001the tax rate appearance that being said I have no one signed up sorry I have no one signed up to speak for the tax rate Herring that being said I'll turn it over to our CFO to lead us through that hearing presentation thank you uh what I'd like to do on the tax rate process is to explain what this is and why this hearing is here the tax rate process as you can see on the screen the notice of preliminary assessed valuations this process started last March when we got the assessed valuations from the county once we receive these uh these assessed valuations the district is required to calculate our tax rates based on those assessed valuations uh the board approves a temporary tax rate at the March board meeting uh once we get our
002tax rate set or believe we have them set then the district presents the board approved preliminary tax rates to the county assessor due April 1st that's pursuant the Senate bill 711. now what this means actually if we did not have this submitted by April 1st the penalty for our district would have been over 30 million dollar penalty is 20 percent of our our revenues so basically at this point we've said we've sent our preliminary rates to the state and these preliminary rates were approved by the board since we have these preliminary rates approved by the board those are the rates that we use to calculate our budget for the upcoming year so the district prepares a fiscal year budget based on the board approved preliminary tax rates that were given to the county assessor in
003April the next part of the tax rate process is the district receives notice of the final assessed valuation from the county in late August we just received those in late August and that's only because the Board of Equalization first of all has to agree uh to the assessed values once they get the sign off from the Board of Equalization the district calculates tax rates for the state Auditor's guidelines and obtains profarma rates what that means is we are under guidelines from the state on how we need to calculate our tax rates we calculate the tax rates used on our own spreadsheets and our own formulas and then we give those tax rates to the state the state puts them in a pro farmer we put them in a pro forma process through the state the
004state says yes these rates are within our guidelines and then once the state says that the rates were asking are within their guidelines we're required to post a tax rate hearing notice this was posted last week then after the tax rate hearing notice is posted for one week we have a tax rate hearing which allows public comment that is what we're doing right now this is the tax rate hearing for the public comment this is not the actual board meeting uh after this tax rate hearing the school board will vote uh whether to accept or not accept the rates that the administration is recommending to the board that'll be after this meeting at that time the board has the opportunity to ask any questions from Administration that they wish regarding the levy that we're setting
005are requesting the set then the district supports submits the board approved rate to the county by October 1st again there's a large penalty if we don't have that in by that date and then the county submits the rate to the state auditor for certification once it's submitted to the state auditor for certification the district receives receives the certified rate from the state auditor and only at that particular time are the rates set for the district and that's all done before December it goes through this entire process before December and again the date that we're searching for right now is to get board approval by October 1st as far as assessed valuation for the Wentzville School District in 2022 our assessed valuation was 2.8 billion dollars for 2023 it's 3.3 billion dollars we have increased our
006assessed values by 578 million dollars since last September and 79 million of that is related to new construction so you say what is the history of the assessed value of our district what you see in the light blue lines here are the reassessment dates you notice a small R after the percentages that means those are reassessed rates and these are the light blue lines now you notice in reassessment years the assessments have gone up 12.89 percent 10 11 and this year assessor rates went up 21 on your property you'll notice that in non-reassessment years it went up four percent five percent and seven percent now the reason uh they still went up in the non-reassessment years is we still have new construction which gets gets a new assessed value and anybody who sells a home
007automatically gets reassessed at that point also so we still have increases in the non-reassessment years but you can see the percentage increase in 2023 of assessed values is 21 very large matter of fact the largest we've had maybe ever I don't know I didn't go back too far as I go through this uh tax uh rates that we're setting you need to realize what these rates are the rates are set up in four different areas we call them funds the first fund is the general or incidental fund this is for non-certified staff salary and benefits Support Services supplies and General District Operations this is also the fund that we can put money into and anything put into this fund can be used for anything that can be legally spent by a school district the second
008fund is called the Teachers Fund that's fun too that's certified salary staff and benefits and contracted education is all that fund can be used for fund three is a Debt Service fund this can only be spent on principal and interest on bonded debt and our fourth fund is capital projects fund which can only be used on construction Capital Improvements equipment and lease purchase payments now how does this work into our uh into our proposed tax rates this is the rates that we are going to be asking the board to approve in the meeting following this presentation this hearing the general fine act 2.26 teaches fund at 98 cents Debt Service fund at 93 cents and capital projects fund at 48 cents for a total of 4.65 what I'm going to do now is break down
009each of these individual funds for you and tell you how the taxes are being calculated the tax rates are being calculated as far as operating funds which is funds one two and four from a state basis uh the state will allow us to go up to three dollars and Thirty One cents and we are going up to the state allowed rate of three dollars and 31 cents that's the maximum going to be allowed for the state this year that thirty three dollars and Thirty One cents is broken down with the general fund of two dollars and twenty six cents Teachers Fund of 98 cents and the capital projects fund of six cents uh this next slide might be a little confusing I'll explain it to you we're not planning to voluntarily forfeit any part of
010our operating Levy what that means is we are taking the maximum amount that is allowed by the state for these taxes but at the same time we're planning to decrease our operating Levy by 35 cents that's the levy that the levy that's the tax rate that we're going to be uh presenting is a 35 Cent tax reduction the reason we have to do this is if you remember we had a 21 21 increase in assessed values but the Hancock amendment allows us to go up to the maximum of you the Consumer Price Index or five percent whichever is less so that means when the tax assessments go up 21 we have to lower our rate to a value which only lets the taxes for the people in the district to go up only five percent
011so the reason we are reducing the rate is because assessments went so high that to make their tax rate at the limit or to make their taxes limited to go up five percent we had to reduce the rate by 35 cents and that's why our tax rates are being reduced this year and again the the law that requires us to do that is called the Hancock Amendment as we also have a temporary Levy uh where this Levy is going to be at 22 cents uh maximum law by the state we're again planning not to voluntarily forfeit any of this money is called a prop 3 Levy we're planning to decrease our prop 3 Levy Again by the Hancock Amendment we're reducing this rate by two cents we have another temporary Levy this is called prop
012e again we are not voluntarily forfeiting any part of our prop e-levy we're taking the maximum allowed by the state but again the taxes on this Levy are going down by two cents Debt Service fund is a little different the service fund we're moving forward with reducing our debt first of all we're going we're moving forward with reducing our data as approved by the board at the March 30th 2023 board meeting by defeasing our current some of our current bonds which means we are paying off some some of our bonds early The Debt Service funds are not restricted by the Hancock Amendment uh uh which means These funds can go up and by law this year we're actually allowed to raise uh the rates on our debt service Levy but we are not recommending a
013raise even though by law we are allowed to implement a race for other reasons but the reason we never asked for a raise for The Debt Service Levy is we at several times promised the district that this that several of our debt service fund rates will be a no tax rate increase bond issue which means we're promising not to raise the rates as we uh as we have them set for the bonds so therefore even though we're allowed to raise the rates above 93 cents our recommended rate will be less than the state allows and we're going to keep it at 93 cents this is a six-year history of the Wentzville School District's rates on the far right hand column is our rates for 2023 and you can see our total rates of four dollars
014and 65 cents now you notice along the bottom uh what you'll see along the bottom is in the red numbers or reassessment years now you can see in our reassessment years uh starting between 2018 and 19 our rate change was down 23 cents between 20 going into 21 it went down 21 cents and this year our total proposed rate is going down 39 cents for the taxpayers on the next screen you'll see our 10-year District tax rate uh uh what we're saying now is our tax rate is the lowest what we're what we're recommending here is that our tax rate be the lowest in our last 10-year history this actually goes beyond 10 years as our lowest rate at 4.65 again the lowest rate in the last uh 10 years that were asking this board
015to approve on a hundred thousand dollar market value home what does that mean that means in 2014 for every hundred thousand dollars market value the taxes were 948 dollars uh now for every hundred thousand dollar market value the taxes are eight hundred eighty four dollars again the taxes are less the tax rate is less now many people are saying hey my taxes are going up but the school district is reducing their rates how can that be it's going up because your assessed values have gone up our rates are going down I've just shown you that we are recommending a lower rate our rates are being reduced uh if you are paying the exorbitant increase in your taxes on your homes and the the reason is is because your homes have gone up and assessed values
016and you are reaping the benefits of the increased value of your homes and but you're basically being taxed on is the increase in your equity I'm going to compare us now to St Charles County overall uh I rank these in this order uh as of the 23 rate uh the uh this is just the operating rates Orchard Farm has the highest operating rate at 3.87 St Charles has a second this is the school district St Charles school district has the second highest operating rate at 3.81 cents Wentzville is right in the middle at 3.72 cents Fort zumwal and Francis Howell have the lowest uh operating tax rates at 3.54 cents and 3.41 the other thing I'd like to show you is the amount of change Orchard Farm had to reduce their rates being a recessed
017a reassessment year by 26 Cents St Charles was the highest reduction at 39 cents uh Wentzville is the second highest reduction rounded also to 39 Cent reduction Fort Zumwalt is reducing their taxes by 35 cents and Francis Howell is reducing their tax rate by 37 cents on the operating side this is The Debt Service Levy notice that Wentzville Saint Charles Fort Zuma and Francis Howell are all keeping our debt service levies the same the reason we're all keeping our debt service levies the same is uh is because at some point or another we have all guaranteed our taxpayers a no tax rate increase bond issue Orchard Farm got the voters to approve an eight Cent Levy for their Debt Service rates Saint Charles County combined rates these are the combined rates and again that we're
018ranked by 2023 rates highest rate is Orchard Farm Wentzville at number two at four dollars and sixty five cents as I've been presenting St Charles 4.56 Fort Zuma 4.23 and Francis Howell at four dollars and nine cents now the reason we are number two here remember we were number three when it was operating Levy the reason we're number two here is we have a large Debt Service Levy the reason we have a larger Debt Service Levy than most districts is because we build more buildings than most districts and we are required to pay off our bonds with The Debt Service Levy and that's the reason we're number two here is because of The Debt Service Levy being as high as it is because of the buildings that we have had to build the last uh
019thing I'd like to discuss we've gone through assessed values and levies now I'd like to discuss projected revenue from both of those assessed values and those levies the estimated 2023 tax revenue is 154.7 million this is 16.2 million higher than last year's State auditor's office assess value rates that's September 22 versus September 23. this is 69 000 lower than our budget if you remember we we gave the uh state auditor our estimate of taxes and assessed values and uh rates back in April uh basically we're within sixty nine thousand dollars of where we said we would be that is less than one half of one-tenth of one percent is how close we got to the budget from last April to these rates that we're projecting right now to you uh the way I put that
020in common layman's term we just landed a Boeing 747 on your neighbor's driveway that's how close I believe we got on uh nailing this tax rate close to the budget and again this is 20 million dollars higher than last year's budget uh combined uh revenues what this is in order of assessed values per District because people all want to know uh how do our RSS values rank between the other districts RSS or Francis Howell's assessed values are 3.8 billion dollars for Zoom wall 3.6 billion dollars we are dead in the middle at 3.3 million dollars followed by Saint Charles at one point four billion and Orchard Farm at just over a half a billion dollars yeah in summary uh our operating levies were reduced as required by the Hancock Amendment and we're not requesting to
021take any operating levies uh as permitted by the state state auditor's office or not we're not requesting to take any operating levies uh above last year that are permitted by the state auditor's office and we're not recommending the district to take the entire Debt Service Levy as permitted by the state auditor's office again we're requesting to take the entire operating Levy but no more than that and again on The Debt Service Levy we're not taking everything we're permitted next is Patron comments again I'm not sure if we have any Patron comments so I don't need to go over what the rules are but let me just say that the comment period for the board meeting will follow this hearing this comment portion was only for people who had comments regarding the taxes uh I hear
