running
042each and every day we are well aware there has been a need for course correction which we have all dedicated ourselves to how long does it take to change a ship's Direction cruise ships are big powerful and they travel long distances but they take calculated incremental Maneuvers to correct their course careful not to overcorrect causing harm to those on board a large ship turns by making 5% shifts these 5% changes can be the Catalyst that makes the impossible seem possible possible Dr tormala has just begun just her second year as superintendent she has put together a team of dedicated Educators who are always focused on what is right for kids I would like to share a sampling of the turns that have happened under their gu under their leadership and guidance in 2023 a comparison
043of St Charles County districts showing how districts move students from year to year Wentzville is leading all St Charles County districts in math and we are second in ell in I ready reading the median growth for all students who placed one or more grade levels below in the fall was was greater than 100% by the spring for the last two years under the direction of Dr tormala academic Services is working to improve consistency across the district by increasing our focus on common assessments and Grading practices that are clear and concise to reflect student learning so that all families and all students know where they are and where they're headed we ask that you trust the educated trained and dedicated teachers of Wentzville to continue the work they are doing every day to make the small
044Corrections that will slowly methodically turn this 19,000 person ship in the direction in which it needs to be going thank you next up Anthony cillo good evening I um did not know what the makeup of the meeting was here uh the makeup of the group of people that are here tonight but I've been sitting here listening and as you said this is a one-way conversation so the main thing that I wanted to come here was I don't get involved a lot here um I have a brother an older child that's well he's 40 something years old I've got two 30y olds that graduated those three from all those four from Holt I have two at Timberland I've always been very happy and supportive of all the schools the teachers my problem is with uh some
045of the principles I got involved last year because um my daughter was being bullied and her friend uh by a group of students after about four weeks or five weeks of me asking my daughter have you talked to so and so after about the fifth week she was told no I'm I'm not going to do anything about it well as a parent I'm pretty sure uh you'd not be happy with that answer so that was when I got involved and started reading the policy going over some things and actually made the call to the hotline I I I think a lot of students and parents don't know that that is available to them I was very thankful I made a call and within two days I got a call back then I got an apology
046from one of the principles whatever was done okay I took his word that something was done this year my daughter and her friend who's a special needs freshman were bullied my daughter was pushed shoved at least three times the girls that were doing this or the students that were doing this were of mixed background so I really try to stay away from the racial name and slurs and whatever but I told my daughter when she called me call get a hold of an adult they talk to she she talked to four or five principles that night this was 9:23 homecoming I have yet to get a call from somebody that cared enough to say is your daughter okay we took care of the situation nothing last year was five weeks and it took a hotline
047call this year almost a month nothing nothing I'm very supportive again like I said teachers your the board I really don't know a lot of you people um there was a comment about uh some people have a Personal Agenda political agenda well I'm going to tell you I voted with some of these people and I kind of can hear who they that might be aimed at but just be respectful and tolerant that the people that were voted in was for a reason so let's tolerate each other's decisions of who's up on the board thank you for what you do um if I can get an answer back from anybody I don't sit down and go over paperwork like a lot of you do and I do respect a lot of you that do take the
048time to do this and do this for our kids but um I'm really concerned on how these policies are picked and chosen by certain principles with an S at the end of who gets disciplined and who doesn't by the way I am also a UAW worker I'm Mexican I'm a lot I don't I I check a lot of boxes I can check them but I don't because I brought my children to be respectful and to treat others the way they want to be treated and keep Color Race ethnicity out of the picture thank you very much next up Priscilla Frost good evening my name is Priscilla Frost I'm the director of secondary program here in the winville school district as we strive to provide the best education for our students it is essential to make
049informed decisions grounded in evidence-based research during the board meeting on September 21st at 3 hours and 19 minutes vice president shanon suy did not Define her intent on curriculum implementation she stated multiple times during the board meeting that waiting until August of 2024 would be too late and that implementation should begin as soon as possible after resource approval in November at 3 hours and 30 minutes while there is no disagreement around the fact that a new curriculum and curriculum resource is much needed State guidance on evidence-based resources was not released until June 27th of 2023 consequently winville Educators have not had time to review these resources forcing the curriculum teams select a resource to be used in all K5 classrooms for the next six years based on a single sales pitch from the resource companies
050is not the solution that will lead to desired results as such I urge you to review the negative effects of Rush curriculum implementation supported by compal compelling evidence-based research if we rush the curriculum adoption and implantation process it will fail current evidence supports the claim and has consequently shown that hurri curriculum adoption implementation timelines can have detrimental impacts on student learning here are some key findings a rush adoption implementation of curriculum and curriculum resources has a negative impact on student growth potential numerous studies reveal that teacher Clarity and teacher Collective efficacy have an effect size of 75 and 1.57 respectively when combin these results in student learning that equates to almost six years of student growth in just one year's time a rush adoption implementation of curriculum and curriculum resources has a negative impact on
051student achievement an overwhelming amount of evidence highlights the correlation between teacher burnout teacher retention and student achievement one specific study published in 2020 evaluated over 600,000 classrooms and Quantified the exact impact hurry changes has on student learning by concluding that rapid changes cause teacher turnover which ultimately has a negative impact on student learning a rush adoption implementation of curriculum and curriculum resources has a negative impact on educator ability to meet student needs the reading League reports the need for focusing on teacher capacity in order to meet the needs of all students teacher capacity is defined as the perceived abilities skills and expertise of teachers in a school or District to build educator capacity is critical to get Buy in and input from teachers and other stakeholders throughout the process from adoption and development of the
052instructional materials to the process for training and use these evidence-based findings support the redesign curriculum process we have put in place based on evidence-based research in the field of Education educational Society educational psychology is our Collective responsibility to prioritize the best interest of our students by heating the evidence and taking a thoughtful approach to curriculum changing we can create an educational environment that Fosters excellence and empowers both students and Educators for years to come next up Nicole Brinkman hello my name is Nicole Brinkman I am a parent of two awesome kiddos in the district um former educator taxpayer real quick Dr tormala I taught in scsd during the pandemic and for anyone who knows that was wild for teachers for parents for everyone but the resources that your department put out for educators was phenomenal
053I shared them with friends that I had from when I taught in Arizona to wizville to Francis H so I just want to say thank you because that was your leadership that did that so and this is amazing oh makes my heart Happy Okay so I actually want to share some words from Stephen Scott who he'd had his name added to the speaker list but not by himself um along with numerous other odd names rather than be intimidated or bullied by a loud minority or a select few bad actors he was going to take the opportunity to make a statement give his thoughts now that his name had been crossed off the list I would like to share what he was going to say this evening because I feel like the community needs to hear
054it to Dr tormala the administration Educators and the staff of the w USD I am so sorry that you're facing these hardships and strife plaguing our community you deserve better than to be treated poorly and bullied by a select VI who think their agenda and political views are greater than the school district you have my our sympathy and complete support and I want you to know that this is called empathy and for those of you who don't understand social emotional learning it's when you put yourself in someone else's shoes and see things from their perspective it's a great tool to use when trying to gain a perspective on a situation during Co I led a team of healthcare workers who struggled under the weight of it all being called a hero one day and a
055scorge the next going into situations where you may catch a disease that is new and has unknown effects or worrying how team members were going to pay the bills when a service lines were shut down these weighed heavily on us all but the one thing I kept telling my team is that we're in this together we will make it through tears were shed and lives were changed but we stuck together through those trials as a team and came out stronger You Are Not Alone there's a community who supports you WC capes follow our page um stand strong have courage fight the good fight and don't give into their bullying and stay in it for the right reasons you have support you have people in this community that want to bring things together instead of tear
056them down we are in this together and we will make it through thank you next up Daniel schroer good evening board my name is Danielle shider um this is our home turf Piney Ridge um I plan to speak to you all for months now about actual issues impacting my children and that I would like to see resolved all my emails go unanswered because no one would dare create a paper trail of them engaging in Contra controversial topics that is one indicator to me that the Attorney General's lawsuit against the Wentzville School District Board of Education is true and valid why can't we have honest discourse the good the bad the ugly is the reason fear is it apathy is it because hidden agendas would get exposed director Lewis suggested that people be more kind with
057their words I agree with this sentiment but when facts hurt people's feelings or foil people's plans when false narratives are perpetuated we have crossed into the realm of dysfunction and nothing will be accomplished unless the source of dysfunction is eradicated and before someone gets triggered the word eradicated means to pull up by the roots we would say something we could say something positive about tonight look at the level of community engagement in this school district and don't get me wrong teachers I'm so thankful you are here these topics deserve discussion teachers and parents deserve to be heard and I believe there is Middle Ground and that is a positive but then things start to feel less positive when you learn that staff were actively recruited by Administration to come speak tonight and then well you
058may not have been but some were and then it starts to feel downright icky when you find out a district employee who had signed up to speak a couple of months ago was silenced by the same Administration I don't condone childish falsified public comment names and topics but I will be quick to point out that these things wouldn't happen if the district was acting with integrity and transparency I have said it many times all I'm asking for is a functional board who is willing and able to hold people accountable including themselves if everyone on the board and an Administration fulfilled their roles with Integrity we wouldn't be facing any of these current challenges if you aren't sure how that's done go to a Francis H board meeting observe take notes I look forward to the
059day that I can talk to you all about my experiences and they as they relate to my children versus asking you to manage your dysfunction next up Claudia Jenkins skipping down then next up Constance constant hm good evening ladies and gentlemen today I want to talk to you about the powerful concept of trust within our educational Community specifically between teachers community members School District employees and the Board of Education that needs to be repaired trust is the Bedrock upon which successful relationships and environments are built if we work together we can foster a culture of trust that will positively impact every aspect of our students educational Journey trust begins with taking responsibility for our own actions and choices as Schoolboard members you should be proactive in building trust by consistently demonstrating Integrity honesty and dependability
060when working with teachers School District employees and the community working together together we can create an atmosphere where students feel empowered to take ownership of their learning knowing that their voices are heard and valued trust is strengthened when all members of our educational Community share a common vision and purpose beginning with the end in mind our students let us align our goals and expectations creating a shared commitment to Excellence when teachers community members School District employees and school boards are united in their dedication to the success of each student trust blossoms trust requires that we prioritize what truly matters putting first things first our students teachers must prioritize building positive relationships with their students empathizing respect and active listening students in turn trust that their teachers genuinely care about their well-being and academic growth our
061school board must prioritize providing the necessary resources and support for a thriving learning environment trust is Amplified when we adopt a mindset of collaboration and cooperation think win-win teachers community members School District employees and the school board must work together recognizing that we all play Vital roles in the educational process by finding mutually beneficial Solutions we can create an environment where trust flourishes and everyone feels valued and respected trust is deepened when we actively listen and seek to understand one another's perspectives school board members must strive to understand the unique needs and challenges of our students fostering open lines of communication the Schoolboard must listen attentively to the concerns and ideas of teachers students and parents ensuring that trust is built through genuine dialogue trust is elevated when we appreciate the strength that comes from
062diverse ideas and contributions teachers encourage collaboration among the students valuing the different talents and viewpoints they bring the school board should synergize actively seek input from Educators students and parents recognizing that the best decisions are made collectively trust is not just a nice to have attribute in our educational Community it is essential for our Collective success let us commit ourselves to building and nurturing trust knowing that it will transform our schools into places of excellence and opportunity thank you next up Candice door good evening I will not be long this time um I was not expecting such a crowd and I was just gonna um boast about Boon Trail and South middle and all the teachers and staff and admin there and how much we as a family love them and how much my kids
063love them and that they are legitimately the staff and admin and teachers at boont tril and south are legitimately the reason the only reason why we remain in this District um I won't say anything else that's just all I wanted to say how much I love the teacher staff and admin at Boon Trail in South thank you next up Lindy willford good evening um attitude is a direct reflection of leadership all I see tonight is our superintendent pitting teachers against parents and it makes me sad I'm not and parents are not teacher haters I don't know any parent that doesn't want to collaborate with their kids' teachers teachers that sometimes spend more time with our kids than we do but education does not exist to compete with the family's values their morals or their religious
064beliefs and what I heard tonight from some of our teachers is if you don't like that it might then you need to leave yikes parents even teachers are telling you that you need to get your kids out at this point back to what I really wanted to say here due to a violation of the code of ethics board policy 0340 number 11 which occurred during the September 21st 23 school board meeting I request a vote of no confidence and removal of Jason gson as president of the winville school aard thank you next up Amy benninghofen hi so I actually just came from a whole choir performance that my daughter was involved in at Liberty High School so I rushed over here hoping that I would actually get a chance to speak um so forgive me
065I'm a little rushed um my mind is kind of all over the place I'm just going to be honest with you tonight I don't have anything prepared I wanted to come and like speak from my heart um it's sad what I've seen occur over the last six months I think a lot of us parents just wanted to be heard we have our values we have our beliefs and we were finding out that there was things being taught in the classroom that we didn't agree with and we started coming to these meetings and speaking out because we genuinely wanted to be heard and for our beliefs to be honored you know we talk a lot about in this District about inclusion I don't feel very included at all I don't feel like what I what my
066family values is is being respected I was listening to some of the speakers tonight on the way here and after the choir performance and I was it made me sad because I have loved every single teacher that my children have had and I speak with my child's IEP teacher and she is wonderful and she helps whenever I ask you know an issue came up with my youngest who has an IEP in math and she was struggling with some science because there was Math and Science and I didn't even think about that and she jumped on that immediately and I wholeheartedly appreciate that and I told her that I don't want to be pitted against these teachers I want my values and the things that I believe in to be respected that's all we're asking you
067know where did we go wrong here I know a lot of you I've gotten to know a lot of you sitting up there tonight over the last couple of years how did we get here I hope you really really sit back and take time to think about that because I am not your enemy we are not enemies we want to work together but in order to do that you're right we all need to be heard and at every turn I feel like when we share we're somehow demonized thank you next up Vanessa Hagadorn okay I would like to start off also by thanking teachers none of us would be where we are if it weren't for a teacher so thank you so much to all of you oh hey good evening board members attendees and
068those watching from home I am actually sharing this on behalf of another District parent I am very disappointed by what some of you have done to this already failing school district the lies the manipulation the strategizing the wasteful spending the utter disregard of parents in this District the sheer negligence to the students education and safety is astounding you were elected to do a job your job is to work for the students the parents the taxpayers and the stakeholders of Wentzville School District instead you corroborated to try and secretly and illegally take out our three newest board members that were elected by the people the sheer hate for our new board members was blatantly obvious even before they were sworn in they never had a chance to work with you some of you hate truth and
069the newest three board members stand for truth which is why they have so much support in our community it is unbelievable how our fearless leader pitted you against one another instead of entering our district and promoting cohesiveness the opposite was done is the backlash worth it is the negative press worth it Windville School District making national news again never in my wildest dreams did I see myself fighting along with so many other parents to beg our district to focus on education never did I imagine we'd watch watch a superintendent purposefully try to make it look as though District parents were against teachers we are advocating for teachers side note I'm actually a teacher never in my wildest dreams did I oh this has become a dirty political game and has no place in our schools
070ask yourselves why is this being done by our superintendent why aren't you standing up for children's education and safety Bor the superintendent works for you you are her checks and balances system and you work for us why did some of you allow this to happen Jason's attitude and disrespect for some of the fellow board members is evident and beyond belief leaders work to unite even if people have differences leaders don't conspire and pit board members against one another Julie found out pretty quickly that it is in fact the parents beep business about what goes on in our schools the parents have a right to be involved being sneaky hiding information from parents does not promote transparency Katie I campaigned for you I told everyone I know to vote for you you're a Christian be bold
071advocate for children we elected you because the students need you we elected you because the teachers that just want to teach need you Renee Jen and David we hope you know how much we appreciate your hard work and love for our children what a relief we now have board members that stand for truth what's right advocate for parental rights and focus on what's most important the education and safety of all students if you if it weren't for you three my family would have been pulled by now keep up the amazing work you have an army of parents behind you than next up Bob and members of the council my name is Bob and I serve the citizens of this District in the Missouri Senate for eight years thank you for the opportunity to speak to
072you this evening uh since they spoke to the board in July my worst fears were concern were confirmed uh on September 26th when Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed suit against the Wentzville School District over Sunshine Law violations the discussion was on inst uting transgender policy and know it doesn't make a bit of difference if you call it a procedure and not a policy and leaving it an open question whether parents would be notified the topic was discussed in closed session over the objection of board members everyone on this board knows it Miss tala staff District lawyers know it happened and you all know that the sunshine law has been flouted on numerous other occasions if this law breaking was done at the advis of the district's lawyer he ought to be fired immediately but I'd
073like to address another issue that's equally disturbing possible misappropriation of District funds on April 12 2023 superintendent tormala said the district stood to lose $3.7 million from a proposed Darden Prairie tax abatement and the threaten and threatened the board of alderman of Garden they could either quote come to the table and discuss payment in Lee of taxes or face litigation this is public record six days later um on the 18th the district backed off from opposition to the dard and tax abatement and agreed not to oppose it in return for a quote contribution agreement in which the developer agreed to pay 50,000 a year for 12 years $600,000 about a six the what the district stood to lose okay but where did the money go back to the district right isn't that what payment in
074lie of taxes usually means nope the district was designated to go to the Wentzville School District Foundation but the foundation smelled a rat smelled the other corruption and they refused the money and in August a new agreement was executed saying the district would that the money would go again not to the district but to an appropriate entity so what in heaven name is an appropriate entity will this money the district's money money that should be used for kids will it go to some dark 501c nonprofit and somehow find its way into District campaigns let's say for your positions will it go to a lucrative contract to some friend's business or will it be outright embezzled it is pathetic that the Missouri attorney general had to file suit against this District because of this District's violation
075of the sunshine laws it would be even worse if the public corruption unit of the FBI or the Attorney General's office has to investigate this district for misuse of funds the only appropriate and I'm talking to all of you I'm talking to the lawyer I'm talking to M tormala the only appropriate use of this money is for the kids it needs to go back into district coffers and be used for kids and their educ thank you next up Stephanie Kell good evening can you hear me all right there we go good evening my name is seep Kel and I'm a parent taxpayer and employee of the winville school district I want to address a matter of great importance to our our community and our children's future we've recently become aware of a concerning public record
076regarding one of our board members which has expressed a desire to eliminate social emotional learning within the WSC schools which raises serious questions about whether such actions align with our District's core values as stated on our district website our core values include Learning Community excellence and integrity let us examine these values in the context of the proposed changes First Learning is at the heart of what we do we aim to equip our students staff and Community with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in a changing World social emotional learning is not a luxury it's necessity it helps our students develop the vital life skills needed to navigate the complexities of the modern world removing it from our schools goes against our commitment to equipping our students with the tools they need for Success Community
077is another cherish value and it hinges on respecting stakeholders perspectives with honesty and transparency as we create a world-class educational system the propos removal of these programs and practices raises questions about transparency and openness in our decision-making process it's crucial that we ensure all voices are heard and respected in shaping our educational system Excellence is a fundamental goal fostering a culture that supports the highest level of individual success social emotional learning leader and me trauma informed practices and restorative approaches are all essential components of this culture eliminating these practices would jeopardize the individual success of our students lastly Integrity is a value we hold dear dedicating ourselves to making courageous decisions and providing resources for the continuous Improvement of the winville school district a courageous decision in this context would be to maintain these valuable
078programs and practices that enhance our students well-being and development our mission as a school district is to provide our students with the best possible education and prepare them for a future in which social and emotional skills are as important as academic knowledge removing these programs and practices could be a step in the wrong direction contrary to our District's core values I urge us all to come together as a community and engage in open honest and respectful discussions on these matters our children's education is a shared responsibility and their well-being should always come first let us find Common Ground respect diverse viewpoints and ensure that our schools remain a place where every child has the opportunity to thrive and become a well-rounded empathetic and responsible member of society thank you for your time and dedication to
079the future of our community together we can continue to build an educational environment that upholds our District's core values and serves the best interest of our students thank you next up ory Jones Okay skipping on next up Clara Walker hello oh hi my name is Clara and I'm a junior at LHS and I'm also a student who a month ago received National scholar recognition since I know that's important to you guys as a member of the oh okay okay well thanks um as a member of the lgbtq plus Community the Discrimination that I have um faced within the district for my entire time in the district I've been here since kindergarten had led me to contemplating taking my own life at age nine earlier than I think any child should ever have that thought in
080their head I had to be faced with the with the decision of continuing to live before I had even learned algebra because of people like who hold beliefs like you and people who are taught by people who have beliefs like you so please listen to me if you continue to push your discrimination onto students with your beliefs you need to be aware of all of the harm that you're going to cause the thousands of young children who are harassed every year as part of the lgbtq plus Community the thousands of children who kill themselves every year because of the Discrimination that they that they face from people is because of people who hold beliefs like yours so if you continue to push this on to students it's only going to further that issue you have
081to understand that children will hurt from what you believe whether you think you're doing the correct thing or not you're choosing your beliefs over their safety and you're responsible to what happens to these kids while they're in school and how they grow up it's not on their parents it's not on their lack of faith it's not on um something that's wrong in their brain it's who they are so you're going to be the one who is putting them in a position where they fear going to school without being harassed and they hate going home because they feel like they don't like who they are so for you to sit here and promote kindness and claim that you're against discrimination while you have directly shown otherwise is disgusting and unethical you every day have an opportunity
082to protect these kids that you say that you care about and if you did care about them oh thanks um if you did care about them you would do what these teachers and parents do every single day you wouldn't remove their ability of for teachers to give kids what they need I can tell you firsthand that if I didn't have the teachers that are all here to help me um I wouldn't be standing here talking to you guys like a board of empty chairs and I want to thank all of the teachers who have helped me um and I can't imagine um all of the headaches that they have to go through every month with this so thanks for your time bye next up Katrina Scott Butler good evening my name is Katrina Butler and
083I am a parent of a previous student in the Windville School District I have concerns over anti-bullying and safety at Holt High School I'm here to address the critical issue of anti-bullying measures and the overall safety and environment at H High School my daughter was in the Windville School District until October 9th 2023 she is here with me tonight but she doesn't want to get up here and stand she got to the point where she got a sense her sense of safety and protection was diminished and she felt compelled to discontinue her attendance on March 11 2022 my daughter returned from school with distressing news another student had expressed intent to engage in PH physical altercation with no clear provocation known to her regrettably my initial call to the school on that Friday you did
084no response consequently on Monday March 14th I contacted the school again advising my daughter to promptly report the buling to the school's office subsequently the school counselor convened a meeting with my daughter involving the other student prior to my daughter departing her office she was questioned by The Counselor regarding her feelings of safety at the time my then 15-year-old daughter expressed a conditional sense of safe contingent upon her not having to be in proximity to the other student this response was duly documented tragically following her first hour class my daughter was subjected to an unprovoked physical assault by this the same student as she was in route to her next class in self-defense my daughter took action which regrettably resulted in her receiving a 5-day suspension this suspension this disciplinary measure was invoked pursuant to
085the school's stringent Zero Tolerance policy it is imperative to emphasize that my daughter had never been involved in physical altercation prior to this incident the zero tolerance policy punitive stance inadvertently penalize the victim for defending herself in the face of imminent danger addressing an alarming incident I promptly communicated with one of the school administrators apprising them of the impending altercation which had been public publicly disclosed on social media despite this advanced notice the school permitted the other student to proceed to her classes without taking preventative action after the altercation I said numerous documented emails and made several calls to the superintendent and every number I could find on the wizville webssite when my concerns fell on deaf ears I contacted the state fast forward to 2023 and regrettably the same student continues to torment my
086daughter despite her resilience my daughter has courageously reported over 10 instances of harassment and bullying to multiple administrators equally alarming three other students have endured similar ordeals it's deeply disconcerting that another altercation transpired but this time a disturbing turn of events unfolded teachers and administrators became victims as well enduring physical assaults by the students who had been bullying my daughter notably it was only when administrators and teachers themselves were physically impacted that more rigorous disciplinary actions were finally implemented it is evident that the school's short-term Zero Tolerance approach to bullying has not effectively mitigated bullying issues which appeared to persist and even increase our children as a result are left vulnerable and unprotected the district's culture and exceptions for student Behavior must undergo fundamental change to ensure the safe safety of our children when a
087parent and child has repeatedly reported instances of Bulan and harassment in accordance with the school policy it becomes imperative to address the following what measures will you take to in to secure medical treatment for the AG aggressive student or to enlist law enforcement assistance you heard this question earlier tonight prior to our victimized children reaching a critical Breaking Point the notion that teens will be teens is an unacceptable mindset when enforcing policies our children must have the opportunity to attend school within within a safe and conducive learning environment Missouri law mandates an invest ation within two days of publicizing the anti-bullying policy appropriate training annual notifications to students parents and staff and the periodic revision of the anti-bullying policy as necessary as a minimal requirement your policies should Encompass clear instructions to school social workers
088mental health professionals and school psychologists I implore you to address these pressing concerns with urgency and dedication as a safety and well being of all students at hold High School are at stake our children de deserves a learning environment free from persistent fear of bullying and harassment we my daughter followed the policy repeated when she told me she no longer felt safe we made the decision to withdraw her from school after a parent and child and I will say this again has repeatedly report reported bullying and harassment as stated in the school policy what will you do to protect these children what have the school done to protect my daughter so now she is home and not experiencing her High School career she is a junior she's going into her senior year and now she
089is subjected to not experience High School the way that other kids have experienced it because she's a afraid no one should have to walk down the hallways looking over their shoulder winville the winville school district failed my daughter and they failed multiple other students at the Hol high school thank you next up debah Trower no one all right moving to the last but not least Payton freshy now is it on okay hi um my name is pton freshy this is my home ground um and in two short years I will also be a parent of a student in the winville school district um ladies and gentlemen parents and fellow community members today I stand before you to advocate for an essential principle in our education system the imperative for the winville School District Board of
090Education to listen to and Trust our Educators us our teachers administrators and staff are the backbone of our educational community and their expertise dedication and passion should be valued respect did and most importantly heard our Educators us those who spend countless hours nurturing the minds of our children have an unparalleled understanding to the challenges and opportunities within our classrooms we witness firsthand the unique needs and potential of our students we adapt we innovate we tirelessly work to provide the best learning experiences yet too often our voices go unheard in the decision-making process it is Paramount that the board of educ education recognizes the knowledge and expertise that we the Educators bring to the table we are the ones who understand the intricacies of teaching the learning styles the best practices and the individual needs of
091our students our input should be sought and valued when shaping educational policies curriculum choices and resource allocation when Educators voices are heard and respected it creates a sense of empowerment and motivation it Fosters a collaborative atmosphere where teachers feel valued and appreciated in turn this positivity trickles down to our students when educators are motivated when they are confident that their voes voices are considered they can Inspire our children to excel furthermore when educators are trusted to make informed decisions it promotes a sense of ownership in the craft this thrust enables us to adapt to the everchanging landscape of Education ensuring that our students receive a dynamic and relevant learning experience it enables us to explore Innovative teaching methods implement the latest research practice research based practices and tailor instruction to the unique needs of our
092diverse because I have a few Kate talked about how in the morning for our students no matter what time this gets over and I want to share with you the social emotional imp believe I had on me tonight she's Al a parent of a former student that I had last year she asked her daughter who her favorite teacher was and she said it was me when she asked why the student said because she told me she loved me every day and that is why I will show up tomorrow for my students so in closing the success of our educational system depends on a partnership between the Board of Education and our Educators it is my sincere hope that we can foster an environment of trust collaboration and respect where the knowledge and expertise of our
093Educators is not only recognized but is cherished let us remember that by listening and trusting the Educators us we invest in the future of our children and the Vitality of our community thank you that concludes the public comment section I make a motion to take a 10-minute recess second second can I amend the motion to 15 15 minute recess that will work I have a motion in a second I heard that okay yeah all right all those in favor say I I I motion carries crowd agrees excuse me president Goodson who was the second like we're missing a board member hold on Jason president Goodson just for everybody that's still out there there's some heat that's going to be coming our way soon you if it doesn't if it doesn't remember to name Josh all
094right we're going to move on to resident agenda items we have two for tonight on 11.1 we have a K through five Ela curriculum it was added at the request of Megan K so I will bring you up if you can come to the mic the way this works is it's a five minute total time if you want a lot time for board questions that can be accommodated but we to keep things within that five minute time frame okay can you hear me ladies and gentlemen of the school board thank you for the opportunity to address you today I stand before you as a concerned member of this community a parent within the district and as an advocate for our dedicated Educators when the decision was made to disregard curriculum P phases by moving up
095the K5 Ela curriculum purchase the five board members who voted in in favor of this decision vice president stly secretary liac directors Lewis hanky and Olsen overreached as board members this vote showed their disregard to acknowledge the professional expertise of Educators in this District education is a collaboration between parents Educators students and the community however it appears the balance of power in this partnership has shifted with the school board exerting an increasing level of control and influence encroaching on the autonomy of our schools Educators and parents the role of the school board is to provide a framework for educational policies budget allocations and general oversight not to micromanage the daily Affairs of our schools which is what they propose to do within policy 034 our primary responsibility as a district is to ensure that our
096schools provide an environment where every student can Thrive learn and grow to their fullest potential it's our duty to empower our Educators with the tools tools and support they need to facilitate this growth however we have observed instances where decisions seem to prioritize their political agendas over the well-being and the development of our students and Educators recently a public record written by director Olsen stated her true intentions to cancel all programming not academic based solely on her opinion as she believes that such program programming has been quote been subverting the Youth of our country since the 1950s if we adhere to the agenda of director olssen by removing emotional and social learning we will ultimately be harming our students academically let's reference evidence-based research in 1943 Abraham maslo has first published the foundational educational theory