022being none then we will then this tax hearing will be ended and after this tax rate hearing the board will vote on this presentation and the tax rates that the administration is recommending at this time that's the end of my report okay thank you Rick we now need a motion to adjourn the tax rate hearing and reconvene for Open session at 6 30. motion [Music] second all in favor say aye aye all opposed eyes have it motion carries start back in five minutes foreign I hate that thing okay let's uh call this Open Session to order and start with a pledge of allegiance regions fire of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right okay we're moving to
0238.3 we need a motion to approve the September 21 2023 Open Session agenda as presented so moved Julie you've got a motion second and a second any discussion on the agenda itself hearing none all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion carries repeat after me our mission statement learning today leading tomorrow next up is recognitions if that's Brynn I believe so up first tonight we are recognizing some life-saving efforts this spring an athlete from another District collapsed during the District track championship at Timberland high school and we'd like to recognize Timberland trainer Kyle Bishop from access Physical Therapy among others for assisting with CPR helping resuscitate the student and saving their life foreign [Applause] okay up next uh Priscilla Frost director of secondary programming received the 2023 journalism Education Association medal of
024Merit given to JEA members who make significant contributions to Scholastic journalism Frost worked as a journalism teacher for 13 years prior to transitioning to Administration during her time in a classroom she was involved in local state and National journalism education associations serving as co-president Secretary of the local St Louis area organization and support to journalism t-shirts across the area congratulations okay moving on to public comment so the board wants to hear from District residents employees regarding District related matters and has set forth a set amount of time for residents and employees of the district to adjust the board during public comment period individuals will be given three minutes to speak to the board we ask that all speakers follow the requirements of policy 412. it is our request that speakers not identify employees or students
025by name or other identifying information during their comments and we obviously ask our speakers to model civil and respectful behavior for our district students that being said I'll call our first Speaker up is Danielle Schroeder can you hear me my name is Danielle Schrader and I'm a parent taxpayer former educator and staunch critic of the the leadership within this District I'm also a constituent who voted for five of the seven board members sitting in front of me I'm standing up here on my own volition I stand before you in truth and I feel compelled to speak based upon the Holy scripture of Ephesians 5 11. have nothing to do with the fruitless Deeds of Darkness but rather expose them we all see what you are doing by re rewriting the ethics and legal policies you
026are attempting to silence voices of dissent with your calculated verbiage what a glorious day it will be when the Board of Education can just go back to rubber stamping everything that comes to them after the policy revisions are voted through you won't have to hold the superintendent accountable because you won't be able to hold the superintendent accountable because there will literally be no mechanism by which to do so for those who are just getting up to speed the district is changing the rules part way through the game because they don't like what the three newest board members stand for someone said something that resonated with me their statement was they are trying to unseat David Renee and Jen because those are the board members who want parents to have rights over their kids that is
027a terrifying thought but I dare you to try and refute it in the current code of ethics the very first point says you will think of Children First when fulfilling your responsibilities what impact does it have on our children when the Board of Education looks the other way at a moral corrupt and unethical behavior of its subordinate covers it up or better yet participates in it I attended last month's board meeting and was shocked at the blatant dishonesty out of the mouth of the superintendent dishonesty is an ethical concern you are proposing a new code of ethics exactly who are we Desiring to be ethical here come to think of it has this board ever given the superintendent Direction on anything or are you too busy conspiring to weaponize policy against fellow board members and
028parents I think we all know the answer to that 10 million dollar question the public deserves to know exactly what is at play here they need to know about the alleged money grabs intimidation retaliation conspiring against elected officials and taxpayer money being used for all of it it will all come to light the most regrettable thing is in the meantime and even after the Fallout the children of this District suffer they deserve better [Music] [Applause] thank you next up Katie Hubbard okay does it mean to be reset okay on the heels of Mental Health Awareness Month access to Mental Health Care is a fundamental right and it's a critical issue that is affecting our youth and our marginalized communities some of her children are lacking the necessary resources and support within the home to address
029their mental health concerns and St Charles one in seven children experience neglect within the home one in six youth experience mental health conditions with 56 percent of them not receiving any care some individuals on the board are allowing personal bias misguise beliefs political agendas influences to dictate their ashes from about to promote and support laws to remove access to mental health and unjustly villainized teachers and staff who generally want to help now students fear getting their trusted adult people that they trust in trouble if they reach out for help making them further receive in silent and silently screaming for help there are some board members that are outrageously not qualified to vote against approval Mental Health Providers like Chas conference health or kids in the middle because they may be associated with lgd ITA communities
030minorities groups or other acronyms that you may have now demonized as indoctrination leave the health care decisions to most are qualified such as the CSC LPC MD or dnp they have on the board and no Dr Doom and no Dr Google and send total material or the political body and it's not an equivalent try to obtain access outside access to Mental Health Care challenging and often overwhelming process the barriers appointments referrals weightless and financial burning may make it incredibly difficult for individualized and marginalized communities to receive help that they need by providing near immediate access to mental health services within a school by providing near immediate access to Mental Health Services in the school we can eliminate these obstacles and ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to seek help if you do not like
031the providers add one that meets your needs but do not remove resources as Educators board and community members we must prioritize the well-being of our youth this is the consequences of requiring opt-in only or denying Mental Health Services can be devastating can have devastating results can be devastating resulting in tragic outcomes such as suicides we cannot afford to lose a single life when their resources readily available to prevent such tragedies we must challenge the stigma surrounding mental health and work towards providing comprehensive support in those in need is our duty to prioritize the well-being of our children and to ensure their access to Mental Health Services most of our teachers and staff are rather apologize a million times for Environmental Health Access than having to attend a child's funeral if you're still going to proceed
032with removing access and mental health then this is not about the children for you it's about your own agendas and for those in this room and for the lows that are listening if you need are in crisis if you need help 988 would be a suicide crisis Health Lifeline help you please hang on [Applause] next up Lindy Williford good evening members of the board and your one employee the superintendent the proposed revision to policy 1740 appears to be nothing more than a power grab and an intimidation tool used against parents and their elected board members policy 1740 says the chief general counsel has a responsibility to Monitor and understand the actions of the district's constituents with a focus on identifying activities that might harm the district or violate its legal obligations further in the policy
033it states that more directors and other individuals are also considered constituents that can be monitored who are the other individuals and what is the purpose of using the terms Monitor and understand if the word constituents here doesn't mean parents as our board president so graciously graciously mansplained to us today then you should have no problem changing the word and expressly excluding parents in the policy it appears the intent of the policy is to weaponize the district's staff Council against new board members and other individuals while at the same time giving incredible protection to the superintendent and completely changing the authority structure of this District who grants the authority to monitor anyone with a taxpayer-funded attorney what actions will you be monitoring anyway their actions on social on social media their actions on school property how
034about a private investigator following them to work if you get what you're looking for then what exactly what activities are harmful to the district hurt feelings bad press being held accountable who makes the determination that certain constituents employees board members and other individuals are a Target to be monitored and exactly what are you going to do to them if they are not on your team are they considered an enemy all the time and money spent on monitoring people and actions you deem harmful be covered by the district council's contract or will this District use taxpayer funds for this policy District Council also gets to decide when justification exists and the superintendent can be reviewed it is the board's job to hold her accountable why would you give up the responsibility of holding the superintendent accountable
035is the attorney the gatekeeper now why is the board giving up their their authority to this attorney no other District in the state has both District Council and another Law Firm on retainer considering District council's performance review will be given by our superintendent I can't imagine a lot of justification in holding her accountable will be happening who would bite the hand that gives you your performance review and I'm curious what meets the burden of justification to be reviewed I'd say you're 50 proficiency scores or justification especially because the superintendent is contracted to make 290 thousand dollars in 2025. ultimately the question is what is the point of having an elected school board if all the power goes to District Council and the superintendent if that was not your intent with this policy then the entire
036policy must be Rewritten if this was your intent then you are derelict in your duties and you need to resign [Music] [Applause] next up Candace door it is good evening I'm here tonight to talk about the sudden changes occurring in this District in the past years parents were able to opt out of non-academic programs counseling presentations and non-mandated testing without issue but this year when a noticeable number of parents decided to opt their children out and a media Source catches wind of operation opt-out damaging the district's Perfect Image suddenly parents opting out is no longer respect respected and we're told the above mentioned is supposedly required now required by whom the state of Missouri or but by those who perceive the sense of control by those who perceive a sense of control over my over
037what I want and what I don't want over my children this is this Sudden Change in Behavior feels like retaliation against parents like me and the screaming mob of parents behind me the image of this district is more important than anything else it seems and what is causing damage to to your image the most hate minus the three who were recently elected the obvious hate that this District projects towards parents who are involved is incredibly embarrassing in my opinion why don't you all want to work with us at least our former superintendent respected our rights to opt out he knew parents have a constitutionally protected right out of the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment to direct the upbringing and education of their children and the Supreme Court continues to uphold parents decision decision-making authority
038over their own children so yes I can and will opt my children out all of this is so exhausting but I know I'm fighting for what is right and I sleep well at night knowing my fight is for the children doing right by them is my only agenda you know what it feels like you know you know what else it feels like retaliation the revision of 1740 which was mentioned before me it sounds like a non-government entity will be monitoring and investigating parents and their activities parents like me and my warrior friends behind me for merely having an invested interest in their children's education for asking too many questions for sun shining records which is fully within our right and for having the audacity to oppose District decisions that affect our children it sounds like
039this District thinks that they can legally investigate involved parents like me which I perceive as a personal personal and direct threat however it's laughable you guys think you actually have the legal or authority power to Monitor and investigate private citizens because you don't the revision of 1740 allows the general Chief counsel Chief general counsel to monitor the actions of board members activities as well which directly contradicts six wsd policies wsd policy 0120 specifically states that the people of Wentzville School District are the ultimate Governors and the board is directly accountable to them so we're revision giving employees discretion to Governor govern and monitor board members and parents activities contradict several wsd policies and the purpose of your elected position between the superintendent and chief General counselor taxpayers are funding nearly a half a million dollars
040in salary for what for them to further muddy District policy Shifting the power to them for their own protection I can think of many other areas in this District to put a half a million dollars to good use am I right teachers I asked this board when you are no longer in your seats when you go back to being just a regular parent like us with how you left the district with the decisions you made and the results of those decisions will be will you be happy to allow this District to will you be happy that you allowed this District to transition so far from academics it's completely unrecognizable now I'm almost done okay I know you're tired of all of this we're tired too but if you don't like the heat that we bring
041or being held accountable I suggest you vacate your seat because you know us well enough by now that we are not going anywhere [Applause] next up Haley Geno [Music] I am here this evening to speak to you about revisions to policy 6242 and to be frank I'm truly not sure how much clearer the parents in Wentzville need to be with you we will not co-parent with the Wentzville School District we do not want you teaching coaching or speaking on or even bringing up what you consider to be controversial topics with our children last month I spoke to you about the negative effects leader and me already had on my third grade daughter as well as our family as a whole and mind you we were four days into the school year little did I know
042the extremely hard uphill battle this District would make it just to opt just to honor my family's choice to opt out or should I say you gave us the illusion that we could I won't go into all the specifics right now you all have been copied on all of the communications but what I will say is this district is not listening to what the parents want for our children's education and in case there's confusion as to what we want let me be clear one we want core academics without having to worry about political agendas of those teaching and leading the youth in the classroom number two we want to send our children to school and not wonder what controversial topic will be brought up in class that day and if we have equipped our children
043with the tools needed to combat it three we want our children to go to school each day knowing they won't be systematically indoctrinated with beliefs that don't align with our Core Family Values four we will we want actual choice to opt out and for a free fair and equal education for the children that do opt out these are programs and topics that are not mandated and our children are missing core academic instructional time for them see what you're doing is taking the parenting out of the hands of the actual pay parents and we are done sitting idly by allowing you to continue to let it happen what we want is for us to pick the topics we do not want you to choose the controversial topics you'll speak on at what age you deem it
044appropriate to do so that's not your job I was asked to sign a blank permission slip for my third grade daughter to watch PG-13 movies as an eight-year-old in school when I asked the teacher to see the list of PG-13 movies my third grade daughter was going to see in school I was told that list could not be provided do you see this as the huge issue I see this as an eight-year-old daughter in school watching PG-13 movies over what controversial topics that teacher deemed necessary that day it's not your job as the school to do that it's the parents job to decide what if it all we we choose to Broach these subjects you have given the parents in the Wentzville School District the sense of Illusion with opt-out forms and trust me when
045I say I'm the perfect person to speak on this family's choice to opt out was not honored which resulted in the 1300 discrimination complaint as well as my seven my eight-year-old daughter missing seven days of in-person instruction time and ultimately having to be transferred to another Elementary School and why because my family's beliefs didn't align with a third-party experimental program I'm almost finished when when what is going to happen when you revise this policy and more families try to opt out see asked about my daughter's education when we tried to opt out and I'm still waiting to hear as I was told we're waiting for guidance from central office how many 1300 complaints for discrimination will you get because the staff and administrators refuse to honor what you said we could do to begin with
046when passing these programs through the only thing revising this policy is going to do is create a bigger sense of distrust between the parents administrators and the Board of Education itself next up Harry Dahl didn't see him yeah all right moving on next up Elena h hello my name is Elena I have some friends um that go to some schools that have informed me of some very inappropriate things at Liberty High School I have been told that there is a biological male that identifies as a girl that is allowed to use the girl's bathroom and do PE with the girls this is so harmful to Children here are some things the girl at this school have to say about this my grandmother and great grandmother didn't fight for women's rights for a boy to use
047my bathroom and violate my privacy another is start quote I don't use the bathroom at school because boys use the girls bathroom at school I don't want a boy in the bathroom with me it's not okay for my brother to be in the bathroom with me at home so why should a boy I don't even know be in my bathroom at school according to the latest report by the Department of Education Missouri is number one in student rape attempted rape it is well past time to protect girls in restrooms and any other private space they have at school including locker rooms if the Windsor board members refuse to address this issue and protect children and do the right thing then they have no business being in a position on the board please I am so
048lucky right now to go to private school girls don't want boys in their bathrooms girls are not even using the bathrooms at school just to avoid boys public schools are not helping with the rising number of rape so why aren't we helping innocent young girls don't want to lose their virginity on your account for letting boys into the bathroom all that this problem needs is a simple rule boys in the boys bathroom girls in the girls bathroom and no boys who identify as girls are not girls biology tells that every woman is XX every male is X Y you can identify as a koala you can do whatever you want to your body but you still have the same chromosomes you've had your entire life follow the money when kids get gender transition procedures done
049doctors get paid also I don't hate lgbtq people my mom is raising me to love everyone but just because I love everyone doesn't mean I have to agree on all of their opinions please acknowledge the kids and get in their safety which which should come first thank you foreign [Applause] [Music] I am here to talk about the Compass Health presentations for the sixth graders in this District um I brought this to Jason's attention last year and I never got a response so I thought I'd try again this year my daughter's in sixth grade so I have invented invested interest in this so there's an activity that they will do during their diversity and adversity training session it's called claim it so right here I have the instructions of the privilege walk and right here I
050have the instructions of the claimant activity and you tell me if it sounds exactly the same so the privilege will stand in a horizontal line in the middle of the room all participants will close their eyes until the end of the exercise as the facilitator reads a statement or question the participant will step forward or step back if it applies to them now the claimant activity if it is true for someone they know students will claim the statement by walking toward the claimant sign presenters will pause between statements so students can notice who is standing with them who is not and how it makes them feel so once again we are letting third party presenters come into our schools without knowing what they're teaching our children parents don't know this they deserve to know it
051yeah it's the privilege walk nice try trying to rename it thank you next up Corey lights yeah okay so I thought we were pretty clear in April the direction we wanted the district to go the majority voted last April we voted straight across the board for three new board members yes they all ran on the same thing now I know Common Sense isn't what it used to be but all of you know good and well what the majority of parents in this District want we voted for that change in April who thought it was a good idea superintendent and a newly hired lawyer to rewrite all of these policies who all of you know exactly what you're doing this is a way to subvert the will of the parents and our Representatives at the end
052of the day the ones that won't be able to walk down the street will be you I want to be real clear every vote you cast in opposition against director Olsen hinky and Lewis is nothing short of spitting in the parents faces we know exactly who we elected elected now for some of you we didn't know who you were we just filled a dot in it won't happen again the new members we voted them to do what they're doing can't get with the program then get out I know exactly why you want to do everything in Shady meetings and backroom deals because you surely can't justify it in the open you can't have a discussion and listen to the wants of the parents who you represent you can't defend what you're trying to do centralizing
053power is never a good thing lack of transparency is never a good thing when are you going to listen to us when we vote the rest of you out because by all means there's only one of you that should be up here voting against Olsen and hinky and Lewis the rest of you we voted for thank you [Applause] next up Leah p [Music] oh hello good evening I just wanted to talk about a few of the policy changes that are going to be discussed this evening in a first read in hopes that some changes can be made before they are voted on by the board the first one being policy 340. the first one being policy 340 which is the code of ethics I read through this many times over the last few days and
054there was one line that keeps blaring out at me for further discussion where it states the Board of Education will work through the superintendent and his or her staff I would recommend this to State working with the superintendent and his or her staff I realize it is only one word but it appears to be a very important word that is giving our superintendent whether it be our current one or future ones way too much power um policy 1740 which is the communication between members of the Board of Education and the chief general counsel shall be initiated through the superintendent or the board president on behalf of the board what if a board member needs an opinion on a legal matter matter concerning the board president and or the superintendent would they have access to this
055legal opinion also will all matters discuss what Chief counsel whether written or oral include the entire board even the submitted requests does the superintendent have open access to the attorney or will the entire board be looped in if it involves a board matter or responsibility will Council be used within the board and against each other this is only going to cause a further divide and create a hostile environment and not just with this board the I know we have two or three up for re-election this coming April you need to be thinking about future boards because this can all come back to bite you have a good evening [Music] okay moving on I think we've got superintendent comments next turn that over to Dr torma I I would like to remind the crowd that this
056is a board meeting in a business meeting please don't interrupt speakers it's a very tight space it does echo in here and there will be a lot of discussion the board does have up here and we want to be able to hear each other and the presenters so thank you [Music] good evening everyone so tonight I'd like to start by recognizing three of our high schools Holt Liberty and Timberland they were all recognized in the most recent edition of the U.S news best high schools ranking now one of the things that I'd like to point out is the data that's used for these rankings is from primarily from the 2021 and 21-22 school years which is why North Point High School is not included simply because they opened in 2122 so we look forward to
057North Point joining this ranking in future years we also want to recognize all of our hard-working technology staff members with the national I.T Professionals Day that was just a few days ago also with the beginning of the school so our our new enrollment is at 17 587 students that we welcome back to the school year this year it's very similar to last year and we're looking forward to a good year so we did start off the year with some press coverage with back to school at North Point we are also excited that next Friday on September 9th or September 29th the Fox 2 pep Zone will broadcast from Holt High School so please tune in that morning we're also looking we've been excited at our elementary schools many of them participate in the house system
058they've been sorting their houses and starting their um different School families and developing good relationships within their schools we've also been conducting lots of learning walks throughout the district since the beginning of the school school year too and so we're excited to say that we're seeing kids learning they're definitely in their routines they're engaged and we have noticed especially at the high school level with the new cell phone policy students are definitely more engaged now when they do ask me they asked me to turn it over and let them have their cell phones back but it's very clear that students are more actively engaged in the high school setting with the new policy we also have had various activities throughout the district in celebration of Patriot Day and so many of our students have been
059learning about 9 11 and our First Responders and their positive impact on our community we also are back to um fall Sports and Friday Night Lights that's been a very fun great addition back to the school year currently fifth grade Camp is occurring at Quail Ridge Park in brammelstook park across the district for our elementaries and so our students are getting to have some outdoor education and Outdoor Pursuits as they engage in activities at fifth grade camp and so we were excited this week to be able to recognize Ty Shelton from Timberland High School he was recognized as our student of the month at our Wentzville Rotary Club this week then also this week I was excited to be able to present alongside our superintendents throughout the county on the great things that have been
060happening in our schools throughout the county and celebrate with our students in this photo who attend the Caps program the center for advanced professional studies program as part of our Global Business and Entrepreneurship Strand and so these students were there networking with local business owners and individuals in our community and working on their soft skills and our if you ever get to engage with our cap students they are super impressive and looking for real world opportunities to work within um their field of expertise and interest we are definitely getting back in the swing of things this month we are kicking off the superintendent student advisory council at all of our high schools our faculty advisory Council will also come back together we're continuing our administrator meetings and we are beginning our school Improvement collaboration meetings
061as well various upcoming important dates so Wentzville has our district-wide homecoming parade on September 30th it kicks off at 9 30 a.m from Holt High School so we hope that you all can come out and join us the um the route normally goes down down to the firehouse on Luton house did I say it Luke Ken house Boulevard so please come out and join us parent-teacher conferences are coming up on the October 25th and 6th followed by our fall break and then we did reschedule our construction and long range facilities planning special session that we had scheduled at the end of August and if you come to our regularly scheduled October meeting on October 19th you will be able to be a part of that with us we also are excited to be able to
062have multiple opportunities this year for Community engagement and our first opportunity is going to be on October 4th at Liberty High School and each quarter we're planning on having a student and School showcase for each of the feeder patterns and so all of the schools that feed into Liberty will be there that evening if you choose to join us you'll see student performances you'll get to engage and have kind of like an open house walk around time where you can talk with people with different clubs or activities or classes and then the last part of the evening we will have some breakout sessions where we can have presentations and conversations around different District topics and this this month it'll all be around academics so there is a page on the website for this there is