097that categorize human needs into five levels this shapes an individual's Behavior this theory is taught and widely used within the very first year of pre-service educator training across our country each level of need within this pyramid must be met before a person can move on to the next fillment level at the base we have physiological needs these basic needs are food water bre clothing shelter the second level of needs are safety needs which include protection from harm and emotional stability love and belonging needs make up the third tier focusing on human interaction including social groups friendships and family bonds the fourth level esteem needs includes self-respect the belief that you are valuable and deserving of dignity and self-esteem please notice academics has yet to make the category of needs yes the educational system is to
098educate students but in order to do that academically for to in order to academically achieve a student must have their physiological love and belonging social and esteem needs met first we heard today from multiple student accounts that that is not occurring the highest and last level self-actualization which finally includes education skill development and broader goals our students the very reason for the existence of our schools deserve better their needs should be at the Forefront of every decision we make education should be a comprehensive experience nurturing not just academic knowledge but the also the social and emotional growth of all our teachers who are dedicated and passionate about educating our children are often caught in the crossfires of changing directives mandates your political agendas and disparaging social media posts by members of the community trusting our
099Educators is Paramount as they are on the front lines witnessing the individual needs of our students every day moreover an Engaged and empowered Community can contribute significantly to the success of our schools however when the power is concentrated in the hands of a few it can deter Community participation and limit influence of local voices with the temperament of the audience at many board meetings and further evidence in the public forum signup sheet last night parents and Educators have felt threatened to attend meetings and speak out with fear of retaliation in conclusion it's my hope that we can collectively work towards a more student centered and educator friendly approach in our decision-making process unfortunately the K5 Ela curriculum P purchasing decision timeline has been disrupted Beyond repair therefore it's my hope that the school board reflects
100on the recent decisions and negative impact that they have had it is also my request that an agenda item be added for a first read of policy 0340 after reviewing and revising this policy with the Missouri school boards Association it's not a sign of weakness to re-evaluate re-calibrate and speak for all parents Educators and community members thank you okay moving on to 11.2 we have the other resident agenda item that was requested by Tamara King prik she here still okay again I know I apologize she reminded me three times and I got it wrong I apologize about yourself Samra thank you you're welcome I apologize that's all right I've been correcting people all my life I can keep doing it all right so hello again um let's start here I am not only a parent
101but I am a homeowner in the area I am also a business owner in the area I PID taxes in both both areas right so I have expectations and I expect as both a as a homeowner a parent and a business owner that you all utilize my tax tax dollars to benefit all students not just some students it shouldn't matter what color a student is it should matter uh that they're showing up to school every day right when we went to the Cy meeting uh CIP meeting uh last week there were these beautiful charts that were created right and in those charts it was kind of disparaging you all chose to single out black kids you all chose to sit in a room full of people that had problem with kids that look like me
102and single out black kids and speak to how they were academically disproportionate to white kids however when you spoke about demographics in those same charts you spoke about all other ethnicity as a whole that is disparaging you say that you don't understand how our black kids are uh not performing at the same level how do you expect them to when they're constantly being assaulted when they're constantly being verbally assaulted when they're constantly being ignored how do you expect them to come to school and learn and perform at a higher level as compared to other kids who are constantly protected the attorney general made several comments this year in April of 2023 he said an e there should there uh I'm sorry he called an emergency rule an effort to protect children that is based on
103dozens of scientific studies and reports in response to a clandestine network of clinics across the state who are harming children by ignoring the science right then he turned around in October of this year and he goes on Fox News and he said we're fighting to protect a parent's rights to know what's going on in their kids school and to have a say in that process he continues to say that we are not going to let that happen we are going to fight to enforce the state's open meeting laws and ensure that parents rights are respected I agree with that our rights should be respected our children's rights should be respected but does that apply to our black kids too what are you all going to do as a district as a board who has ignored
104our students what are you going to do to protect them you've heard from teachers who are not protected you've heard from teachers who are not respected you have heard from teachers who do not trust you to do right by them or the students that they go to school and protect every day you have heard from parents that feel the exact same way and yet and still you still twirl your hair and TW quiddle your fingers and act like we're not standing here I don't understand that you wonder why I mentioned the the above and I mention it not because I want to disrupt your process but because I want to cause a little good trouble today you all started it I gave you a choice I made call after call about the issues that were
105plaguing my niece and you ignored it I have sent each and every last one of you an email and I haven't heard back from any of you aside from Dr tala so while people are sitting here ragging on her and and and saying what she did not do right at least she got back to me at least she had enough respect to meet with me not one of you did not one of you cared so here is all I want to know and I'm going to give you a few seconds to answer what are you going to do now you had the chance to fix it you chose not to I told you if you didn't fix it I would what are you going to do for our kids I'll give you a chance to
106answer comments from the board thanks for the the update of the Enlightenment that I didn't know was going on uh and now just bear with me okay because I was going to say you were on the email sometimes I choose my words in in the right way and sometimes I get hung tight a little bit but no the the process that we go through when we receive the letters and this is guidance that we received from the school district is that if it's something that's related to what's going on inside the school the administration is the one that responds to those questions or those comments or that so we followed the process where the superintendent did respond okay that's I mean that's the process we go through um in most of the cases we have
107some limitations as you know with Sunshine where we can't respond back to everybody uh because then it's all of us and you can only have more no more than three so there's a couple of things that go on there that take place for background but from a from what do we do going forward I mean personally I I need to dig in and understand more I mean I got 60 emails that were all uh the same about uh you know about one subject another 40 from another subject so I've got that email there but we got to hear what was going on I saw you were on the schedule so we go to I I needed to hear what you were doing what you're GNA say and then we have to regroup and see what's
108what's what what makes sense I mean that's that's all we can do from where we're at to me I understand that and I appreciate that but here's my further problem I'm one I received 127 messages text calls emails within two days of a news story there's no way I'm the only one that you received not saying that you're saying that you got one email you said you got 60 but if you got 60 emails about the same subject why not at least respond back your words your words how do we Bridge a gap how can we Bridge a gap that you're not willing to Bridge I I don't I don't agree with that assessment that I'm not willing to bridge okay so you know I I start from that and you know how do you
109bridge it is you start talking and and I'm willing to do that and now that I have a much Clear idea of that I'm part of that team I had opportunity uh during the break went out and talk to a student that spoke up here and said I need to to learn more I mean that's that's what I'm doing that's what I'm trying to do coming in here so that's my thought on it okay you're one everybody else president Goodson if I may yes I think it would be um well I guess I'm looking for board consensus here to go back to the policies the disciplined policies and put in some some very strict language um pertaining to prohibitions on racial slurs of any kind by anybody any student Any teacher any staff member any
110anybody because we can't protect our kids from discrimination if we're ignoring the words being said to each other you know you can ask some kids and they'll say it's words of endearment you can ask other kids and they'll say you know maybe he means it in a different way or or whatever but we need to draw the line so that there's no more confusion because then who's the Arbiter of when it's right and when it's wrong the kids don't need to ever be talking like things that you've described and Sabrina's described right I agree with that but I'm hoping that you stand by those words because not only are you saying those words to me and all these beautiful people out here but you're also being recorded of course so I'm gonna hold you to
111that uh Miss Jen Olsen uh and I'm gonna hold you to that Mr David anybody else got a response um my view is first to say I apologize for not responding to your email I didn't um so I apologize to that uh you will get an email from me and I'd like to sit down with you and talk to you what can we do what should we do it shouldn't be my views of that but it should be yours so I'm willing to listen and willing to learn okay Jason I just want to make sure that you know that if you're going to listen I'm not talking about just brushing me off you need to actively listen and understand not only my perspective but the perspective of these kids you guys have ignored them far
112too long this is my first school board meeting and I'm sorry that this is my first but it won't be my last unfortunately you guys opened a door that you can't close is should have been handled it should have never gotten to this point we should not have any kid that's afraid to go to school in one of the top school districts in the area right this is supposed to be such a great School District right there are people that you all are connected to on social media that are literally bullying kids and you all are still standing there as their friends I haven't seen not one of you stand up and say you know what don't say that those are my students you're referring to instead you all have chosen to ignore and I'm
113going to continue to say you all whether you saw it or not is your job to know anybody else I'll say I do agree with um director Olsen um she and I did have that conversation um I would just like to also add I know a couple people had spoke about the bullying and what is being done with the aggressor um and I had brought up in a previous meeting you know that that aggressor probably needs to have some sort of counseling um and I would like that to be looked into as far as um our discipline on that part well I'm sorry is it Miss hanky Miss Renee we'll go with Miss Renee um so here's the thing we're not just talking about bullying I appreciate the attempt to steer it a little differently
114but we're talking about racial discrimination and bullying we're talking about both because and it's important that we draw a line of distinction between the two we're not going to lump it all together and act like it's just kids being kids let's go have a good day we're not going to do that today we're GNA say what it is and we're going to stand by what it is our kids are being discriminated against racially a friend of mine said something earlier today and I'm I'm G to get away from y'all because I know my time is beyond up but that's all right she said something that stuck with me and as I thought about my expectation and I thought about my ask for you all I came up with this just two more things which is
115this I expect our kids to be judged by their character not by the color of their skin every day they walk down this Hall they're called out of their names if they were Jewish and they were being accosted by kids that agreed with the other side the Nazis or skin hor or whoever would you care then would it be enough for you to care because they finally look like you instead of looking like me and being ignored that's that's my first thought and my last thought on that is right here your apology needs to be as loud as your disrespect y'all are some disrespectful people sometimes and if you're going to apologize to me I don't just expect it in writing each and every one of y'all sitting on that stage owes my niece a
116verbal apology and before we walk out this door it would be nice if you just say it I'm sorry that you had to be treated like that I'm sorry that we did nothing to stand up for you I'm sorry that you went to school for a year and a half before you got a response you owe her that and now I'm done go ahead Dr Tula so I'd like to add a few things if I can if you want to come back up you can come back up um so so this is what I would like to say with this I'm gonna start with saying I am sorry I appreciate that I am sorry every single one of our children and staff members in community deserve to have schools that are free from discrimination and
117harassment yes ma'am it is not okay it is not okay and so what I want to say is this when I think that there's always a silver lining and if we can find those and come together we're going to be able to find solutions that are going to move our district forward okay and what I'm going to say is I appreciate the fact that you were willing to sit down with my team and I yeah that others were willing to sit down that you were willing to come to our CIP our comprehensive School Improvement planning meetings and express your views because I think as a district having diverse views is critical for us to serve our community and meet the need needs of all of our children yes and so with that you ask what
118we're going to do right and so I know we've had some internal discussion and Dr lebrat was a part of that too and I want to say thank you for the advocacy that you're bringing to this because when I left our meeting I I have my superintendent uh student leadership groups at all of our high schools and I literally left our meeting and went straight to one of those and in that conversation um towards the end after we had talked about many things I said to them I said as your superintendent sitting in front of you what do you wish I knew what do you wish I knew in order to better advocate for our students because our student voice is critical yeah it's critical to be heard as we are making decisions for our
119district what do you wish I knew what do you wish our Administration knew what do you wish our Board of Education knew and one of those very brave individuals said to me we have to talk about racism and we ha and someone else said and we have to talk about diversity equity and inclusion for all of our students in including our lgbtqia students yeah and and I look for ways to make sure our students have leadership and their voices are heard and from that meeting those students agreed with me that we're going to sit down we're going to pull some student leadership from all of our high schools we're going to come together we're going to have a planning session on what could it look like to create a safe space for those students to
120really let our Administration know and understand what their experience is right we're going to do that and our students are coming to the table with us to help create that and see that's awesome and I appreciate that you guys are going to do that but we have to understand that the reason why the academics are suffering when it comes to these black and brown kids is because they're suffering in your schools and I heard firsthand when I went to a different high school for a different leadership group a student asked to keep me afterwards to speak to me privately and that student shared his account directly with me of what he has experienced and I told him the same thing we have to address this it is not okay and as the superintendent of this
121District it is my job to address and address this concern and so we're starting with our student leadership okay to get a better understanding of their needs we are going to open the conversation we've opened it through our school improvement process we know when we brought our teams together when we did our climate and culture survey last year we have discrepancies for our um families that come from Minority backgrounds especially our africanamerican families that said to us we don't feel like our voices are heard and valued they said that to us yeah right and so it's time for us to be able to start taking a look at that so we will as we work through this comprehensive School improvement process that is an area that is emerging up as an area that we need
122to focus on and so I don't know yet all of those steps but it's coming and we're going to work together and I would love for us to work together to help do that I'm sure we're on board and then I would love to take up director olssen and director Hank's suggestions of looking at our code of conduct right going back and looking at language for zero tolerance right for those types of things and so if if we are going to have some board support on that I will absolutely reconvene that committee well how about I ask do we have board support on that are you all going to support the looking at the language in regard to racial discrimination within the school do we have the support of the board absolutely some of y'all
123are a little quiet for me I'm sorry I don't operate that way if your answer is yes I need to hear it yes yes yes that's what we're doing oh okay um I just wanted to be sure because sometimes you guys tell us yes and you say it so quietly that we can't hear you but you tell us those NOS awfully loudly okay you we good we got more Dr tala well I just think that we're this is the beginning right yes ma'am it's the beginning honestly we don't expect you guys to fix the community we're not asking you to fix the community we're asking you to fix Wentzville School District okay and I'm going to say this moving forward with these conversations the terms diversity Equity inclusion cannot be dirty words in this District
124anyway thank you ma'am ma'am hey let's have order let's have order in our meeting please let's have order in our meeting please moving on to 12.1 superintendent comments Dr Torla thank you Bren can you pull up the slideshow okay so we'd like to start off by wishing all of our princip a happy National principles month they work so hard so hard and they do amazing amazing things for kids every single day and so we have to give them a great shout out we also want to give a huge shout out for this brand new piece of information that just came out this today Dr Jake Adams our athletic director activities director for from North Point High School was just uh he just received the St Louis District new cumber ad of the Year award this
125year which is all about administrators who demonstrate leadership qualities outstanding work ethic and communication skills and if you know Dr Adams he is very deserving of this award so we're excited for him so this month has been full of lots of events from our homecoming parade which is truly from my perspective one of the coolest things about the Windville School District we are such a big District but when we have these types of events where four high schools come together to celebrate that community and School District Pride it is an amazing thing to be a part of we also are very excited that we were able to kick off one of our first engagement events this year where each quarter we're going to highlight our students and schools showcase um two weeks ago we had