063also a place to RSVP and we hope you will be able to join us I'm sorry we also um the following week have other community engagements planned so the district is currently beginning our strategic planning process for our next Five-Year Plan and so we do have public and staff meetings everyone is encouraged to attend you are all welcome to come October 9th and October 10th and we do have a couple of different times there the QR code here will take you to the landing page on the website for all of the things that pertain to this or you can just go to the district website and find it as well there will be RSVPs and um opportunities to sign up to come so then we do have a couple of other updates and I wanted
064to touch on them um and it ties to some of the conversation that you've heard this evening already from some of our patrons and our parents so the first thing that I'd like to touch on and provide more clarification around is the opt out policy so we've had a few questions regarding the opt-out procedures and we'd like to provide a little bit of clarification throughout the duration of the Academic Year the district strives to provide well-rounded educational experience through preventative programming health education informative assessments and Leadership education to help grow and enrich our student learners we value the input of our families and about and understand the importance of ensuring that each child's educational experience aligns with their values and beliefs so we've worked over the past few months to streamline an opt-out process for
065our families at the same time as a public school district there are limitations on what students are able to opt out from crowd we cannot have a back and forth this room is very small please for the sake let her get through her comments we require it listen to your comments let her get through her comments please state law requires assessments for all students in kindergarten through third grade and all transfer or newly enrolled students between grades one through five in the areas of reading for reading iready is on the state's approved assessment list and is the district's assessment for this mandatory requirement so there is no formal alternative assessment option therefore opt outs are not permitted for math iready math is the district's adapted board approved comprehensive math resource that supports the district's curriculum
066for grades k through eight due to the fact that these assessments are part of the curricular resource for math instruction students may not opt out of i-Ready math there's clear statutory guidance that gives parents expressed authority to opt out from Human Sexuality instruction and sexual abuse training there's no such language regarding other components of the education provided by public schools without any legal requirement to allow parents to opt out the district decides whether or not it's permitted we appreciate parents understanding as we work hard to comply with State requirements and best serve our students and Families we have more information on the opt-out process for the on underneath the district's website under parent information opt out information I'd also like to take a moment to talk about facilities usage the district has received several inquiries
067regarding facility usage related to gender identity including a resident agenda item at August board meeting and a recent letter sent to All Saint Charles County districts signed by some of the legislators urging the school districts to begin developing policies to address these sensitive issues the district is committed to ensuring the safety and meeting the individual needs of each of our students Finland state laws remain unsettled on these issues therefore the board has not adopted a policy relating specifically to gender identity and facility usage [Music] absence of a policy the district's Administration continues to handle requests of this nature on a case-by-case basis as it has in the past working directly in partnership with the students and their families respecting individual needs and ensuring that parents are part of the process to make certain our students
068needs are being met should anyone request accommodations for locker room usage related to gender identity or for other personal need a private bathroom or space would be considered to meet their individualized needs I'd like to also take a moment to address the concerns that were brought this evening about Liberty High School some similar concerns were brought to our attention right after the first week of school District administration investigated and those claims were found to be false right right these administrative procedures ensure that the district adheres to its existing non-discrimination policies until such time as legislators or the courts clarify the laws related to gender identity at such time as a board majority supports the development of a policy for facilities usage for gender identity or or for other reasons it would be added to the
069agenda and discussed in Open Session for example tonight we are discussing revisions to board policy 2905. co-curricular and extracurricular programming those revisions mirror the provisions of Senate Bill 39 which went into effect on August 28th and prohibits schools from allowing student athletes to compete in competitions that are designated for the biological sex opposite to the student's biological sex as indicated on the student's birth certificate at or near the time of the student's birth had the Missouri general assembly assembly enacted legislation relating to the gender identity and Facilities usage in public schools like they did in the last legislative session for athletic competitions then it is likely the board would have majority support for the adoption of a policy that is aligned with law the general assembly failed to pass any such legislation that would provide
070further clarification for Missouri public schools as this is a topic of interest for many of our local and state elected officials and since federal and state laws are still unsettled on these issues we respectfully request that legislators work to pass legislation clarification on this topic will allow school districts to focus their time energy and effort efforts on academics and meeting the individual needs of each of our students [Music] we also are continuing to hire many positions we have such a fantastic team on board here at the wsd and we are continuing to look for many support staff positions with Transportation custodians instructional assistance Child Nutrition before and after care substitutes so please reach out you can also use the QR code here and I am super excited to announce that our very own Dr Jerry
071LeBron Deputy superintendent of schools and students in schools was just announced this week in the St Louis Business Journal as the 2023 St Louis business journals 40 under 40. so that is super awesome thank you [Applause] Jerry does a great job and she's amazing so and with that that is going to conclude my superintendent comments president Goodson can we have discussion [Music] specific on the Supreme Court superintendent comments I'll look for board support to do so it's not on the agendas you make a motion for discussion comments on this motion please I've got a motion in a second so I would like to make comments pertaining to the two things that she brought up the opt out I just have some follow-up questions on the opt-out stuff and the SB 39 or 29 39 SB
07239 I have some questions about that so I think is the SB 39 a part of the policy which one was that I think well it's in relation to this topic she was talking about the bathroom facilities usage is there just a friendly to talk about it in the facilities [Music] is there is there a friendly to talk about that specific issue inside that promise he was a 2905 you said does that policy pertain to bathrooms well neither does the agenda I'm just trying to if you're tying it to that SBI superintendent comments invoked the facilities usage and we opt out and I would like to have a board discussion responding to and asking questions about those topics any other questions from the board on that we've got a motion in a second no I
073have one follow-up question yeah I know it as I finished talking I realized sorry I just had one follow-up question about the last statement that was made as we were closing out president as superintendent to formala was was finishing up can I go I think it's probably tied to the motion that's on the table probably so yeah so Mike my question no sorry sorry I'm saying like let's vote on that motion then if you know motion passes yeah okay make sense any other comments questions from the board on this vote Matthew can I get a roll call vote please president Goodson hi director Hankey hi vice president Stoli hi director Olsen aye secretary lizac aye director Lewis hi director Scott aye motion carries director Olsen person so for the comments that basically we were talking
074about SB 39 and how it defines sex and not gender um and it separates based on that item separates based on sex we also are going to have the lactation policy or we do have lactation policy we're making updates to it tonight but that also speaks to women lactating which is something that the female sex does I do not see that there would be issues well first of all this board has a lot of power we are a governing body and to Kick the Can down the road to the legislature and tell them that they need to pass a law so that we don't have to fight a battle that's not good enough for our community and I believe that we as a board need to do something can do something and we don't need
075to kick the can and I would like to make a motion that we draft policy for privacy facilities usage and bring it back to the board at the next meeting for a first read second questions comments on the board no I so I I've got us maybe comments or statement I guess um I actually I don't know that I agree I agree with we have the power um I think that was demonstrated to some level during covid the board can and had done some things to step away from maybe guidance and assume some level of risk um during covet I felt like boards were left on their own to make decisions on what mitigation strategies you know need to be used or should be used how those impacted District Operations how that impacted um academics
076how that impacted mental health of our staff and our students being left on our own maybe sounds great yay local control um but there there certainly was risk for public scrutiny but there was legal risk as well school boards you know had to think about legal responsibility as it relates to County Government had to relate to County Health officials State officials Etc not to mention community members on both sides of that coin during that time I remember a lot of sternly written letters from legislators or Facebook posts or memes saying that we need to stop tyranny and address these issues um I I I found that it took a lot of time for board members I think only two of us probably were up here that addressed covid um at that time you know it
077was a trip to Jefferson City to visit the governor's office to understand the risk discussions with County officials to get comfortable uh and ultimately for me I got comfortable myself then also had to get a board majority support to get comfort with that risk stepping away from quarantines when County Health was telling us otherwise I wasn't perfect in how I handled that situation for many reasons and and reflect on that I do know that um it didn't have to be that way now here we are again we have a sternly written letter from our legislators in the county telling boards to adopt policies to use the bathrooms around bathrooms and transgender students I I want to know where those sternly worded letters were when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of a transgender child
078and family showing that Claims can be brought against districts for purposes of Missouri Human Rights Act even giving juries a clear pathway to decide on these claims where was the outrage when a jury awarded four million dollars to a district in the state for damages where was the outrage yes being appealed sure where was the outrage when this has been when other district courts have ruled similarly let alone the outrage of what's happening at the federal level no letters no sternly things specific to those issues and conclusions at best at best the legal landscape on this area is gray at best at worst in the eyes of some let me finish let me finish and the eyes of some it's nearly settled it certainly looks to me that if we made a policy like this
079letter suggests there's a claim someone could make and we could have legal costs to defend it at a minimum before excuse me let me finish my Words go-kart instead of a strongly worded letter why don't these legislators put their money where their mouth is create a law get that law signed by our governor get that law through judicial review which to me looks like a clear appeal from the Supreme Court and make it clear for everyone who's challenged by these decisions what stop stop this isn't appropriate I'm speaking this isn't to settle I understand that I am speaking that being said let's see who's challenged what they can and can't do let local control then decide much like the policy being cited today this is a delicate issue for a variety of reasons and I
080do not take this responsibility stop important I do not can take this consideration lightly it seems to me we have moved far beyond what would be normal discourse and recognition of complexity there's no there's no empathy for all students and families involved and it makes me sad this impacts I can't point of order on this on them is there something to do please stop just let me finish just let me finish let me finish you've said these things I understand where you're at let me finish this impacts so many people a fragile population of students and we shouldn't be so quick with our words Facebook posts memes and dialogue as any person would I have my personal views on the matter but as many items we face as a board and as a school board
081those personal matters need to be governed in all aspects of an issue should be considered to ensure this district is protected it is in fact many people don't know what my personal views are there's speculation insinuations I'm a Satanist a pedophile a perv I think but for this issue not knowing what my personal views is important it's important for the district as a whole and it will stay that way safety of all students matter voices of all constituents matter I beg our legislators to stop putting 100 of the burdens on us when it's convenient we're collaborative many of you who signed that letter have my contact you have my email you have my cell phone you know this same risk that I do stop playing politics pick up the phone it seems to me the
082only legislator in this County willing to put aside personal views and see the issue in totality is Trish Burns she is the only one that called me and asked called me and tried to understand she even offered to host a town hall I could be a part of that that would allow all constituents a voice in the matter given the risk at hand you bet I'm taking her up on that and though this is what I think we make the best decisions possible if I'm wrong on what I've said about our elected officials I'll apologize now I'll walk back these comments until then I'm waiting for the Outreach for anyone who wants to talk I have a comment Jason sorry president Goodson you said that there's no sympathy or empathy for for children situated um