126that at the Liberty uh High School for the Liberty feeder pattern we had students showcasing the great programs and Innovations and clubs and activities that happen in our schools we had students there performing um musical um uh choirs were there and we had drama clubs that were there we had the robotics teams that were there they were just doing amazing things and we were able to share with our community uh the state of the district as well as provide some um breakout professional development type sessions that parents and community members could choose to go to to learn more things about the district so it was our first time doing that it was well-received we look forward to um making some tweaks to that and then our next one will be in uh December at North
127Point High School we also last week kicked off our strategic planning sessions for our comprehensive School Improvement plan for our staff and our our students and so we pulled together we had over 200 participants between those four sessions that joined us to really start digging into some data about the district look at our current realities and then start talking with us and sharing input on our strengths our weaknesses areas for opportunities for improvement and potential threats to the district from the outside that we need to really look at and um be aware of as we're moving forward we also are excited that our onville Middle School school students were able to work with um people from volunteers from GM and the City of wizville and they went through and they did um outdoor education with
128field water testing and fishing so that's a fun Innovative thing for them to do I already mentioned a little bit of our s superintendent advisory Council but we've kicked those off and I'm telling you the days that I get to spend with our students having conversations about what matters to them are some of the best days that I have and they are very inspirational and I am so so proud to um help lead this district with them we also want to say thank you and celebrate our oops I'm going the wrong way um celebrate our national school bus safety week our transportation team truly goes above and beyond they do amazing things every day and so we have to give them a strong shout out we also want to say um thank you to the
129mic services department and all of our teachers and staff on September 29th we had a professional development day and so through our new um system of um selecting feedback from our from our participants 93% of them found the the content to be relevant and 91% found the content to be engaging so that we were very excited about and we had just pulled a few uh comments here to share too it was um this was good as all of the content directly applies to what we do at our school knowing and identifying the curriculum indicators are important for Designing challenging and engaging lessons for students and I see the value of this being useful for all ages and even after high school this is the tool we've been missing to help our eighth graders begin their
130Journey towards their future careers and so I just want to say thank you to the teams and our our staff members Who led many of those sessions for um putting together such high quality professional development for our staff I also want to say thank you to uh director um hanky and director Olsen for joining us each quarter we are doing board of education learning walks and they were able to join us as we went through um many of the schools in the Liberty feeder pattern uh just to see what's happening in our classrooms with our kiddos and the learning that's occurring and then we also have a couple of our committees are starting to get back into the swing of things our Safety Committee has been meeting and going through vendor presentations conducting some site
131visits and working on on next steps for identifying priorities for safety with and security throughout the district in terms of spending um our remaining Bond issues that um that for funds that we have allocated for that and they also did just recently put out a survey as well so all of that information will be used and then our construction committee reconvened as well and they developed recommendations for priorities for the leftover bond issue funds from props e and c and just so we're clear with that all 10 of our last bond issue projects that the district has had have come in under budget and either on time or early and that has allowed us to have Reserve funds here that will now be able to fund other priorities in the district that were not originally
132allocated with bond issue money and so we are excited about that those funds do need to be spent by September 2025 so um today we had originally expected to talk more about our long range planning for our facilities process however there were other very important issues that kind of came up onto this agenda so we are looking at a date in November to bring all of that forward for the community and for the board to have input on we also are excited about um our Pathways um our wsd Pathways that our academic Services team has been working with our community on in researching and developing over the last three years and in September we were finally able to launch this um it's really focusing on um creating Pathways for students in arts and Communication business
133and Global Studies Health and Human Services stem and also having an Explorer Avenue where students can really dig deep into those areas so when they leave us and move on to their next phase of their lives they really have a good strong understanding of um what they may want to do ALS also with this uh they're focusing on teacher and ex internships and client connected projects Career Technical education College Pathways expansion and reimagining our senior year for our students through Pathways Capstone experiences and so we're excited for that and I think we have like a 20 second video if you want to follow oh Bren is there yeah let me get can you hold onop okay I'm gonna stop touching it hold on I'm gonna try for and so with this too we're working towards
134creating apprenticeship programs for students the work that we're doing in wizville around this is Cutting Edge this is not something that many other districts in this area are providing regularly as options for students and we we're going to do that and we're going to launch it next year so congrats to the academic services department and team they've worked tirelessly on on this and that's going to be something that's really going to help SE separate us from the rest and um provide some really great programming for our students we also have kicked off our Tech and learning community engagement meetings as well we have about 30 individual stakeholders from uh throughout the community and the schools that are coming together to have conversations quarterly around curriculum the wsd pathways we just talked to you about assessment
135and instructional technology and then we're excited to um share our Wentzville School District Foundation is looking to grow within the community and they are right now um creating uh an opportunity for schools that get the most votes to earn a $2,000 building Grant and so there's a QR code here and you can find um this on the website as well and they are accepting um votes through October 31st then we wanted to highlight um I know last month we had a fairly lengthy presentation on academics in the district and I just wanted to pull out a few of those nuggets of information for our um community and for those that are watching at home so we're excited about our I ready performance that we're looking at from this year compared to this time last year
136and so you heard during public comments Dr Joe clown Smith our assessment our director of assessment she talked about growth and moving moving kids forward and so between last year and this year for elementary K through five we saw a 99.4% increase of scores this year as compared to this time last year and at middle school 6th through 8th grade it was a 4% increase so we are excited that we're seeing some movement and growth as compared to last year also when we looked at our map end of course exam test testing at the high school level so we saw increases across the board for every end of course exam area so in Algebra 1 we saw a 3.4% increase over last year Algebra 2 2.9% English to 5% increase biology a 15% increase and
137government a 3.6% increase and those are the the percentage of students that are impr proficient in advanced on those assessments and then when we look at math testing for the students that are in grades 3 through eight we saw that with Ela we increased by 2% math we increased by 5% and science we increased by 5% and so I am proud of the work that happened in this District last year and that every single map tested area saw Improvement this year and I think that that's something that deserves a round of applause we also are excited about our advanced placement scores from um two two years ago to last year in the spring we saw a 16% increase in our AP scores of students who were scoring threes fours and fives over the previous year
138that also is something very impressive they took 25 different subject areas and over 800 students took tests and so that is something that was also a huge Improvement as well with ACT Testing for last year our District's composite this is based upon all students who took it so n9th grade through 12th grade so this um this score is uh our composite score was 21.9 as compared to the National score of 19.5 and the Missouri composite score of 19.8 and then just talking about attendance as well so last year's attendance I know you've heard us talk about the importance of this was at 78% of students who were at school 90% of the time or more so that is our goal that we're really shooting for for for all kiddos to come to school at least
13990% of the time and so with that that means if they miss two days of school a month that gets them in that 90% category but to put that in perspective those two days per month that they miss over the course of a school year is 20 school days an entire month of of school and over a career of students from kindergarten through 12th grade that's over one full year of schooling so attendance is important and we ask our parents to help us with that and partner with us we also wanted to share our graduation rate data when you look over recent years Wentzville does an ex exemplary job of making sure all students are graduating and getting where they need to be and so our graduation rate is consistently in the 90 5 96%
140as compared to the state that varies between 87 and 89% and so this is an area of highlight as well for wizville we do want to highlight a couple of up important upcoming dates parent teacher conferences are right around the corner on October 25th and 26th and we are going to wish everybody a Happy fall break uh from October 26 through the 31st I know our staff's ready for it for sure and then tomorrow those of you who are up early tomorrow morning KSDK has coverage from H high school as they prepare for tomorrow evening's tackle hunger football game between Timberland and Hol so they will be broadcasting from live from Hol and then you hear us talk all the time we're always hiring please come join our family and then the last thing um
141that I'm just going to touch on a couple more things um one I touch on a little bit with one of our resident agenda items and so I just want to say again that we heard comments about racism and discrimination in our schools earlier this evening from sever several of the resident comments and then the agenda items as well and it's crucial to acknowledge that racism and discrimination have no place within our society and especially no place within our schools and so as we've previously shared we're committed to fostering ing this an environment free from harassment and discrimination and any action that doesn't align with that it's met through a thorough investigation and appropriate disciplinary measures and we're looking forward now based upon this conversation to also be able to look at the code of
142conduct to um work further with that and so we do value and welcome our students and parents and we ask them for those of them who do have concerns to please bring those to us because by reporting the concerns we can promptly assist and protect our students and staff and so if you see something you hear something please say something and so with that we do strive for continuous Improvement in these areas and our team as you heard earlier has initiated some additional efforts to further establish an environment where all students experience a sense of safety and belonging in our school community and we hear you and we have more more work to do as a district and a community and we are and I am invested in this process and so the last thing
143that I'm going to share before I turn it back over and I apologize for having so much to share today but I want to say to our teachers staff and parents I do believe that Partnerships are critical for the betterment of all students our district and our community and that the engagement of our parents are staff our students our board when we have diverse views it's a good thing it's a good thing for us to have that and so thank you for being advocates for your students thank you for our teachers and our staff your impact goes beyond comprehension you do amazing things with kids each and every day when I am in the schools I am honored and proud of the work we do with students your talent your positivity your passion your care
144to meet the individual needs of our students it makes our community better and so thank you for that I'm honored to be your superintendent I take my responsibility very seriously I continue to work to use my position and my efforts to meet the needs of all of our students to work with our staff and community and board to plan for future and make sure that the Wentzville School District becomes a leader known for academic success positive climate and culture where all students belong and that we we become a district that we all are proud of thank you okay moving on to 13 on the consent agenda we need a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented motion second that was Jen and Julie Julie any discussion here I have a couple items yep the
145Concord theatrical licensing agreement that I brought up at the last meeting I was asking Mr inine if it was the young Wizards version or the other one and he got back to me and it's the young Wizards so I just wanted to let people know in case they were wondering um and this ensures that our target audience in our district for um public funded theatrical Productions is community members of all ages and on page 42 of Bard list another $99 went to the National School boards Association and I again am expressing my opposition to doing this in any scenario for any reason parents are not terrorists and we should not be sending their tax dollars to organizations who have labeled them as such any other questions comments okay got a motion in a second all
146those in favor say I I I I all those opposed motion carries moving on to to 14.1 old business we need a motion to adopt policy 0311 as presented so moved Julie second Katie discussion here discussion yes I have requested a legal analysis pertaining to the potential risk of disenfranchisement on several occasions um and that disenfranchisement may occur if we restrict board member access to District facilities this analysis has not been presented to the board given the reasonable Alternatives that are available such as a full criminal background check and a sex offender registry check annually for board members refusing to allow these Alternatives may put the district at risk of claims of disenfranchisement and creating policy that limits board members duties to ensure they're properly informed and knowledgeable in order to cast their vote all
147elected members of public bodies have the power to legislate through the board majority or the body's majority this does not mean that individual members do not have a right to information and access outside of the board as a whole it only means we cannot take official action make official decisions give official direction or pass official policy outside of a vote of the board majority in order for an individual member to perform their duties by contributing to the overseeing of operations of the schools as mandated by state law they must ensure they're properly informed and knowledgeable in all areas of District issues buildings polic policies rules regulations laws and so forth if a board member is not permitted to enter buildings due to the refusal of a reasonable alternative for a the Raptor system this can
148interfere with the member's ability to vote on certain items given that we have a representative form of government I believe this is disenfranchisement that violates the Voting Rights Act I'm motioning to further amend policy 0311 to include board members May submit to St Charles County Police Department criminal background checks and a sex offender registry check annually which will satisfy safety protocol requirements for entry into District buildings second discussion on the amendment president good if I may yes go Ahad um to be quite honest it seemed like kind of a reach like how you're trying to put these pieces together to basically say that you can't do your job because you are refusing to put your driver's license in raptor is essentially and please tell me if I'm wrong but again I would continue to voice
149my disagreement with this completely um I would I just it's not acceptable um the the background check that you would submit is not at all what the teachers staff administrators have to Anders and volunteers would have to so anyway I wholly disagree with that other questions comments director Lewis yeah just just a comment I guess I I I I understand what you you said there and and the desire to make sure that it's in covering everything that's teachers have to go through so let me ask you I hold a top secret clearance that is more evasive than anything can be I've also a clearance based upon a sub that I what am I missing school district have on file your top clearance I mean like I I I completely appreciate the fact that you have
150this additional clearance for other things this is our students that I am concerned about their safety yeah and part of me was even thinking would I entertain I mean I know we kind of had board policy that you're going to if you're going to visit the school you notify the superintendent so it's not like this surprise gotcha moment for the staff and the administrators and part of me would consider entertaining um if you had um somebody with you who had that clearance and you were not alone I didn't think we were allowed to just wander around the building alone but if you get the access that you're requesting you're kind of assuming what are you talking about to get into the building the what you just said no access in Loop meaning not putting the
151ID into the Raptor that's what I'm talking about well I just appreciate that clarification because I know previously you had wanted the full access as a superintendent you're miscon during my words Julie and you know that yeah you do we've talked let's keep it saying here please um any other questions comments yes secretary yeah go ahead director hanking so to Julie's point I mean every time that we have been allowed in a building we were escorted with someone a staff member principal something so it's not like we're going to be walking around the building all by ourselves secretary li no I just wanted to say that I stand by the email back from msba that said that we are no different than any other parent stakeholder in the district and I just I don't believe
152that we get or should be allowed exceptions in that way president get if I may yes what is required of a visitor who wants to volunteer on a field trip someone who is not going to be left alone with children in our school buildings who will always have a staff member with them while in our school buildings and interacting with children so Kathy deell helps coordinate some of that and so she can help respond Dr Olsson are you asking what a what an approved volunteer has to what Pro what's the process um I'm volunteer coordinator for the school district so so just if you want to like go be the chaperon for the zoo field trip okay so in order to be a volunteer in the School District um it's twofold the first uh check
153is that you must produce your driver's license to a school secretary they need to put it into you put it into the Raptor system um it checks against the sex offender Registries and other uh whatever Raptor checks um that is the first check the second check is the volunteer applicant must um enter their personal information themselves into the Family Care safety registry in order to be registered on that service that's what we use for staff members and um our district policy states that volunteers must submit to the same background checks if they're not alone with a student um so the applicant submits their information to Family Care safety registry they fill out paperwork for um the school district which allows us to request the background screening report from Family Care safety registry once that is
154cleared that person is considered a level one volunteer and they may then attend field trips or be a room parent um for a party um and that volunteer at a level one cannot be alone with a student to volunteer with a student so that's our process for level one Volunteers in the district and that process is good for one school year only only and does that include a criminal background check is that what the family safe check thing does a criminal background check would be a fingerprint check that is level two background check so if you were attending an overnight field trip as a um an extra parent helper if you would or if you're a volunteer who would be spending a time alone one-on-one with a student we do require level two um the