083you said there was no empathy for all students and I don't think that's correct and I don't think that's that's a productive statement because wanting protections for children in their privacy rights since the beginning of public restrooms it's been an expectation since the beginning of public restrooms since women started using the facilities in public they've been separate for that reason the expectation of privacy this isn't about not having empathy for anybody this is about the expectation for privacy based on your biological sex and it has been a standard since we started using the bathroom in public so I I don't I take issue with the comment that this is about empathy for children I have a boy and a girl any other comments from the board [Music] you just spent like 20 minutes talking I'm
084making statements we have unit single stall unisex bathrooms Olson I'm asking the rest of the board for comments please please let's talk questions I have not spent 20 minutes talking like you just did okay yeah can I get some other comments from the board here if there's anything comments from the board yeah I have just a question and a comment to that and the question is Jason or president Goodson we spoke about this uh prior to the uh the meeting there and I I guess I understood that there was going to be a statement made about parents always being notified as it relates to somebody that makes a decision that they're looking to do something related to trans and I I didn't hear that so I'd like to make sure that that gets out there
085Point number one I actually do believe that that was in our statement that we're having those conversations in consultation with the parents any request is brought To Us by a student or a family that those conversations will happen with in consultation with them okay I wanted to make sure that that was clear this is this is talking about if if a child a student comes and says I'm a boy but now I want to be a girl that cannot happen in a school district without us engaging the parents that's an always and I think that's an important point and that's something that's been in a discussion the the second Point uh kind of a carrying on of the last two points is you know it's a tough situation because I believe there's a really good
086chance that we'll get sued for Millions by doing this so my way of looking at this and I'm with you on that as well but it I'm still gotta I have a responsibility because I want my taxes going down so my my point is what what yeah right so what can we do what can we do given the fact that the state hasn't made us a position which I think is pretty squirrely they they chose the easy one but they passed on the hard one and I think all of us owe it to our families to go after the state legislators and senators and get it passed but that's that's for something that would happen a year from now what are we going to do now and I think that and I've talked to the
087president about this and maybe others as well but how do we minimize our risk which is real on EX on lawsuits and yet still meet the requirements to me we have to find a way to guarantee that girls will not be in a situation in the bathrooms or in the shower rooms that they will ever be exposed or feel of risk of being exposed and to me that means that we have to go from and I don't know truly I've never been in a girl's bathroom so I don't know if there's all stalls or what what not there but there there has there has to be a protection for the girls in the bathrooms all right and then in the showers we got to make changes if and again I've not been in the showers
088there but if if they're open stalls like it was when I was a kid we've got to make changes and that's construction costs now to put in private showers that that is not the perfect solution but that is right now that I believe would minimize risk for our children for our daughters it's some cost that we take as incremental step and that I believe is is a solution that is that that's an answer to a solution yeah I'm gonna go to direct vice president director Olson is that okay all right so I agree with director Lewis's comments and I think that there's work that board members can do either individually or the board can appoint board members to work with the legislators so we can communicate the concerns that the parents are having that all
089parents are having and come to a solution and try to expedite you know what's happening at the state level I don't know if anybody has any feedback on that but I think that would be something that would be helpful so two comments one one I like that idea to to I do also agree with director Lewis and his comments we certainly talked about that issue and I don't know if Danielle has comments of that but I would support you uh vice president well I guess my question we know what the procedure is for this what would you like to see different out of a policy I would like the procedure to be made public was that not can I ask a follow-up to that director Olson are you saying that the procedure is not public
090like that Dr tormala just reviewed to my understanding it's not I've asked for it several times like the procedure if somebody wanted to use a different restroom than their the one that she just explained like you're saying that's not public like she just explained it the uniform process it's a document for privacy facilities usage that's what I'm talking about I want to be public so I will say that it was under legal review for a while when we shared it with the board most recently it's now a formal document and it it can be shared publicly yeah any other questions comments from the board I thought secretary Eliza had something well I guess the nature of my question is what would be what would you want to see in a policy that's different or provides
091additional layers or protect like specifically I'm not trying to be I I do not want a policy that speaks to anybody's gender okay or I want a privacy facilities usage policy that will allow for all sorts of accommodations to be made in in the instance that even a girl doesn't want to change in front of other girls because of insecurities or whatever those sorts a boy doesn't want to change in front of the other guys maybe he's insecure any kind of accommodation that needs to be made with the understanding that males and females go into separate facilities that are designated for their birth biological sex and if they need a special accommodation such as 15 minutes before the bell rings that locker room is theirs and they get to use it to change out all
092by themselves districts Across the Nation have made that accommodation and it works also we have privacy facilities that are single-use stalls single-use restaurants you'd lock the door you're in there by yourself that is an accommodation that is fair and equitable these are all sorts of things I have a policy that never even invokes anything about any of the buzzwords people talk about it is simply a privacy's privacy facilities usage policy and I would like to share it with the board and potentially incorporate it into a policy which I believe is appropriate secretary you had a question coming thank you no I guess honestly I don't disagree whatsoever I think that's fair um I can't help but feel that our legislators especially with that letter um they really did throw us under the proverbial School Bus
093you know um but I do agree with you Jen I do agree that the expectation to I guess privacy in general it should be there um I do think that the I like your wording on the Privacy facility usage without it containing references I guess to sex or gender in conversation about this I've you know had similar comments to yours you know even thinking about a you know a young lady in high school who may be pregnant and she suffers from severe morning sickness and accommodations such as a private restroom would be appropriate for her based on a medical reason but I guess with our current procedure those expectations I guess are there I guess the and I understand the risk about creating a policy versus just having the procedure I get that we've that's
094been pounded and I truly get that um but how would I guess I'm just when it comes to a policy when you break a policy there can be consequences and how is that even just when it's operational um I don't know there's just there's so there's so much that goes into it um but yeah I I I I like what you've presented Jen sure I do still have some comments president Goodson sir I think um Dr Toma could you maybe address um kind of the accommodations Point um that's referenced in terms how the current procedure works the current procedure works for anyone who requests accommodations so it's not gen gender specific or any other reason for that but all of the different types of accommodations that people have just mentioned here those would all be
095covered and and and and look I I don't disagree with many of your statements secretary leisig I think the the black and white of the matter is is whether or not the pilot the risk is truly around whether or not the policy derived from the board is specific to biological male and female and what facility usage that they can give and that's where this risk as outlined um by the Supreme Court and other courts Etc has laid and so I'm seeking Clarity kind of on the comments are you looking for that policy to be black and white can we create a policy around privacy facilities that would is it is it possible to create a policy around privacy facility usages that it excludes that kind of I mean and I guess Jen would I would
096say to that we have two policies that will be in play that separate individuals based on sex one in sports and one defining women as lactating human beings or vice versa the lactation is because they're a female doctor tomorrow you had a comment if I can respond to that directorals and the two situations that you've shared with us there are corresponding laws that outline all of that where we also are still operating with our Title IX policies in our District's non-discrimination policies all of which include gender identity Title IX allows for the separation of privacy facilities such as housing based on sex vice president yeah I'm actually looking for support for an action step Direction so the action step is we've talked about the procedure for for quite some time now I I think we
097should communicate that to the parents within offering the document to them so however we need to do that whether that means we email it to them with the school communication but I think parents would probably like to read that and I'm looking for support for that directive is that an amendment it's just Direction I Would support that I support it as well I would too and say we could put it on our website again um we're done sorry okay okay um what I wanted to say was the Kansas City Missouri case that you invoked in your comments Jason the reason that that went to court is because the child went out of state and changed their birth certificate and then were subsequently denied thank you any other comments from the board here can we repeat
098the motion in the second please Matthew um yes it was in motion by director Olson to um um draft a private facilities usage policy and bring it back to the board at the next meeting Matthew can you change that first word to privacy yes thank you and this would be coming back as a first reading yes yep no no just to be cleared uh director Olson no specifics on that policy in terms of restrictions several example policies that I would like to offer photography but not in the mo I'm just on the motion it's just a privacy policy privacy facilities usage president Goodson yes I would ask that director Olson work with the administration so she can have her ass um communicated so that we're not trying to figure this out in our next board
099meeting we you can clearly communicate that what you're looking for is there board support for that that's fine with me I think that's a great great step she's got some documentation already as a starting point so it's good to have examples director okay sorry any other comments nope Matthew can you roll call president Goodson aye director Hankey aye vice president Stoli aye director Olson aye secretary elizak hi director Lewis aye director Scott aye motion carries okay I think uh director Wilson you had other comments against the superintendent comments I think it was two things opt out I think it was yep much other questions um what if you don't sign the rep how how do you how are we forcing children to take the I ready if they can't use a computer president Goodson yes
100I have a question do we give the option for the student to take it at home on their own personal device or do we offer any kind of option or or bring a share device or something I might ask Greg Lawrence to come up I believe Greg and tell me if I'm wrong in the past when students haven't signed the rep we have been able to let them bring a personal device to school to use that instead of those the school's Chromebook is that correct that is correct he says if they don't have a personal device okay so the academic services department is saying they can print it and take it on paper you want guys I can't hear you do you want to come to the microphone and be able to answer [Music] this
101can be a follow-up thing too it was just related to the comments that you made so we can let's just I agree with that director can we just do a follow-up okay questions directory yes and um it's going to direct all of my questions and comments to you to protect myself legally here um so I did ask about that opt out and the response that I got was quote without legal requirements to allow parents to opt out the district is or the district gets to decide end quote I did read the state statute and nowhere in the state statute does it say that that the district gets to decide and without legal requirements from the state parents rights our are uphold I further read on Desi's website that the districts um [Music] can get a
102reimbursement up to eight dollars per student that takes the i-Ready test and I ask if that is the reason why students are not allowed to opt out I'm going to direct my questions to president Goodson to protect myself legally and if there needs to be a follow-up that is fine I'll just do a follow-up there internet Katie you want to go ahead um so there is the option for State reimbursement for iready there was a stipulation on um I don't know the percentage right off of my head but you had to be I believe it was over 60 percent basic or below basic to be able to qualify for that money um and we also use sr3 funds to purchase already so we're not eligible for that reimbursement as a district does that answer your
103question Renee that does okay so then I would like to make a motion to allow parents to opt their students out of i-Ready and counseling second discussion from the board I guess I'm more curious about the counseling part um specifically like what what I guess what counseling like the academic counseling that the high schoolers I mean the specifically so I was told with the counseling that it's the school counseling programs is what parents are unable to opt out of can we speak to I don't know what the specifics of the school counseling programs are so our councils are currently writing curriculum based on the Missouri counseling standards that we've shared that information um to to people who have requested and I'm happy to share it with you our counseling our counseling curriculum looks different at
104every level we can look at that I mean I can I don't know it off the top of my head but we could look at it and go through it we're currently writing a counseling curriculum that we are required to follow we do allow parents the ability to opt out of the small groups the one-on-one things things that they you know talking to the counselor individually or privately but there are lessons that are taught within the classroom that students you know our work our work with the classroom counselor as part of you know the teaching staff throughout the day I would actually like to amend my motion and separated it into two separate motions do I need to say that out loud yeah go ahead so I make a motion to allow parents to opt