155applicant has to uh go through uh the MOX system and get FBI fingerprint um check um that is at the cost of the applicant and then we have in the HR department they can request those records um and then we have that for that applicant and that's similar to what our staff members do so all staff members have the FBI fingerprint background check and then we ALS o are in the wraback system so if there should be um an arrest then the school district's notified to you as well for any of the individuals in that Dr Torla I'm sorry I didn't I had something else I wanted to add um volunteers um when they come in the building every time uh they are required to put their driver's license in the Raptor system and it's
156in check every time they go in the building so um and they get a sticker that's printed out with their picture um and the building's name on it and they are to wear that while they're in the building volunteering so a level two check is what I was proposing basically just so I could walk into the school without putting my thing in the Raptor system I I think that and I'm just going to call Point a question and get to a vote here talked about this for three times I think I've made my points incredibly clear I think it was my sentence to be added um these are the safety Protocols of the district and it should be expected a board members period um the the Raptor system is a constant check so a single
157point fingerprint is a single point of time the idea behind raptor is a constant monitoring of those that are in and out of our schools and this is not too much to ask of our board to do so I was just asking for legal guidance and I've asked for it three times all three times we brought this up and I wanted that I will just go on the record as I disagree with that assessment that being said I call point of question and I'd like to go to vote please excuse me um president Goodson I'm sorry I do not have the complete Mo o excuse me motion from director olssen could you repeat it so I can write it down carefully thank you well if I can find it can I have a comment M
158yep may I president Goodson can I get the clarity on the motion please to further amend policy 0311 to include board members May submit to a St Charles County Police Department criminal background check and a sex offender registry check I guess do I need to say FBI sex offender registry check is that what it is Kathy do you have annually which will sa satisfy safety protocol requirements for entry into buildings and I would just State why I disagree with raptor it's breached often and there is a website that we can use that is free that is just like Raptor and I think that we should have an alternative director Olson excuse me Kathy do you have that Clarity you need which will satisfy entry no safety protocol requirements which will satisfy safety protocol requirements for
159entry into District buildings thank you I have it Kathy will you do a roll call on the amendment please we're voting on the amendment that director Olsen proposed here yes thank you director olon olon director liac nay director Liss director Scott nay president Goodson nay director hanky I motion fails going to the original motion we have a motion in a second to approve this policy as presented Kathy can you roll call please okay director Olen nay secretary liac I director Lewis nay director Scott I president Goodson I director Hank you nay okay motion fails let's move on to 14.2 adoption of policy 1720 we need a motion to adopt policy 1720 as presented so moved Julie that was Julie on the first have a second Katie on the second discussion here I think these look
160like they're reflective of the edits in our last discussion around the discussion on how we leave these in the timeline for evaluation any other comments okay got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I I I all those opposed motion carries so before I ask for a motion on this next item um obviously vice president stoy is not here um this was an amendment she was looking to have and um while she's had circumstances Beyond her control to be here uh she has asked that we table this I think she was looking for a more robust and probably full some complete view uh from MC on this policy and I motion to table shortcuts okay thank you got a motion to table second second okay all those in favor say
161I I all those opposed motion carries we've got a list here we need a motion to adopt policies 2200 2240 2400 2525 2760 2905 4120 4130 4867 6251 as presented motion to approve all of them with an amendment to 2905 or do you want me to pull it off uh it uh you get is it just a tweak on it that's fine well no I guess it might not be I guess you guys can let me know so let's um move it off yeah let's remove that then so I've got a motion for all of those except for 2905 is that right yep okay do I have a second there second okay any discussion here all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed okay director Olsson do you have an amendment
162on 2905 yes I would like to motion to amend policy 29 05 to remove the sentence the gender and athletic section of this policy will be automatically will automatically expire on August 28th 2027 unless specifically reauthorized by the board second discussion on that I think that was a comment last time as well any comments um I just want to reiterate that if the board wishes either this board or a future board wishes to revise a policy they have the authority to do so and it's not our practice to Sunshine policies and the only reason it's in there is that that was called out specifically in the statute so that's the only reason there I'm I'm comfortable with the edits can you repeat the motion director Olsson so that we can MO motion to remove the
163sentence the can we just say last sentence remove the last sentence and approve that policy and approve policy 2905 Kathy do you have that great got a motion in a second on that all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion moving on to new business 15.1 discussion I already opt out I know who was kicking this off was that we're gonna turn it over to Dr labrat she's gonna walk us through where we are and then open it up for discussion good evening I know we've had several questions and request I have already opt out on the agenda so we prepared some slides just to kind of share um what the current District stances what our practices and um where there are opportunities for opt out in I ready and then
164where there are not opportunities for opt out with an i and um the circumstances around each of those situations all right so um it's important to know just in general that I ready is an Adaptive diagnostic assessment its Dynamics so as a student is taking the assessment it gets harder or easier depending on how they're answering those questions we really would expect the student would answer approximately half of those questions right because they're just trying to find their exact right level and find the holes and gaps in the learning so we can identify the strands and the themes of areas that they need remediation um it also allows because of those results for personalized instruction on a student by- student basis um and it provides teachers with instant data instead of tabulating data um in
165Google Sheets or on paper for days and days and days to try and articulate where a student is or create student groups that's done automatically and has that Dynamic change as the student takes each assessment so those are some of the reasons that we use I ready in addition to the fact that is strongly aligned with State Standards but those are some of the benefits that we have based on I ready and how it meets our students right where they are and allows us to individualize instruction for each child all right um so in regard to I ready reading assessments um Missouri law thank you requires students to be assessed for their reading or reading readiness through Reading assessment approved by the Missouri Department of Elementary and secondary education which we know as desie as
166follows and there are two pieces here that are critical all students and this is new for us all students K through grade three must be assessed by a state approved assessment at the beginning and end of each school year all newly enrolled students in a school grades one through five must be assessed for reading level or Readiness from a state approved list so to summarize that all K3 students must be assessed by a state approv assessment and anybody who's new to us grades four and five must also be assessed by state law as of April of this year desie approved four vendors that provide assessment that they feel like is valid and reliable and wsd selected I ready reading as its exclusive state approved reading assessment so there were four choices presented to us in
167April we had been using I ready I ready was one of those and we continued on with I ready um parents of students who are covered by Missouri law and like I said that's K through three is a mandate and any new students to us fourth and fifth are not able to opt out of I ready reading assessments parents of students not covered by the law so that's any fourth and fifth graders who are returning to us can contact their building principal to discuss opting out of I ready assessments we would strongly recommend and encourage all students participate um but we do know that some parents have some concerns and we wanted to allow opportunity for um discussion around those particular two grade levels if your student is not impacted by the law we did
168seek some feedback from desie in regard to this because at our last meeting there was some question about Teacher Assessment and would the teachers be able to use paper pencil assessment in lie of those Desy assessments um there's no statutory provision within the law that permits leas was which is local educational agencies to opt students out of the beginning and end of year reading assessments and that's per rsmo 16764 one so it talks about all students must be assessed similar to what we talked about in the last slide and additionally an RSP which is a reading success plan determination cannot be made solely on teacher observation so we went straight to desie and asked this question explicitly it was our interpretation that we couldn't do it just based on teach observation and um paper pencil
169assessment or oral reading assessment we wanted to ensure that that interpretation was accurate and desie confirmed that that was accurate again 167.64cm grade levels behind any student who has been identified as being at risk of Dyslexia and again it says should an Lea determine that a student may not be eligible then that's where teacher observation other informal assessments discretion can be used but then and only then after you've completed the whole process by using one of those four approved vendors by desie if the student doesn't qualify based on that assessment and you have historical data that would indicate the student may have a need then you can use the teacher observation and feedback um to write an RSP for that student so that's where the feedback comes in in observation can you go to the
170next one all right there were some additional questions about I ready math so I ready math is the district adopted board approved comprehensive math resource that supports the district curriculum so as we're discussing Ela curriculum and we're looking at a couple of different vendors um this is the best way that I can liken it or make it the analogy is um I ready math is not only the assessment tool we use but they also have a comprehensive curricular resource that has assessment assignments workbook less every every resource that we would need to support our students curricularly in the area of math I already just so happens to also be that curricular resource that our curricular teams selected the last time we went through that resource adoption cycle much like we're doing in ela right now
171so because of that it's the like I said the math assessment tool that we use for the district in Gate grades K8 that's how our students are accessing their math curriculum on a daily basis so they start by ramping up taking the I ready as they come in it the first three points that we made on that initial slide it's assessing them it's looking at holes it's looking at their just right level toning up tuning down figuring out where those kids are and then it's creating a plan for them a tiered level it's telling them where are they strong where are they weak within the different domains I believe there's four that they assess through I ready math additionally with my path that's another option that we use alongside I ready assessment students can do
172work on my path based on the assessment that they take at the beginning middle and end of the year my path gives them individualized lessons to work on those holes within each specific domain so if a child struggles particularly with multiplication but but not necessarily subtraction they're focusing on that if they work if they struggle in Geometry but not algebraic thinking then they focus their work more on that to make sure that they have exactly what they need to fill those gaps and individualize instruction um and again you have you need that I ready assessment in order to load my path into the right level and make sure students are working on the correct aspects um additionally they have video tutorials interactive practice also of available on their electronic platform so due to the fact
173that the assessments and tools are the selected curricular resource that's how students access our curriculum that's how we teach them that's how we know where they are that's how they access the different activities the individualized lessons the tiered grouping and that's why the district decision in regard to I ready math is that's not an option for opting out of the curriculum and those are the only slides that we have prepared we just wanted to provide some feedback we have a lot of this information also on the website under parent information and opt out um happy to help answer any questions but just wanted to provide some um try to provide some clear reasons and explanation thought through the process of where we are allowing um parents to have some choice where we feel like there
174is some wiggle room in regard to I ready assessment and trying to to meet people's needs and understand um what's important and then also trying to make sure that we're compliant with law and also have Fidelity to our curriculum president goodsen may I yes um so I appreciate that Jerry um and I had I had also contacted desie and they said the same thing in the portion um where it was saying teacher observation that was in regards to the reading um so that is permitted only in the reading portion um um and so I did ask your department um what percentage of students are opting out and so it looks like for elementary to Middle School it's 0.5% and we have an allotted 5% to opt out and so when I spoke with desie even
175if we did fall or sorry go above that 5% we would not lose our accreditation there are many factors for accreditation and that is just one tiny portion of that um so I just wanted to make that clear I know that was a lot of that was a question that people um were asking may I ask a clarification question just that I better understand when you're talking about the opt out are you talking about opt out in regard to I ready or into the the map testing level not determined I was just meaning in general okay but my email was yes for the level not determined for map and for I ready that was the my question yeah okay so the level not determined would be um specific to the map testing and so like
176if we have a 05% there you're right that's quite away from the five and there's some extenuating circumstances if we have kids with like outstanding illness or um other significant issues that could occur during map testing that's how sometimes we get that level not determined um but that's not always equivalent with the percent that would um like refuse to take I ready reading um so I just wanted to to make sure that I understood for sure there thank you okay yeah and any other comments questions okay I do um at this time I would like to make a motion that we draft an opt out policy second discussion okay Kathy can you roll call the vote please actually president Goodson may I explain a little sure so I just when I spoke with Jesse their
177recommendation was to have an opt out policy that way we can have more parameters around what is allowed and what is not allowed with opting out I'm sorry could you repeat that last part I didn't understand what you said so it would just give the district like more parameters on opting out and just we could put parameters around that Dr lebrat what are the parameters today on the opt out can you repeat that just making sure I understand the parameters today it's we don't opt out on the IR ready math then we don't on the K through three reading but otherwise four through five can so per state statute we're not able to allow provision for opt out on K through three reading and fourth and fifth newcomers to us in the district for reading
178um that's Missouri State Statute so we do a district provide that latitude for fourth and fifth graders who are returning students to the winville school district and then in regard to math it's another vein so that's what um that decision is based on that being the um board adopted curricular resource and the way that the act the students access our math curriculum K8 and so that's why there's no provision for opt out in that regard okay Goodson yes um Dr leat I just want to clarify with what she had said so if this policy were to be adopted that would be in violation of that state statute or are you saying no I think they're just I think the motion is just to have a policy it doesn't have a restriction it's just it's not
179specific to IR ready it's just to have an opt out policy and I think I think Renee you said desie recommends we have an opt out policy yeah they said they get a lot of phone calls every year from parents um about opting out so they they're suggest question is always just to have a policy so we can direct parents to that my view is we've got a clear regulation or process in front of us that I support so well my my motion isn't specific to I ready it's just like opt out if they want to opt out of um I don't know what else a parent could opt out of but just anything like directory information to me I think we handled those requests as needed by the building or how they handle that
180so I'm comfortable with what Kathy can we do a roll call please oh sorry well I guess I'm sorry president Goodson what did you say all oh I was gonna direct Kathy to vote all I said is I I think we have a process today I I don't think I need a policy that's my view well no all I was going to say is before I could support I guess a generalized op out I would want to either see the communication from desie or I guess have that particular wording exactly the conversation you had or know if it was an email or a phone call I spoke over the phone I I'm I'm struggling to understand what you're requesting are you just like wanting proof that that's what desie recommends yeah I think that's how
181I heard it any other comments questions okay Kathy can we roll call please yes president Goodson um director heni I have your motion as um to draft an opt out policy for the district or what did you want to um I president good do I need to say District or if you want to change it that's fine okay yeah just for the district thank you and who was second that please who seconded Jen thank you uh for roll call vote U director Olen I secretary liac nay director Lewis I director Scott nay president Goodson nay director hanky I okay motion fails moving on to 15. to we have an Ela curriculum committee update I think there's a presentation here with this one all right good evening morning no evening um we are eager to have
182the opportunity um to share updates on the progress we've made since the Windville School District committed to implementing the practices of the science reading prior to the 2022 2023 school year this is ongoing work and something that we find to be critically important uh be a critically important priority I am fortunate to have some of the most wonderful people who have ensured that this work has taken place long before I ever stepped into this position we want to affirm to our wsd community that the science of reading methodology and our Ela curriculum resource adoption are a daily priority in our school district and our responsibility is to ensure that our teachers and our students have a smooth transition throughout this process it is important to note that the science of reading is defined as an
183Ever evolving body of research designed to equip teachers with a strategies and skills to teach the five key components at the core of every effective reading instruction program this is as identified as by the national reading panel phonics phic awareness fluency vocabulary and reading comprehension the science of reading is not a resource it is not a program and it is not an intervention the districts work with science of reading reading began with our literacy coordinators and some reading interventionists attending Orton Gillingham training by the 1920 school year the district took a stance on requiring all of our reading interventionists to be trained in OG in 20 in 2122 all coaches were also trained in OG our literacy coaches and reading interventionists supported learning in our building with our teachers and students around these best practices