105their students out of iready second I'm just taking that as a friendly Amendment guys if that's okay okay yes I have a question yes so um we talked about how the statue says that there has to be assessment screenings for reading um so are are parents allowed to opt out for example on the map testing that is also reported to Desi so the answer is if students come to us they're not able to opt out so if they're in school during map assessments it will be presented to them if they refuse it they refuse it but they will be presented the map assessment and Desi had taken the stance in recent years of if students if families are opting into public education then they are also opting into those mandatory requirements which include Statewide assessment
106question about that from my understanding I thought it was I thought Jesse's guidance was something to do with we have to if a certain amount of kids certain percentage of kids aren't taking it then we are penalized for it's like 12 or 15 percent or something so there is a five percent what they call level not determined and that would Encompass students that don't take the assessment or maybe they just answer one question they don't take enough to get a score so for any school or any district for any of the assessments if they have Stu more than five percent of students that fall on that level not to determine category it completely impacts their accreditation accreditation standard with the state so if a family were to opt out of map and opt out of
107I ready but State Statute says there has to be some kind of literacy assessment what would then be used or or how would that how would we comply to the statute we wouldn't be able to we currently do not have an alternate assessment for the reading provision in the state statute it does say that teacher evaluation is permitted to use Katie's you have a comment there sorry I heard it from the back I believe there has to be a body of evidence and I I believe it has to be one of the state provided assessments that is part of that body of evidence any other questions comments here so are we just working off of the which ones first yeah I think we have just one motion on the table which is the opt out
108of I ready is that kind of hit none yeah [Music] some kind of stipulation in a friendly Amendment or something to the motion there would need to be some kind of literacy well Renee saying no others are saying yes I feel like we need some more information on this or research on this I don't know if we can actually vote to say there would be they'd be able to opt out of everything without something else being provided go back to way that we've always I'd like to I think I think we should table this guys I think we need to hear the legal advice I don't I'd be careful for this board to make a decision that could go against assessment and and I want that legal advice before this board that's my personal view
109but there are options out there to replace or parents you know I think it would be prudent of us to just have all of that information before we make a vote even though that there's a state statute that requires a school to do something it does not mean that parents rights are taken away parents always have the right unless we have a court order that says that they do not Dr LeBron [Applause] uh if I may just to provide some clarity on what we understand thus far in regard to the state law and how we're able to assess students so previously if families did request to I opt out of i-Ready reading we did work with families to try to do offline assessments or other assessment tasks where our teachers could work independently to try
110and assess the students five domains of reading so yes there are alternate assessments with the new reading Law those are not necessarily the approved assessments by the state I ready is one of the very few approved assessments by the state and now by the new law we're required to use an approved assessment and so I think that's where the crossroad is is that it's somewhat of a catch-22 can you assess a student differently yes you can according to state law there's a very small handful of approved assessments by the state I already being one of them and that's why I think we're hitting the hitting that Crux but I think that we could dive into this deeper and inquire more but I just wanted to provide that bit of clarification on on why the past
111practice has changed yeah so just [Music] um I I think I was comfortable with the policy discussion on the facilities because it was more of a coming back to a first reading for the board I'd be remiss to say like this was not on our agenda this is not something that we put out there for the public to weigh in on our comment to um it is it is borderline a Sunshine Law violation to not have something 24 hours in advance for our public to give and weigh in on I would I would recommend of order please stop interrupting like I don't understand why we can't behave I've not I understand the frustration we're trying to speak into the mics it depends on how close you are to the mics but let's be let's be
112adults please so I my point is here we need to really consider whether or not we're borderline if we accept this motion and take votes that we are not letting the community weigh in on these decisions before and against and we can table this we can bring this back we can have the legal advice presented to us and consider it I did ask for this to be put on the agenda and you told me that it would be in the superintendent report so we could have had this discussion at which time so I agree with you that was my response and the board can then make motions based upon those comments provided to then bring this back to the board with sufficient guidance in order to ensure that we follow along president Goodson yes so
113Renee I understand what you're referencing in the law and I agree it does say assessment completed at the start and end of the school year or teacher observation so so what I want to be clear on what my concern is um so I would like to just have more clarification on that wall and if it obviously does allow teacher observation I would want to make sure that the teachers were trained properly we have the teachers currently that they don't have the proper training I've heard a lot of comments about Ela scores and we're trying to get them the proper training to teach the students and I think it director Olsen and director Henke you have asked at times for things to be tabled so I think that we instead of tabling it we could vote
114on this first because there's a motion on the table and then I'm happy to make a motion that it come back they gather information we put it on the agenda and for the next regular meeting I will withdraw my motion those are second so I'm okay with that okay but I also have some follow-up comments yeah do you have a motion then Shannon to that sorry I'll let you guys yeah okay I move that the administration uh put on the October regular agenda um a discussion about I already opt out bringing back Legal Information and her statute 167.645 and also seeing if the teachers have the proper training because that's not clear in this law if that would suffice and can I add to that sure I think I need a second first oh a
115second me Renee um so you know last year parents were able to opt out of I ready so what did what did what happened what were they able to do last year so last year it depends on when I mean I don't want to answer for the administration I clearly want them to answer but the law went into effect January 2023 which should mean that there would be some carry over from the 2022 school year to 2023 school year so maybe for part of the school year they were allowed out option but when 23 January 23 rolled over then they were not I saw that would be my guess what I was meaning like we can then discuss that like what was done last year and then when the law changed what what changes were
116made I agree I think that's fair um is this a discussion part of the motion okay so can we notate when they bring that back next month to also look at state statute 1605-70-160.570 because item number three on that it says in no case shall a state board of education or any agency state agency establish a single test or group of tests as a condition or requirement of high school graduation or as a requirement of a state approved diploma so if they're not being assessed by I ready that would be a required test by a state agency because Desi said we have to use them or or whoever however that came to be so it's it's not affecting their graduation status technically they can opt out and what's what's the effect if the law says
117it can't affect their graduation what can it really affect if they opt out just bring those pieces back into that yeah okay any other comments here okay so I have a motion and a second all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion care moving on to the consent agenda sure and get there I need a motion yes can we [Music] um oh never okay the addendum was moved to new business okay so on 13.3 FY 24. AP Bill list in September I believe it was page 11. there is Ed Council I wanted I requested the itemized invoice because there were some overlapping dates on there I am wondering if we can pull that and table that until next meeting when we get the itemized invoice we need to be provide that request
118or when was the time under that looking back at you Rick uh that itemized invoice was was given to uh legal and uh he just stepped out for just a second do we know if it was dropped in Matthew into the [Music] thoughts from the board here I have what was it that you pulled what was that that Council off of what offered what document the AP Bill list or the speaker the AP Bill list okay I also wanted to um oh never mind I wanted to remove something else comments here no do you have a motion I make a motion to pull Ed Council from the fy24 AP built list and table it until the October meeting pending the itemized invoice being sent out second quick question on that is there a deadline for
119the payment in terms of payment terms on the contract uh there is no contract we did receive the invoice uh the invoice was on the bill list we do not have a contract with Ed console we we operate under a request for proposal yeah so do but do we have payment terms on the invoice net 30 40 what are they you know they can put whatever payment terms they have on the invoice but there's no uh contract saying when it needs to be paid okay because they came in in a day so there is technically no I mean it's more of a uh just a business relationship on when we pay okay and to further maybe clarify your question the invoices the dates were in July and were in September so okay I don't think
120they're in any hurry all right any other questions comments we've got a motion in a second here can we clarify the motion Matthew this is a motion by um Council from the fy24 AP Bill list and table until the October meeting pending the itemized invases being provided so it's just a motion to pull the piece okay any other discussion from the board okay all those in favor say aye all right all those opposed motion carries I have a motion to pull the fry 24 Bill list of dendon [Music] has moved into business [Music] what do I emailed you about yeah just kidding I have another motion okay all right I need to have a motion to approve the consent agenda as amended first motion second uh I'm sorry it's not um Dr Scott and vice
121president thank you yes and I think Josh is around here somewhere Josh I think there was a request to have before we approve this consent um to make a few comments of the maintenance items that are in here that we're approving and just give some visibility to the things that are going on and then where we'll be talking about some of that in the future and I just want to apologize to Josh I told you you'd get in here first and we had a lot of discussion but you don't have to sit through the whole meeting unless you want to right all right uh president Goodson vice president solely members of the Board of Education who wants to talk about air conditioners good questions yeah I think just some statements around probably the whole air
122conditioner and things that we're doing there and then maybe just the future comment I think we've got your master plan coming back to the boards maybe just tell the community about that sure uh so I just want to let the room know that uh over the next several years into I'm budgeted out into 25 26 uh just all sort of off the cuff Liberty is uh Liberty and Timberland are slated for major HVAC improvements over the next couple of years we'll see all new water source heat pumps in those buildings we will also see yeah we'll also see chili Replacements at Holt High School one of the issues we dealt with at Holt High School the air handlers are new a lot of the infrastructure is new but they are married to Old chillers uh
12315 16 17 years old and those chillers are at the end of their useful service life so we intend to replace those sooner than later obviously uh with engineering and basis of design for air conditioners is around 9 500 to 95 or 100 degrees so when you have those temperatures and you have those units on rooftops and the relative humidity is at what 60 something 70 percent and uh the heat indexes are 11520 obviously we have a very difficult time keeping up so I want to give a shout out to the buildings the staff the students for everybody hanging in there because I was sort of talking to my counterparts and colleagues in other school districts and they were all dealing with the same struggles and and putting up with those those difficult uh the
124difficult times to manage I also want to give a quick shout out to my facilities director Angela Hawkins who dealt with a firestorm all week long and did it uh gracefully and and followed up with everybody in a very expedient manner um [Music] terms of the long-range facilities plan I have taken pretty aggressive approach in outlining and identifying the things that need to be addressed over the next five years that includes roofs playgrounds sustainability energy all kinds of stuff and I'm happy to talk about that at the next at the next board meeting so is there anything else I can answer for you I think that's it just real quick though I know Holt was the big issues so you're taking care of the whole AC yeah um if I can just expand briefly we
125have the train performance contract that everybody's aware of there when that contract went through there was you know they sort of go through and they take care of lighting they take care of take care of various other items that are related to HVAC the one major component in that building that was not replaced were the the main chillers and so knowing what I know in my background being at the end of their useful service life I'm I'm putting those uh those Capital dollars that Rick and I have set aside 26 million over the next uh four to five years just in HVAC so I'm going to allocate some dollars to replace those chillers uh hopefully next year if I can thank you I know the students and staff will be very happy glad to not
126have to address them anymore either thank you thanks Josh okay so I had a motion and a second on the admitted all those in favor say aye aye aye all those opposed motion carries I think there's probably a motion for a recess bubbling over here yeah I move that we take I move that we take a five minute recess five let's say we take a 15 minute all right guys all right got a motion a second all those in favor of a 15-minute recess motion carries welcome back hopefully everyone's refreshed moving on to 14.1 we've got a presentation from multiple participants in our teaching and learning group on the academic service program evaluation so I'll turn it over to Jerry and Katie yep Jason yeah we didn't vote on consent did we did we yeah