184some of our reading interventionists were trained in letters in 2019 2020 all of our literacy train all of our literacy coaches were trained in volume one in 2122 volume two in 2223 and many of our reading interventionist trained in volume one in 2223 and are taking volume two this year literacy coaches are training to be facilitators for both for both volume one and volume two within this year letters is a 2-year year commitment it involves four face-to-face sessions each year completion of an online platform and a classroom application it is estimated that the course will take about 40 hours to complete each year this work was ready to be shared on a large scale in the 2223 school year with professional learning opportunities we had several sessions focused on the science of reading with teachers
185and administrators these sessions were planned and led by our literacy coaches we had approximately 57 hours of learning around the science of Reading Alone which reached about 2,200 Educators they were not only provided individual learning opportunities at the district and building level but they also attended four science of reading sessions on professional development days throughout the year through this work we were able to focus explicitly on all five domains of reading and provide teachers with resources and materials to take back to their classrooms and utilize with their students immediately examples of materials include but are not limited to blending boards and phoning graphing cards syllable tiles gel boards magnetic wands and chips erasable highlighters the kids's favorite for sure word letter books for grades k6 these are activity books that Target key phonic skills bridge
186the gap in Hagerty resources interventions for all phonological awareness K2 resources and tools for reading 50 nifty activities for five components and three tiers of teaching this time listed up here on this slide does not include hours that teachers spent with literacy coaches in their buildings specifically tailored independent coaching Cycles weekly grade level collaborations late start sessions and initiatives taken by our amazing teachers to research and to learn on their own through all of the important learning that took place last year the academic Services Department felt that it was essential to continue to provide personalized support to our teachers so they were able to have learning at their fingertips when they needed it and wanted it we were able to develop personalized learning sessions to reach out to buildings this year and support them in
187any and all ways that we possibly could the professional learning menu included all big District initiatives as well as the science of reading multiple sessions are offered for our elementary teachers in science of reading such as using decodable readers vocabulary phonics Ela priority standards comprehension through read aloud writing strategies in the sound wall buildings are able to request any member from the academic Services team to come and support them with their learning initiatives many buildings have made several requests for learning this year and we look forward to continuing in future years the work continues this year as we have participated in 31 hours as of September 27th and have reached 111 teachers in several buildings all centered around the science of reading new decodable book rooms have opened elementary schools and include approximately 177,000 books
188almost 3,000 titles for teachers to utilize in their classrooms this focus of the work so far this year has been on Reading Writing and phonics reading and writing strategies sound wall training utilizing our decodable book room and developing teachers around the power of using decodable texts and vocabulary letters training is language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling and is a very in-depth training that provides learning around the science of reading we have about 130 Educators engaged in this intense training currently our literacy coaches have been through all of the coursework and have begun training to become facilitators in our school district excuse me our goal is to always build the capacity within our school district to provide the best for our students we have completed around 100 coaching Cycles in literacy to date we
189frame coaching around student learning by setting standards based by setting standards based goals for coaching Cycles it is during the collaborative Partnership of creating learning targets building instructional Clarity and co-planning and co- teing that best practices are implemented which will include the practices we have been learning about in summary while our current curricular resource of Lucy ckins unit of study was adopted in 2015 we have made changes or supplemented to specifically and intentionally support our students in the areas backed by the science of reading research now we're going to take some time to go through our updated curriculum resource adoption timeline so I can share the shifts we've made since our last board meeting you'll see here on the top is the current um was the current curriculum adoption timeline and on the bottom is
190the expedited curriculum adoption timeline in September of 2022 we began phase one of our K5 curriculum rewrite process we knew we needed to intentionally begin developing our teachers prior to adoption and we were specifically designed our professional development to assist teachers with bridging our old Resources with the science of reading evidence from January to may we reviewed several resources excuse me and paused pending desie guidance on science of reading resource recommendations during our pause of resource review We shifted our focus and spent an intentional time working on unwrapping priority standards and developing proficiency skills in June a months after the anticipated timeline desie released the recommendation of two comprehensive Resources with a promise of more on the way we immediately scheduled our vendor meetings for the fall of 2023 for those two Desy recommended resources
191Benchmark advance and wonders after our prior experience with supplementing our current resource we knew we wanted to start by reviewing the Desi approved and fully comprehensive resources the current wsd curriculum cycle was to initiate pilots in September micropilot units from the two resources and begin collecting feedback and student data in order to pilot materials we follow a strategic and initial plan with specific teacher supports for implementation our committee looks at the ELA standards and where the teacher are in the pacing for the year we request materials that meet those standards through the companies we shift our learning targets for those micropilot units we train our teachers and then we create feedback loops for all to share teachers administrators and students we would continue this for about six to eight weeks depending on the length of
192the units that we are piloting following the pilot completion we would analyze the data that we collected along the the way provide feedback and make a recommendation as a committee with Excuse me with the expedited timeline of a resource approval to the board going in November we have eliminated the pilot phase as there is not enough time to get materials adjust standards and collect feedback with Fidelity we have moved straight into presentations from vendors which have been held the curriculum team selecting a resource and recommendation to the board for approval thank you purchases will occur after the November board meeting and we will work from December to march to finish writing curriculum plan curriculum roll out and plan April and summer professional development with the current wsd curriculum cycle we would have already begun gun
193Pilots at this point if we were to pick them up we would now need until February to implement them with a recommendation coming to the board in March or April for adoption we would still be able to provide training in April as planned with the company and the electronic resources training is in April as planned with the company and electronic resources as you can see in both both align to finalize sorry both align to finalize curriculum with a transition to professional learning throughout the summer and full resource implementation by August of 2024 I would like to thank my amazing department for their hard work and dedication to our students and our staff and I hope that this helped to provide Clarity into the work that's been done and now I can take questions if anyone
194has any any questions if I may pres Goodson so on the timeline it shows that the PD for this is going to happen over the summer so the PD actually we've dedicated our April I believe it's April 4th the April 4th day to um literacy professional development of the new resource and then throughout the summer yes we would host our boot camps like we typically do within our our curriculum cycle do all teachers go to those um so teachers are offered the professional development and it's a way to kind of just like intensify their experience with the units and the materials they're paid for those sessions so a lot of them do not now that they're paid for those sessions they do like to attend them um probably not all of the teachers attend them
195we have a large portion of teachers that attended professional development um I would assume that with a new Ela resource it will be very popular in in the summer professional development everyone will get the same professional development those summer sessions just go a little bit deeper so other than the summer sessions they would get one day in April before so they'll get April and then they'll have summer sessions offered to them and then our roll out at the beginning of the year we have a professional development day at the um start of that first week back for Teacher days we would start with that as well we also do in-house PD with our literacy coaches and so they are in classrooms working with teachers helping teachers plan um and then the academic Services Department offers
196several professional development opportunities um whether that be within late starts staff meetings or collaboration time with teachers okay so last question I swear no um the August 2024 implementation that is like dead last date it's not it's not like a this is when we're going to start the implementation it's going to be implemented on the date in so our plan is to implement starting on the first day of school next year okay so I guess basically what I'm what I'm asking is that's not um like a slow implementation it's like that is a full-fledged we go president Goodson of um I thank you first of all for putting together that comprehensive presentation I really do appreciate that and all the work that's gone into that from your team I just have a question around um
197piloting um how many teachers classrooms typically would pilot um curriculum that you're considering and Jenny you are the expert but correct me if I'm wrong um you are welcome to come up here and answer that question um what I was going to say is that our curriculum writing team would be and I don't know how many people are on that team yeah I have approximately 25 curricular uh teachers on my curricul teams K through five so because we were already kind of pushing the deadline up to February typically we would send a resource to the board in either March or April we were already rushing it so we were not able to train additional teachers to Pilot in order to be able to send that to um the board in February it was just going
198to be restricted to like the 25 curriculum team members secretary Li you we're pressing it if you don't have a question it's fine oh any other questions comments yeah I have a question um so you talk about um wonder and um Benchmark so those are the two that Jesse has come out with they are yes okay so um and I'm just asking because I don't know so I did talk to desie and they said that um you can pick whichever one you want as long as it aligns with the state correct so um I understand Barton a lot and I've seen the success with Barton um I was just wondering if that was an option that you guys had looked at because when I asked for the list I didn't see that on there and
199I know we use that in the special education setting yes setting so um and it it seems to be very successful yeah so I was wondering if that was um something you guys had looked into so Barton is not one that we looked at um and Jenny did do we have a reason why was it comprehensive so we really focused on looking at a comp comprehensive Ela resource that means that it encompasses the foundational reading the reading comprehension writing composition language handwriting grammar all of those components uh Barton is not a comprehensive program so that would be the number one reason why we didn't look at it we also in a core tier one instructional setting typically do not use the same resources that our sped students use what does Barton specialize in if it's
200not the comprehensive is it I believe it's foundational reading only so like phonics andic awareness okay any other questions comments from the board David yeah director Le so Dr Katie I like that uh hopefully it's not offensive no um you've got two rows there on the last slide that where you're talking about the timeline which that to me makes I mean it's it's very easy to read and I like that a lot it looks like the top one is if we were to not use November as a deadline correct the bottom one is so you compress March and April for the curriculum writing if we change so versus four months if you if we do do it through the November and I think that you know in my thinking when I voted for that and
201I and I you know we didn't get chance talk about that at all but um at the last meeting but I mean I was just in a sense of we gotta get going we gotta get going and you know part of what I feel like the board's responsibility is is to say you know what hill we're going to charge let's go charge it and let's get after it now having said that having said that I've listened to a lot of teachers Administration we got a lot of emails I think that was the 60 emails I got that were all Cookie Cutter but I appreciated the intent as you're looking at what you you've done in the last month and the teams have done in the last month do you if if it was up to
202you would you still say I want to go back to the top timeline versus the bottom one yes my professional recommendation would be to do that and the reason for for that is because time for pilot I feel like it'll give our teachers a chance to give us some feedback of the ways that we can best support them in our students in the classroom okay Dr brat did you have a comment to that if if I may yes um I want it to be very clear that we we serve at the direction of the board and we have worked very hard um thanks to the academic Services team to ensure that if the desire is to have the November timeline met we can absolutely do that um as Katie says in her professional recommendation and
203with the timeline it's going to be very similar either way um if we were to have the extended timeline not only does the pilot allow for us to have more time to vet the resource and ensure that we are selecting the right one of the two um it also allows us those 25 people who've written the curriculum and then are continuing to actually write those documents and make sure those standards are matching um the resources it gives them time to really dig into it and know it and then they become experts in that area and can help roll that out to the rest of our teachers and our instructional coaches and our reading interventionist as they're um accustomed to it next year so then we have some inhouse um gurus if you will that have
204actually used it for two months have used it for kids have seen what it looks like have melded it with what we've got currently have are finishing writing that curriculum to make sure we have a really cohesive and comprehensive product so I think that is why the background of the professional recommendation but we also understand if we need to shift we wanted to go ahead and put the pre-work in in the last four weeks to do that but that would be the reasoning behind that professional recommendation of how we think that that could be an advantage for all of our teachers even if only 24 or 25 are piloting yes director leis I'd like to make a motion yes sir I'd like to make a motion that we take the lessons we learned in listening
205to the teachers listening to the staff and step back from our decision our vote that we made last month and go to the the above schedule that includes time for the pilot uh that that has been discussed here and hopefully maybe we can squeeze in some cursive writing and re and uh you will be very happy to know that they both do have cursive writing in there you go there you go that way people can sign a cont I would second that even a condensed version of that yeah yeah we might need a condensed version of that motion do I need to yes please sorry about that I'd like to make a motion that we step back from the vote of we step back from the vote of September for for the the condensing step
206back from the vote of September and we Ro it are you motioning to reconsider Rec the motion we passed in September under agenda item 12.1 September 21st 2023 it's a motion to resend yeah motion to resend and that we then vote for the original schedule line that is presented above maybe maybe a slight friendly just help me out so maybe it's a motion to resend the September regular meeting Ela motion and revert to the original timeline thank you administrative timeline with curses may I uh pres Goodson yeah can I just make sure Kathy has that what I have is director Lewis made a motion to resend the September board meeting regular board meeting regular board meeting Ela Ela curriculum what did I say timeline motion curriculum motion curriculum motion and revert to the original administrative
207timeline president Goodson may I make a recommendation yes you may um under Robert's Rules a motion to resend would resend the entirety of the original motion in lie of doing that here I would recommend that the board consider a motion to amend something previously adopted which would allow you to um correct the motion in the way that you want to do it but but we didn't have an original motion to do anything with like the administrator was taking Direction they didn't need a board Motion in the first place so if we were send it completely it just starts from new and just makes it clear in the motion that it goes back to the original way it was understood okay president Goodson if I may clarify just so I make sure I have it I'm
208going to read it back director Lewis made a motion to resend the September regular board meeting Ela curriculum motion and revert to the original administrative recommended motion timeline not motion but yes administrative timeline yes strike the word motion that's right and thank you and did we have a second on that there was Julie was the second thank you any other discussion on the motion yes please well kind of more of the curriculum I just didn't get there quick enough so I would second um director Lewis's comment on spelling adding that it's con a continued throughout the school and also um is there spelling in Elementary in that curriculum so we and and jeny you can speak to this if you want to and the way that we address spelling is through our word work and
209our phonics and aonics instruction okay thank you other comments SEC question so the original what we hypothetically could revert back to it's guaranteed February so the original was February but now if we go and if we go back and we say that we're going to Pilot with these 25 or so teachers the recommendation for materials would come to the board in the spring um so that would be um March April I believe I thought it says resource approval February February so that was the original timeline but if we go back and we and we pil and we pight we Pilot We will need some additional time to get those materials in and align them to curriculum we're about a whole month behind now so we were February now we're looking more March okay I'd like
210to maybe do a friend well if it's a revision I would like it to be March like no later than March we're we're less than a month from the last meeting if there could be some language in in there to move the February resource approval to March instead of spring because we could find ourselves in May and I think I think that is absolutely and we will need that done for April 4th professional development so it will have to come in March I'm okay with the friendly on that director Olson if we want to add March David are you okay with that friendly to make it clear Mar okay there's board consensus there any other discussion okay I've got a motion in a second um Kathy can we do a roll call please yes can
211you can you reread the motion yes okay thank you director Lewis made a motion to resend the September regular board meeting Ela curriculum motion and revert to the original administrative timeline which you all have asked to strike the word timeline and put March um what what did we ask not the word timeline um the resource approval to be March and I think you would strike the words revert and I just say um and bring back the ELA resource in the March regular meeting for approval because it's not reverting we're changing it so make sense yes so may I read it again um director Olen just so I make sure I have director Lewis made a motion to resend the September regular board meeting Ela curriculum motion and revert to the original administrative timeline with resource
212approval in March 2024 did I get the I think that should work that motion should work just for clarification Rene was asking is there if we if we don't add that language then it's just spring because it's the administrative timeline and it could potentially be spring so if we add the clarifying then it's March I heard March okay okay Kathy quick yes oh so we're taking the February out because on the top when it says February for resource approval but it got pushed to Spring that's why I wanted to clarify that it's March so that it's not May okay gotcha okay we're president Goodson are you ready I am ready uh director Olen I secretary liac I director Lewis I director Scott I president Goodson I director henky I'm going to abstain I don't feel
213comfortable voting either way when Shannon made the motion and she's not here to clarify so I will abstain okay motion carries moving on to 15.3 we have a draft privacy facility usage discussion I'll turn it over to director Olen yes I don't know uh um well I prefer policy the one that I proposed was policy 1750 and to be completely honest me and Pat and um Dr lebrat worked on that ex you know couple couple days um so it was a joint effort um and I agreed with the majority of it we made minor tweaks um there is the policy B version um that has one of the minor tweaks that I I didn't agree with in it so my my I guess recommendation to the board because we're not voting on anything is that
214uh policy a be adopted at the next meeting um this is the only version that ensures access to multi-user facilities is based on on the facility designated for the individuals of the users same sex so version B does not ensure this requirement is in place and as far as the regulation um I would like board support for the administration to revise that um in the following areas and bring it back whenever the policy comes back for approval under purpose there's a typo in the first sentence it says 1740 instead of 1750 also the first sentence change student request for to request for student accommodations it kind of changes the who's making the request it's a request for student accommodations and instead of students request for accommodation under parents requests The Heading I would like to
215change that heading to accommodation requests and in the first paragraph second sentence replace May with shall and in the second paragraph replace at least one parent or Guardian with parents or Guardians and that's pretty much it I'm okay with those changes uh any other comments questions with from here on the board Dr T did you have something I was just going to add um so we did bring in the proposed policy B which would be an aligned policy with the current administrative guidance that we have and then the regulation that that that is there is just the regulation version of the administrative guidance that we have and it's in here for more so for transparency and clarification purposes once the board decides if a policy needs to be put in place and which one and
216the wording around that then whatever regulation needs to be created to go along with that would then be within the administrative purview to make sure that we are complying with board policy but I also do need to um just share that we have been given um much guidance on this topic and since the law is unsettled that's why the board has not yet adopted the formal policy addressing these um areas and so there still are there still is case law that is currently being appealed um to the intermediary court of appeals the Blue Springs School District had a nearly $5 million judgment with attorney fees levied against them and right now it's going through appeals that should probably happen in the next few months depending on how that shakes out it potentially could go to
217the Missouri Supreme Court which could take another 12 to 18 months to have clear guidance on that and so both with internal and external um legal council as well as many of the other educational law firms that conduct um training on this the recommend ation for the most risk adverse option would continue to be to not have a policy at this time but continue to have administrative guidance operating on a caseby casee policy any other comments questions well in regards to Dr torula um I appreciate your case study research um but this is just a facility usage it's not necessarily um the cases that you had presented or transgender so this is just the for facility uses um for all students regardless of their sexuality or anything like that and so when I speak about
218the internal and external legal advice we've received it is around facility usage for accommodations for bathrooms and things like that too okay and when we and when we Define sex as sex at Birth then that does also then walk itself into those areas okay any other comments questions here just a discussion item okay we're moving on to 15.4 we need a motion to approve the initial 232 24 bus routes as presented so moved second that was Julie and Katie on the motion in second Dr TLA or maybe it's Brian Brian I haven't heard your voice tonight I am looking forward to it I am gonna ask Janelle and Kim to come up here so we've got them in the back from behind the curtain yeah they've been so Janelle and Kim are going to talk
219about how we went about the routes um and the changes that have been made in and the ways that we've gone about addressing some of the concerns that have come to the board prior to this and then if we do any bigger changes like that that would be the next some fell yeah everything okay okay that was scary okay glad she's okay all right BR go ahead so anyway they're going to talk a little bit about what what they've done and what this route approval means for us and what it would look like so at this time Jan now good evening so last year um throughout the fall semester we had school buses that were consistently late to school in the mornings um anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and so we work to
220come up with some different ideas um and solutions to help address that concern and so with that um we did adjust the walk to stop distance um this past spring and sent out communication this summer um with that we are happy um to say that our buses within the first week of school um were on time consistently U which was a huge Fe for the transportation department um and so a few concerns did come about um from the parents and as each of those were reported to the transportation team um we did address those concerns um we looked at the routes we went out and drove some of the routes um and then with that we worked with some parents in looking at the maps through trans uh transfinder as well as other maps to
221compare those routes um and that walk to stop distance also and then with that um we implemented the transportation assistance form to help with to help that our parents um report concerns on a continual basis and that has helped improve the timeliness of our communication back to the families I can maybe attest as a board member last fall and to now the email on late buses like not seeing them because we were still seeing them at this point of the year um has definitely noticed a difference so to that if I can add to that we actually continued to struggle last year with timeliness of buses and consistency of buses well into second semester any other comments from the board here I just have one I just want to let you know how much I
222like the the loop um one of the children in my home her bus now comes uh about 50 minutes later than it normally would uh so the loop is extremely beneficial to us I it yeah I have a question yes please so since you kind of implemented you know kind of revised a little bit into the school year how has the like the parent um input been in terms of like has the their concern slowed down or is there still kind of some pockets of concern so I will tell you probably within the last maybe a couple weeks um we have seen a diminish of parent concerns it was a initial um uh notification of where their route was going to be you know the distance the possible increment weather walking to the stop in
223the dark so um we just took the time to explain to the parents um we just had to make a you know a decision that we looked at hard enough that we wanted to make sure that our students were getting to school on time any other questions comments yes Dr Hank so I was just curious um and you might not know but compared to last year this time compared to this year this time um what is your Staffing like so I will say that we thought we were in a better position um a couple weeks ago we've uh currently had some uh resignations um that came aboard that we are currently sitting at six driver positions six routes that are open I will say last year we were in a um uh we had more
224positions that were open but I will say that what has made the a difference and a significant um uh help with that is our cloer driver positions that we um had some changes made to those positions uh we have all of those filled um now we do have like some open routes but those floter positions of those drivers go and Sub on those RS has made a significant difference for us this year it's important to note also that since the first day of school this year our office staff and the transportation department have been filling in on routes um and that includes our mechanics our router dispatchers and our operations managers we're trying to keep Kim in the office to help manage everything but all of the staff in the office is still having to
225drive thank you for that that's quite amazing actually that everyone's stepping up to help I appreciate that I do have one more question presid um in your opinion what are the the barriers to hiring are we not getting applicants um you know what do our exit interviews indicate do we see any you know opportunities that we could possibly help you with in order to fill those vacancies um I think that we over the last uh year or two have seen um us uh train things outside the box so we have the drive the best event um we have had more of a presence on Facebook as far as us trying to recruit drivers um we had a increase in driver pay that was significantly um helpful in in recruiting the drivers in um I will
226say that um also the um backing in support of um the board and the cabinet members I I think that my drivers and the AIDS are are feeling that I think that's making a difference attracting the drivers to come to the district I think the question was what was that last part there yeah right I'm sorry oh the support that we had from the Board of Education and the district I think the drivers in the a are are are seeing that and it's attracting drivers to us I I'm gonna add to that real quick because Tim was being nice and didn't answer part of our issue as a neighboring District went to a large number after year two after year one um they raise their pay to where there it's a max pay you're only
227got to be there a year and they max out their pay so that's definitely an issue that's occurred um so we have lost a couple drivers that way and AIDS okay I've got a motion in a second sorry yep you said we lost a couple drivers that way okay I've got a motion in a second on the approval all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries so we need a motion to approve the bar Creek contract as presented motion Katie second second says motion by Katie and a second from Julie discussion here I think this was pulled from consent yes director Lewis yeah I wish I could but I can't 13,000 for for the meals um did I get that number right I think it was 11,000 is what I is
228it two days it's three days three days for about 100 people uh closer to 510 people um so the price per person was just under $125 for three days and those are pretty lengthy days for the administrative Retreat we did it this past summer um so this board actually approved the same contract for this past August um and so with that we had the first opportunity to really bring all of our administrators together to really begin to calibrate and get on the same page with District initiatives um we this is also where we really talked about code of conduct and dress code and getting on some of the same Pages where we have not really been able to do that as the district with all of the brand new administrators we've had over the last
229couple years through coid things like that and so this Retreat is very important for us to really dig in together to um make sure we're moving forward um it's also very important for for um team building and communication especially in between the feeder patterns in in creating those relationships and lines of communication and then um with this then we spent significant amounts of time over those three days uh working together as as an administrative team so when we look at it as a whole number it does you know that's that's a number that causes pause right but when you start backing it into how many administrators for three days it's less than $125 per administrator that attends that that then becomes um a much more palatable number um when you're talking about all the food
230and refreshments and those types of things as well and the venue worked really well and we were excited that that's a Windville owned business right in our district um and so we we definitely appreciated their Hospitality they were they were wonderful to work with thank you any other questions comments here president Goodson FMA yes I was under the impression that because last year we looked at Quail Ridge because all of our facilities were taken from my understanding and that I mean for me that was understandable if our facilities were taken but if we're planning this a year out I would I would encourage the use of our facilities for this instead of using Bear Creek and and I'm not saying fancy like that it's bad but the fancy catering costs that come along with it
231because it's like a wedding venue too so I mean $125 over three days that's 25 bucks a day um for breakfast and lunch right so like 50 bucks a day wait that's bad math 150 would so I think that we could probably get that number Super lower than that doing oh sorry the first two days um the administrators actually stayed late so like the first day they were there until about 8 the second day they were there until about 6 so the first day it was actually three meals the second day it was two meals and like some snacks and then the third day we let them out um in the afternoon so it was two meals so they actually were more in that number that make the value much more palatable as well and
232so if we move on site our facilities the only space that we have to hold administrators like that would be the Commons at one of our high schools and we struggle very much with Acoustics um and so that's something we can work with however taking your team off site and being able to have that engagement there is an added value there for teamwork and collaboration that we may not be able to realize in the same facility secretary liac question would we still be bringing in catering if it was on site yes because otherwise we lose too much of the time having people go out for lunch um those days were very very packed from the time they arrived till the time they left clarifying question when we cater in for teachers for parents for well
233we don't do it for parents but for board meetings and stuff is it typically $50 or $25 a board member or a teacher I think it just depends on what the option are so we would have to double check so if we're talking about three meal so 1 two so so there were about eight different times of food in over those three-day periods because of the times that they were together plus drinks so that's $156 cents per person per meal and so I would say if we're catering in it's probably maybe slightly less than that but then we also then have to work with our staff to have staff members manage all of that where it was all taken care of um with be Creek too so we can do whatever the board thinks is
234best we did uh survey all of our administrators and they absolutely appreciated the opportunity to be together in and offsite to be able to have that camaraderie and that um opportunity to work together yeah and there's there's value in in getting off site getting away from it a little bit of recognition as well so I just I when looking at the the invoice I couldn't tell you know one day three days one meal I just looked for clarification thank you okay I've got a motion in a second it's in May yes so I do agree that the the price does seem a little steep just like um director Lewis and director Olson had said um so so would it be appropriate to look at other um venues that may be more cost effective so last
235year when we went through this process we did look at other venues um and actually Bear Quail Ridge you have to bring in everything and so that that was just about renting the space and when we um actually director Olsen kind of suggested like you might really want to go like re-evaluate and we did and we realized that Bear Creek would probably be much better suited especially with AV and all of those types of things too um so we checked Quail rdge we checked Bear Creek and we also um did oh the one it's on the tip of my tongue no darn it there was a third one that we went to and um Bear Creek with everything included was significantly less than the others I mean we can certainly go back and we can
236go look again um however we also wanted to keep it within Wentzville within a business in the district because that was always um that's always a nice thing to for us to be able to give back to our community as well the other one that I'm I'm spacing on um was not in wizville it was where is it no no but we struggle to find a place large enough to hold you know 105 110 people at tables and being able to operate so we don't have a whole lot of options president Goodson if I may just briefly um thank you for the explanation I know that does seem to be a little sticker shock but when you really break it down into what the value you're getting I think it seems actually like a great
237deal and um I I know our another venue I appreciate looking at Windville and keeping it in winville I do agree with that that does have value we got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries moving on to 15.6 we need a motion to approve sorry I'm lost my spot when you do that can you say the title of it yeah 15.6 the personel recommendation and resignations October 23 so we need a motion to approve the October 23 Personnel recommendations and resignations as presented motion Katie second Julie discussion I just had a question trying to log in the stien or later in me was that and I I'm honestly did anybody email me back about that or I okay all right so um when the
238leader of me contract was passed or whatever was this part of it was this like you know an expense that was to be expected that's part of it yes and that question initially was that part of the contract no it was not part of the contract but we knew that as part of like the Train the trainer model we would need some type of Le on our coach within our building to help make sure that our staff understood um what they were working with and were trained and had professional development and so we had coaching spots and we were knew that we were going to look for ways to try to figure out how to stien that to um incentivize that position for them and we were able to do that through title two I
239believe and with that um part of that job is to make sure that they're braiding in the culture and the needs of the building and what they already have going on as far as academic behavior um and culture and make sure that it fits with that building meat um so it's not just leader me yes it is them coaching but they're also making sure that they're driving the work of the building in that intervention model as well so was that an expense outlined short answer is no but yes we knew we're going to have coaching positions and we were looking for ways um to stien that thank you any other questions got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries we need a motion this 15.7
240approval of the biology resource we need a motion to approve the biology Resource as presented motion Katie second Julie discussion um clarifying question I guess process question do we typically buy the resource before we write the curriculum I thought it was the the last thing yeah so um with this one um it's just depending where we are in the process um the curriculum uh Committee of teachers they reviewed and approved the resource um and so we that's why we're bringing it to the board um what that then will do is support them in writing like the rest of their curriculum and aligning that resource um as they complete the curriculum writing um that actual the actual biology curriculum then will come to the board for approval um in May or June I believe of this
241year thank you any other questions comments okay I've got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries moving on to 15.8 bid information security development monitoring we need a motion to approve the bid for information security development and monitoring as presented motion Julie second David yeah I got in yeah nice motion a second discussion uh by me okay for $74,000 my question was originally I probably have an email where somebody responded but I haven't checked yet um the question was could this be a human or is it does it have to be a program is this is this a position that we could hire a human for or does it have to be a computer program and what pros and cons that kind of thing it's