127did I miss yeah Matthew we voted yeah we cleared that okay fair to check David I appreciate that all right good evening Board of Education we are very excited to share with you all of the one wonderful and meaningful work that's been happening in the academic Services Department throughout this past year our department has grown and changed over the past years and over the past year and we've had ups and downs we think it's important to highlight the accomplishments and the hard work that has gone into the work for our students and to acknowledge some of the areas that we hope to grow in we have several initiatives and goals that we are looking forward to informing you about this evening here with me tonight I have Priscilla Frost who is the director of secondary
128programming Nicole Willman the director of Elementary programming um I have Dr Joe Kline Smith who's our director of assessment data and school Improvement and Greg Lawrence who is the director of instructional technology so there are many new faces on this team this year and I couldn't feel prouder to work on just with such an amazing group of people who advocate for kids every single day and all they do so let's give them a round of applause [Applause] we also work with the district team of individuals that are leading this work in our schools and with our teachers and students on a daily basis many of them are here with us this evening and so thank you so much to the wonderful group that has joined us and to the many that aren't here tonight but
129we are so grateful for you and all that you do we have three instructional technology content leaders in our department we have an assessment coach an intervention coach we have three District math coaches five curriculum content leads one literacy content lead one success ready content lead and in addition we work with seven literacy coaches within the district and 30 reading interventionists throughout the district [Music] this is our team before we dig into some specifics on curriculum professional learning CTE instructional technology and assessment we would first like to focus on a few highlights from this past year I'm going to call Greg Lawrence up here director of technology to take us through this next part good evening I would like to share about a reimagined educator a summit which is also known as our new teacher
130orientation we began planning for the August educator Summit last spring we wanted to be responsive to the feedback we had received from the 2022 Summit and also taking account that we would be welcoming many experienced teachers into the summit this school year as a result we took the summit and looked at every part of it to make sure it was meeting our goals that the summit would be personalized for each teacher's needs and interest create a welcoming culture and generate excitement for the upcoming school year and create a Net Connection point for each and every teacher that would walk through our doors we did this by making several key moves we moved our week from five half days to three full days we created a completely customizable schedule for our teachers to choose what would
131be most beneficial for them with over 111 sessions off offered those three days we utilized over a hundred student volunteers that helped us create a welcoming atmosphere for the Educators through many experiences including a pep assembly work to provide as many job specific sessions as possible spread special areas Etc and created a crew structure with 16 individual Crews of teachers led by an academic Services content leader coach this crew of teachers would be supported throughout the school year and our hope is that would make the small Crews would help promote a family feel for such a large District our feedback from the summit participants tell us that we are on track with our changes you can see from our data the overall summer Summit experience was 92 percent there was a sufficient amount of personalized
132training offered at 88 our facilities provided me with an appropriate amount of information the first for the first few week of school which was 93 I would feel welcomed and excited about working in the Wentzville School District at a 97 there were specific sessions offered for my job assignment and grade level at 93 percent during the 2022-23 school year the academic Services Department transitioned our curriculum Review Committee and to a new tech and learning community engagement group to Encompass all areas of our department Wentzville staff and community members applied and were chosen to participate through a selection process throughout the year the group covered topics around curriculum which included Innovative practices Future Ready students math manipulatives new curriculum process and curriculum review from a technology Focus student information system feedback District digital resource review and
133parent digital resource support for assessment and they focused on quadrant work and best practice assessment practices we look forward to continuing this work this year I would like to introduce Nicole Willman director of Elementary programming okay so moving on with additional highlights that we wanted to share with you for K-8 summer school um we made shifts to an intervention-based summer school only this shift allowed Educators to focus on our high esteemed students and provide more one-on-one support and the opportunity to move students forward we had 1769 students enrolled in K-12 summer school with an additional 42 enrolled at Pierce Hall High School students including those at Pierce Hall earned 1435 combined credits during summer school during the 2023 summer school elementary teachers were provided guidelines and resources to plan for high quality intervention and instruction
134I ready scores from the second Benchmark were used to determine the students who needed additional support and intervention in the core area of reading in addition to the instruction that summer school teachers provided students in grades one through eight utilize the i-Ready personalized my path program to drive intervention support and learning this program that the students where they were in their learning formed a partnership with the instructions students received in the classroom to accelerate their learning on an individualized basis we were then able to report out the number of individual individualized skills students mastered throughout the summer some students mastered as many as 36 individualized skills during the short summer school window the average number of skills mastered during the four weeks of summer school was 3.5 what is impressive is that these skills were
135personal to each individual student for Middle School teachers were provided guidelines and resources to plan for summer school instruction students enrolled in middle school summer school utilizing my path combined with individualized Hands-On activities created for individual students levels for both Ela and math students in middle school summer school mastered an average of 6.7 Ela skills during their four weeks of instruction and in math they mastered an average of 3.5 skills 2024 we will continue to evaluate the needs of our students we will consider adjustments and expansion to our current programming and increase summer school capacity based on Staffing looking forward to summer school 2324 we've put the following goals in place for elementary we would like to provide more explicit guidelines and prescriptive curriculum for elementary summer school teachers focusing on research-based instructional practices and
136proven intervention programming we'd like to explore options for expansion of career-based exploration for elementary students for the summer school of 2025 and for Middle School developing programming that will incorporate the wsd pathways and offer career-based exploration for middle school students for high school we'd like to continue to evaluate our in-person versus online offerings to meet students and family needs I'd like to pass it on to Priscilla Frost director of second secondary learning [Music] as you can see from this list up here our part of the department does not just leave the curriculum the work that our content leads and coaches do touches every aspect of the learner experience in the wsd while curriculum writing implementation and support is at the core of what we do the ongoing supportive learning is at the center of what
137we do in our department [Music] during the 23-24 school year the board of curriculum during the 22-23 school year on six eight health K-12 Library K-5 social studies created Design Lab one two and three and digital media design this involved work with five teams of teachers four content leads leading that work with the district with over 35 Educators involved their work equals about 420 days of work or 2940 hours about 402 standards were unwrapped during that time and over 1300 learning targets were written and in May of 24 we will be bringing several curriculums to the board for approval and our work to bring our curriculum up to date math 912 Ela K8 biology reimagine pmps course 912 business marketing 9 through 12 facts student leadership and we'll be bringing counseling to you in December
13823 school year academic Services made in our curriculum curriculum to meet the changing needs of Learners throughout the district and approve user experience the department conducted an audit of the current curriculum interacting a new curriculum writing cycle to address High needs areas and created a plan to bring all curriculum up to date in a timely manner with centennials to be working to focus our work around the Missouri priority standards also updated to ensure our curriculum limits or phases that ensures continued review of the curriculum with several important and better pieces as a part of our process we've worked to update our documents and user experience to ensure a viable and clear curriculum new updated curriculum templates Common Assessment writing embedded in our curriculum process in canvas to hold not only curriculum documents but Micro professional
139learning and supports of our teachers in a One-Stop shop we integrated professional learning throughout our curriculum writing process to ensure that continued learning occurs as a new curriculum is implemented professional development will be provided through summer curriculum boot camps job embedded coaching training and support of teacher lead Learners in buildings District professional learning time focused on new curriculum and administrative training with teacher lead Learners assistant implementation curriculum meeting professional learning event Etc We Gather feedback on the effectiveness of our process as you can see from the responses on a process has been overwhelmingly positive with 96 of our teachers finding learning experiences positive and worthwhile it has been our goal that teachers leave a curriculum writing meeting always having learned something they can apply to their daily practice just a couple quotes from here from
140teachers are I am developing expertise and writing proficiency skills which helps me better understand priority standards the collaboration within these meetings tells me grow as an educator and further understand the logistics of how why the content is being taught a big shift in the department has been to curriculum-based professional learning curriculum-based professional Learning Centers around some core areas a process that guides our work the department created a handbook and process for our content leaders to follow influencing a new curriculum and supporting teachers through curriculum Cycles we have that building administrators are the lead Learners in the building so professional learning around curriculum being implemented and their classrooms is crucial to the curriculum's success as a result we rolled out new curriculums this year we have offered targeted learning specifically for admin and also invite them
141to be a part of our curriculum boot camps for all Educators teaching the curriculum swim team members as lead Learners of the content and as a result of the Learners who can lead this work in their buildings on professional learning days and be champions for the work and a part of the feedback loop which is especially important of needed improvements and adjustments to the curriculum [Music] as we move on to talk about professional learning a little bit during the 22-23 school year the academic Services Department provided targeted learning with administrators and the district professional learning committee to better support alignment of their building professional learning plans and building csip plans additionally it was important to academic services that the learning experience is provided to the wlc Educators were relevant and engaging in a positive impact
142on student learning to ensure these outcomes data is monitored on the following indicators relevant learning experiences engaging learning experiences learning experiences that met the needs of the learner and learning experiences that influence educator practice in the classroom throughout going through a school year teachers track both their t-back and professional learning through Kika authored by the building and the district we've had over 6 000 responses to our feedback form during the 2223 school year so Spotlight professional learning experiences that we had for our district during the 20-23 school year we offered hundreds of sessions for Learners throughout the year some of those High letters were specific first and second year teacher development that's ongoing throughout the school year our newly imagined educator Summit our Lindenwood course offerings enable teachers to move up in the pay scale
143curriculum boot camps sharefare which is a big event in February for all of our staff summer professional learning that was reimagined that we'll talk about in a few minutes our district professional learning days PLC Summit targeted letters training specific administrator training and the list goes on and on and on [Music] limited right and so every time we're able to work with them we need to make sure they feel like their time was well spent and so our feedback shows that 93 of our Learners founder offerings relevant and 92 engaging this is with over 6 000 responses to this form as you can see from this slide our feedback allows us to drill down further into the learning experience that Uber has had including how it will impact their practice which is most important that is
144the goal of all professional learning that we're able to impact teacher practice and in turn student learning we're a measuring teacher practice for Teacher observation and our evaluation process the impact on student learning is a measured through our assessment data when we continually monitor this throughout the school year [Music] the academic Services Department took data from our previous summer learning experiences to take them to recreate the teacher summer learning experience we really wanted to create some excitement around learning again for teachers postcovid and get them re-engaged in that part of their profession and so we focused on some key areas personalization Choice connection to curriculum and District goals and compensation for teachers so I'm going to show you a little what's a one and a half minute promo video [Music] that's right this summer [Music]
145plus we have the opportunity to learn from both WSU Educators and outside presenters and that's not all they're also receive time to apply and reflect on your new learning so you can bring your own game to the classroom this fall but that's not the only report that conclude in five experiences then we understand will find a chance to level up your learning and be entered into a summer sweepstakes materials and surprises for the classroom District funds or for professional learning so what are you waiting for check out the links below this is trans ranging from technology best practices to student-centered learning they have something for everyone number three worried about timings the power of Summer professional learning is designed to be flexible so you can participate on your own schedule whether you're a student educator