242probably a real short answer but it is this is a sorry no you're fine I just jump welcome to the table hey thanks thanks um it for 7 it's really 65,000 the 74,000 is if they give us an inpoint detection response software we already have one but what this gives us for $65,000 is 247 security operations center they monitor our Network 247 we couldn't do that for that c cost so it allows us to do that and they also help us with tabletop exercises and instant response thank you any other questions comments here yes please yes and could you speak to the CM cmmc level where we were I guess and where we're going really the um school districts are uh in MIP 6 desie said we needed to follow the niss standards which aren't
243CMC standards those are Department of Defense standards and when I looked at those we're between level one and two and I would say most school districts because we're not Department of Defense with those resources are probably between level one and two and this will help us be a solid level two when we get finished working with them and implementing stuff but right now we're probably between those two but we are following more than n standards and cncc and so I would just like to caution us if we're going to talk too much about security that we might want to bring a conversation to close just to make sure that we're not sharing or oversharing information that we shouldn't say in public this standards are public that's M6 so any other questions comments okay got a
244motion in a second all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion carries 15.9 the contract for city of winville is an amendment we need a motion to approve the city of Windville contract amendment number one as presented motion Katie second Julie okay discussion if I may um is there a specific safety threat that exists that made us want to request another officer at every board meeting sorry K did you have comment well no just the length of time that our meetings have been going lately just so late um I guess I kind of feel that having an extra layer of security especially when we're like walking outside and they're at different buildings and that's just kind of my thinking about having an extra person I mean it's I don't know that
245there's a specific I've had General comments from either admin or board members that have asked for the security like not maybe every meeting but occasionally um like this meeting for example um so I think this is just reflective of that feedback and what I can say is it's it's been brought here for approval as an administrative request so um previously when we were at regularly holding our board meetings at the high schools we had two officers when we came back and moved those back to the administrative Center because they weren't as well attended not quite as many people that kind of thing we did back that down to one um police officer and then recently they've been more more well attended and I think I do know that there have been concerns that have been
246raised um to various ones of us including myself um around concerns um around safety and even for to tonight I know that there were questions from particular board members about concerns around safety and so um given tonight's scenarios and the large amounts of people we actually had three officers this evening president Goods yes okay words don't constitute violence when someone's angry this is this is literally part of the process of governing and being um answerable to your constituents they can sit at that microphone and criticize you till you're blue in the face I sat through it tonight I don't feel like someone's going to mob me in the parking lot when I'm on my way to my car I think there has never since I've been coming to these board meetings there has never been
247a scenario where I thought somebody was going to become physically violent with anybody and it's been years almost every single board meeting so I think it's in my opinion I think it's a step too far in the direction of intimidation of people at the podium of people on that side and of people on that side depending on what you're here for because it could be me it could be you know Jason it could be anybody who feels that they don't want you screaming at them and then using I'm I'm feel threatened somebody's going to mob me on the way to the car we're going to have heated debates in this room back at the administrative building it's going to happen it's been happening since the beginning of forever it's governing your voices can be as
248loud as they want to at that microphone and we don't need cops to I mean I appreciate you guys don't get me wrong but we don't need extra law enforcement here because somebody got loud that's all I have to say about that I'm not these aren't my words but I can I can assure you that um while you may feel that way there are plenty that do not um in terms of the people that are on this stage um and I think it's better safe than sorry as it relates to that issue I recognize words don't hurt um there have been instances where those words are a threat of physical violence um but I understand that has this board been made aware of that um I mean I overheard someone say that I shouldn't be
249able to walk down the street last meeting so I don't know if you guys heard that same thing but I did H you're take okay well in my opinion I took it as like with your head held high I pick it differently so it's it's a little bit when you're in empathy and you and someone El's shoes you'll maybe see that differently but that being said are you pretending like I haven't had death threats Jason I'm not pretending I'm taking your words if you don't feel com com or you're comfortable and there are others up here that are not and I'm just filling in those words I'm sorry but that's I'm just filling in those words so my view is to support this amendment thank you oh by my thank you um I mean I
250guess you're lucky that you feel safe and I just don't think safety because you feel safe that literally every person in here who could potentially benefit from an extra level of security should feel the same as you so I do appreciate that and I do recognize that Administration and multi and other people feel unsafe we don't take that lightly director or president Goodson yes you mentioned that several people people were concerned about um security tonight specifically were they afraid the teachers were going to beat them up because I really don't think you want me to respond with who oh I know who but what I'm saying is the perspect actually perception the perception was that this place was going to be packed with but seemingly um everybody on the same side for the most part
251so who are we afraid of Jen I really wouldn't like to not answer that question that's okay for the for whose benefit I have we been advised of the threat so so okay so so I so no I'm not no hey hey guys we've made it this long what's Jenna we've made hey ladies we've made it till midnight hey enough with the language Jenna Jenna enough ladies please we've made it till midnight this wasn't necessary I'm not I'm not picking a side I'm just saying can we get back to the decorum that we've had to date because it's been pretty good I am not targeting anyone with my comments president Goodson what I'm confused about is if there was a threat we were not informed of it your counterpart was afraid that black lives matter
252was going to show up and therefore was concerned who is my counterpart does the board member wish to identify themselves I was notified that black lives matter would be in attendance tonight I asked that had an officer officers officers please help with this situation I don't ma'am ma'am ma'am ma'am this is not appropriate M officers please she's approaching here please she can't approach the C stop ladies thank you okay any other discussion on this motion and contract okay can we can we do a roll call vote please Kathy on that yes director Olen nay secretary liac director Lewis I director Scott I president Goodson I director hanky nay moving on to 15.1 contract Frontline time and attendance module we need a motion to approve the Frontline time and attendance module contract as presented motion Julie
253Katie was a friendly Amendment if I'm sorry motion was Julie Scot second was secretary liac thank you I'm S I have a motion to Friendly amend sure what you got um change the initial term term to October 27th 2023 to June 30th 2025 that gives us 20 months and it's currently at 44 months and I don't think that we should lock ourselves into extended multi-year contracts the board as it changes should maintain the ability to review contracts with v vendors annually to decide if they have the need or wish to continue utilizing their services was this negotiated this way with this price and this length because typically those go hand inand I don't know who that question is directed at yes as far as I didn't hear the complete question I think I got the
254gist of it uh but uh number one we do need an overlap of these two systems as they go in more than just one month overlap because it is payroll and because we we can't afford to get any teachers or any of our 3,000 employee payrolls messed up in any way we would like to to implement this over a a longer period that's uh and just take certain levels of employees and do them in you know in particular times instead of doing it all at one time that's how we like to do implementations and test it with smaller groups secondly uh we do get a lower cost when we go with longer term contracts uh this is negotiated with a longer term contract to get a lower cost and that's the reason for the three-year
255contract is to get the lower costs and the duplication of the effort was to not do a complete implementation of payroll very quickly which we would not be comfortable doing so this is going from one service to to another service for those yes right right now uh we do have uh three Frontline systems that we're already using we're using absence management Frontline Central and recruiting those are all Frontline systems that we're currently using in in HR uh right now we have three separate payroll systems uh and the problems we have with three payroll systems feeding into our other Frontline systems what we' like is one Frontline system high in with the with all of our HR systems and everything would be front lined together the problems we're having now with what's that yeah this would
256do that this would be now we would have everything it'd be very similar to an Erp system where we would have one system that has payroll all the way through HR what that would do it would it would eliminate duplicate entries we have manual entries right now it would eliminate paper time sheets it would streamline the process and reduce uploads from one system to the other uh it will reduce secretary burden in the schools because of all the manual entries we're doing uh it will reduce payrolling efficiencies because we have to balance all of these systems to each other every month or every payroll uh it'll reduce administrative time this new contract gives us unlimited usage and actually cost annually $440,000 or less than less than the other system our current system uh breaks down
257all the time we can't get support and we need to change systems I withdraw my friendly okay got a motion in a second all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion carries last Mon's 15.11 approval of the Missouri consultants for Education policy Services we need a motion to approve the Missouri consultants for Education policy Services as presented motion Katie second Julie discussion yeah so thank you Pat for doing the work to put the proposal together I'm guessing it was Pat who did it I don't know this is one that I personally would like to expl explore the policy committee over paying a service and I understand that this the policy service provider would get it done a lot faster um but I I think including the community in something like this
258um even if I could make a suggestion on how I know we don't really do the how we do the what but it would be great to kind of see a randomized selection process for people who want to do this and I know I know a lot of times our commit are and I know a lot of times they are kind of like that you know but um instead of maybe like an appointed does that Mak sense yeah I think as I understand it Dr Tor correct me if I'm wrong the policy committee you guys are still working on kind of that and what that would look like and bring that back to us at a future date yes we're we're currently researching so if other people have send them in other things okay Shannon
259to put together a policy committee for and I think it was in relation to the motion I made for the statutory authority to be put on to the policies and around that conversation Shannon said that she asked for board direction or suggested that her and I would be working together to consider what we want as a board for a policy committee yeah I don't I don't remember the exact who's what we can go back and look at that but certainly I know the administration wants to to work on that I'm F I'm fine with not approving this either I mean I don't think we really put a time box on when we'd like to see the cross reference to the statutory laws um and regulations so to me paying 15 grand for it just to
260have a timeline accelerated for me it didn't create heartburn so I support Katie in that and as long as the board is completely fine with us doing that as we bring new revisions or new policies yeah I don't think we ever put a time box on that yeah and if in the future we were to decide we do want to see it happen faster we could bring it back I actually don't there was a motion in a second on this okay so all those in favor of approving this contract say I all those oppos Nay n n motion fails okay now we're into 16.1 board member comments I'm going to start on my left this is new for us so director Olsen would you go first director director hanky let's go I did I was
261looking to my left yeah I just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween and thank you to all the schools that invited me to their Fall Festival I want to give a shout out to thank Josh schaer for his continued efforts is he still here okay well if you're listening online Okay um Josh has been going in my opinion above and beyond to search hi Josh thanks you're the best ever um to search for Grants and to bug MoDOT and all kinds of stuff to ask them to help us fund things that we need for our kids um one of the things is a traffic signal that um is on Highway DD and I think um I just wanted to give him a shout out for that we appreciate it okay one on the other
262end here yes so I just first off wanted to thank all of our teachers and staff and Dr tormala um basically just for working as hard as you do and I think that all of your comments tonight was definitely evidence of that and I really really really appreciate you showing up and I'm glad that you are here um to let your voices be heard because um it is important that we hear from you you guys are with our students every day and your thoughts matter what you feel matters and your experience and expertise matters um so I just really wanted to say thank you and I know um the ELA team has really dedicated a lot of time uh to this so um thank you for that director Lewis so I want to talk a
263little bit different I a little bit more detail um the subject at a late night and I'll be quick with this but is is the AG lawsuit we have there's a lot of consternation on all sides about it uh thing I wanted to highlight is that you know there is questions that came up there's history that that we've heard in the past um we we raised the questions in in private they to us they weren't addressed we were concerned and I'm I'm talking about the three of us Renee Jen and myself we were concerned and rightfully so we got what we thought was an answer that's still left out so where do you go you know where do you go so we went to the Attorney General's office and said here's what we have we
264think there might be sunshines and issues and and gave example of why it was about sunshine only and uh they took us through a number of discussions there's some information that was shared back and forth and they said well yeah it's it's strong enough that it it needs to take it needs to happen there so as people are frustrated and upset about the fact that there's a lawsuit there I I guess I in the nicest way possible I'll say given the situation that we're potentially violating the Sunshine Law why aren't you supporting the fact that let's make sure we're right because if we're not right we need to get right so I would ask that you understand that and there's been media everywhere about targeting Jen and Renee about this if if you really want
265to Target somebody Target me I'm the number I'm the third one that has has put an affidavit in uh and my statement is is similar to what the girls did but I believe that we need to make sure that we're right on something as important as public knowledge to the citizens to the teachers to the parents and that's why we did that because we don't want to hide things we want it to be as much possible out in the public thank you secretary liac do you have comments I think I'm going to send Chick-fil-A tomorrow to Piney Ridge elementary school so I wasn't I wasn't actually gonna say this but now I am so um I have a lot of things I want to say so many falsehoods that have been spoken about in relation
266to that lawsuit I've encountered a lot in the last two and a half years here in the district and there's probably a lot that I should say um I generally believe in confidentiality um and the work of the board I generally um respect that private conversations between two board members should stay that way um I I'll just say this you know truth and transparency and not the illusion of transparency you know selectively used will prevail I I won't let the sun set on my time here without giving my words to what I think has happened here I know there's a lot of people that are asking those questions but I'll respect again confidentiality and appending lawsuit related to that um I appreciate the new faces that we saw today um I think that shows a
267lot about the care for the district um there's a lot that I've heard from and this is not just recently but over my time that people are afraid to take that Podium people are afraid to send emails they're worried about their name showing up on Facebook or social media or being harassed in certain ways um it shouldn't have to be that way it's gone on far too long this way it's sad that it's this way we're supposed to be able to have freedom of expression be able to disagree I think our Founding Fighters would fathers would agree that people on both sides of the aisle need to get together and work together because that's the betterment of our country and we are so far from that as a country as a district it's sad climate
268and culture I agree with some of the feedback against me starts with me um I'm accountable to that I've not done what I can do I could be better at that and I acknowledge that I'm not afraid to that it's a team effort to do that um I wish I had a better answer and I don't um so it's abundantly clear I'm not quitting for those that have had the hatred to say so and asked for me to do so and others that are up here uh fight or flight I choose fight fight for what's right for this District fight for what people believe um I think this Administration team has done an outstanding job up here and I commend every bit of effort that they show up every day for our kids I'll just
269finish with a quote from one of our founding fathers you know I think in light of the social media and news cycle here I think we can all agree that the Press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood Thomas Jefferson thank you that being said we have the last piece is like the action items so I have student code of conduct dealing with zero tolerance on racism and discrimination which should be added to the list we tabled 2060 2673 which was Shannon's motion I think there was some clarification needed on policy committee um in terms of who owns that and how we're going to bring that so I would ask the administration kind of give us an update at least in board docs on that did I miss anything else from anyone's notes or
270recollection president Goodson yes um I was just I don't know if I asked this now but what what is the um status of the literacy Workshop yeah can we that's I think that was on that list can we get an update now that we have this clarified I think that was terms of the timeline can we bring this back I sure and so what we'll do um we tabled it because of the expedited work that the team was going to have to do um so we can work to try to find dates that's also been the most challenging piece of pulling anything together is uh finding dates that work for everyone up here the other piece is the long range facility planning that was originally a workshop and then we were going to schedule it
271for today and obviously we weren't we knew we weren't going to have time to give it the Justice it deserves so those are two things that we need to look for dates with this group to get on the calendar yeah so let let's get those asks out for dates and let's get ahead of that just given how hard it is to schedule here and we hope that the presentation today from the ELA curriculum committee gave at least some background information much of that would also be included in the literacy Workshop as well okay all right with that I need a motion to adjourn Open session so moved second all those in favor say I I those opposed happy Friday everyone president Goodson