146this summer Taylor Swift's teaching to the next level and I would say that we accomplished that goal this year we were able to really take that learning to the next level for teachers for the first time we were able to compensate teachers for their time and give them pay them for attending learning this summer and so as a result over they received a little credit so as a result of that we had 1984 instance of attendance recorded at these events we offered over 41 individualized courses for teachers and we had Spotlight events such as the PLC conference administrative training sound wall training AP and pltw training and query-based learning cohort and teacher externships and that's all due to the people in this room made this possible for us our feedback on that some highlights from
147that we head over like I said 1984 attendance instances and we had 97 relevant and 94 engaging so what we did worked for teachers and what they needed for their lives during the 2223 school year we kind of been using kick up to record our coaching information we had not had a formal process for recording those coaching Cycles in the district up to this point for literacy coaches math coaches and some secondary coaching cycles that were completed by our content leaders and So currently we have one secondary math coach but no other coaches in our secondary buildings and therefore you're using our content leads on a limited basis to support this work with new teachers we're willing to we focus our work in this area and to do this we've made several Investments and shifts
148we provided training to our coaches and content leaders and students in our coaching and one-on-one support for them in this area we now acquire a coaching cycle for all elementary teachers a full cycle for ELA and a mini cycle for Mathis are for our new teachers to the district for new secondary teachers we have our content leaders doing mini coaching cycle with them many cycles were shift for us and so we knew that we did not have the Manpower capacity to really keep up with the demand for coaching cycles that we have in the district and so we were able to work with our coaching resources and support to implement a new Mini coaching cycle process with versus on a specific Target with a teacher over a shorter period of time and this allows us
149to touch more teachers at least on the surface level throughout the district coaching is one of the most worthwhile professional learning supports we can offer teachers it focuses directly on student learning and growth and provides an environment where we are able to come alongside teachers and support them in real time in the classroom with students and you can see that 90 nine percent 99 of our teachers who participate in coaching cycle said they cycle had direct impact on student learning does it get more clear than that for us I'm going to shift now to talk about Career and Technical education in the district over the past one of it I'm sorry I've lost my place I'm fine okay here we go where are we at okay for Career and Technical education we've had five goals
150over the past several years in the area of career and college readiness for our students that's a big part of my role as a director of secondary programming in the district improve the pass rate on industry recognized credentials to create one unified Career and Technical education Advisory board that is comprised of community members parents teachers and students increase opportunities for students and teachers to have Career Connections expand our programming to meet the growing needs of our community and to establish WSU career pathways over the past few years we have met all of these gold C from these numbers it's just so you know just a side note IRC stack of credentials as you read in the memo these all have an impact on our insects Ms have sex accreditation one event from this pasture that
151we really want to highlight is our first ever career Expo that we held and joined with the local school districts to create this community event this was an evening event that provided a service for students and the parents and community members to meet with employers learn about potential career Pathways or even have an on-site interview we provided Career Education for them dressed for Success Center resume writing mock interviews and on-site interviews and we had over 300 student participants come to this event for our first time our Community Partners over 150 of them came into overwhelming response for people who need to be involved in this event with the district over the last three years WC has been on a journey to explore what it means to have Future Ready students and we put several things
152in place to service ourselves in the community as you can see in this timeline this work started in the spring and summer of 20-22 with a cohort of teachers looking at what it means to be Future Ready working on teacher externships in the fall we did site visits and learning of 22. spring summer of 23 we heard stakeholder engagement events feedback we worked on Pathways creation and teacher externships and now we're here and so at this point we have been able to really focus our time and put several things in place to help our students in our community we put in place of Student Success content lead who helps live this work we have our expansion of our CNA Mega tech welding SCC Partnerships throughout the district we've hosted the career fair we have our
153CT Advisory Board Partnerships with several teacher Excellence experiences and client-connected projects throughout their buildings we have a College and Career planning software now for all of our 6th to 12th grade students we have our expansion of our PLT offerings K-12 in the district we've specifically looked at our CTE program and curriculum alignment an area that has been neglected over the last several years we've looked at our Career Technical student organizations and CTE phobic short experiences for our students and as a result of this process I am excited to announce you tonight that we now have our wc-5 Pathways this is our new logo you're the first ones to see it we just got it this afternoon so it's very exciting the five pathways that our stakeholders worked on for the district are arts and Communications
154business and Global Studies Health and Human Services and stem and then our fifth one is called explore the explore pathway is one of our state workers we thought we had to have it's important to address the needs of our students in our community their students can explore their interests and still be a pathway what we call a pathway completed when we graduate from high school as we go through the 20-24 school year you'll hear more about Pathways from my my team they're created at the idea of a well-rounded student in mind each pathway there are only three or four courses to reach completion these consist of orientation courses skills development courses and completion courses and Pathways were created to fit in all of our current course offerings we were able to look our course offering
155book and fit them into all the pathways and to address all the needs of our elective areas so we've left no one behind in this process so to say the beauty of a Pathways system is that students are not limited to the courses they can take this allows them to be a pathway completer and still explore their passions as well we're excited to be able to create this systematic approach to Preparing every student for Life Beyond wsd and we'll be working on apprenticeship and internship programs to build our current opportunities as we work through the 2324 school year towards launch in the fall of 24. this is really a program for incoming our eighth graders now who will be entering into ninth grade our current 9th and 10th graders will be able to also explore
156this program as well our goal is to reimagine that senior year and create a really Beyond High School experience for our students now I'm going to turn it over to Nicole to discuss our Ela math thank you okay for grades K-5 we're in phase two of our curriculum cycle the committee will be reviewing Dusty's recommended Ela instructional resources and writing curriculum aligned to the science and reading this will go forward to the board approval this upcoming spring in grades six through eight they are in phase two and they're writing four courses where grades nine through 12 are in the research period of phase one there will be 17 High School Ela courses to be Rewritten next school year here are some highlights of things that we we will be doing this school year to support
157K5 Ela our literacy coaches are working very hard to support Ela instruction through coaching Cycles providing professional development using their new decodables thank you and doing grade level unit planning around priority standards during PLC time additionally we're sending cohorts of teachers to letters training so we can build capacity amongst our staff in a science of reading and best best practices and literacy instruction ensure administrators and ERS and teachers are trained and prepared to implement reading success plans we've been meeting with teachers and principals at admin meetings faculty meetings data meetings and plcs to provide consistent guidance and answer their questions reading interventionists and literacy coaches have also been meeting with academic services to ensure support for teachers and students will be available for our timeline teachers are finishing up the i-Ready Diagnostic and required offline
158test this week and our department will be filtering the data this weekend to determine which students qualify for a reading success plan parents will be notified by the end of next week if their child qualifies for an RSP or not and our department will be supporting administrators and staff over the next few weeks to create the reading success plans and determine goals and best interventions to meet the students needs families will receive a copy of their child's reading success plan and i-Ready reports at parent-teacher conferences at the end of October October allowing teachers and families an opportunity to have time to review the data and reading success plan together and have some face time to answer questions in the area of K-12 math we are working to focus our work around the Missouri learning standards
159we began doing an auditor our curriculum our current math manipulative resources K-8 and their alignment to the Missouri learning standards we were able to identify gaps and to purchase manipulatives to support all standards for math instruction we firmly believe that a teacher can not just be handed a resource but training and support is essential for successful implementation this work started in the summer and is ongoing throughout the school year even though K-8 math is not in a curriculum cycle right now we audited those documents to better align our pacing guides with the Missouri learning standards as a result K5 report cards were reviewed and current skills and connections to standards adjustments were made as needed in addition 6A math continued to receive job embedded professional learning around the first year of their new curriculum rollout
160last year grades 9 through 10 began writing curriculum the current 9-12 math curriculum is 12 years old this work has created a renewed sense of purpose for 912 Math teachers to ensure we're supporting all Learners needs for post-secondary success in the area of mathematics extensive learning and research around best practices post-secondary needs and inquiry-based learning was involved in this process we will be bringing that new curriculum to the board in the spring and now I'll turn it back over to Katie to tell you about ci3t and Lira name okay um several members came together last year to create blueprint blueprints for our tiered systems of support each building established and trained a leadership team in conjunction with our intervention coach she held several meetings went in and trained them individually within their buildings all building-wide
161plans were focused on three areas the three areas were leadership culture and academics this year we've transitioned our focus and we'll be continuing to strengthen our tier one especially in our new core programs that are currently being written and that were revising in math and create tier two and tier 3 blueprints that ensure that all resources are universally implemented and Equitable throughout the school district each building will review their problem-solving team process to ensure that all intervention referral processes are being followed with fidelity teams have worked hard through this process and we kind of immersed ourselves in this process immediately to start the year with a passage of Senate Bill 681 and writing reading successfully and so what we've done is actually kind of accelerated that a little bit to give them a preview of
162what that's looking like now writing reading success plans and we look forward to continuing those practices throughout the year [Music] buildings have worked this year to begin their implementation of the leader Army the goal for implementation is to allow buildings to enter into this process where it is appropriate for their students for their staff and for their families it is as follows the goals that our coaches set this year were that all buildings would have their staff trained in the seven habits by January of 2024 and that all Lighthouse leadership training teams would be trained by March of 2024 with full implementation of core one by August of 2024 beginning next school year some highlights from our year so far are that 23 schools have decided to implement and have participated in their staff 7
163Habits training they have been working to establish leadership roles and get the kids involved at the building level and have begun student lessons during their morning meetings in 300 Elementary student students will collaborate with high school students from their feeder schools for example Timberland has decided that they are partnering with their feeder patterns and Boone Trail duello Greentree and SCE in Stone Creek to work with those kiddos and help them to implement leadership within their buildings freshmen will learn from the link crew about the seven habits and hold is training their link crew to share the seven habits in their Student Success time so we've seen our high schoolers while not um initially planning for them to start this year really jump in and want to take initiative and be leaders this year it's been
164wonderful to watch share within our school district we've had 40 coaches trained they finished three days of training and we have Coach student calls planned throughout the year we have in-person ongoing training throughout the 23-24 school year for our staff members we've had over 2100 staff members trained in the seven habits we started a lot of this work at the beginning of the year on August 17th at our professional learning day and we are supporting and continuing the training throughout the school year now I'm going to turn it over to Greg Lawrence who is going to talk about our instructional technology programs thank you this school year the technology department welcomed two new specialized teams technology operations led by Dr Arla Monroe and the instructional technology team with the formation of the instructional technology team
165we're excited about maintaining excellent support in existing areas by also introducing new areas of emphasis such as virtual learning the instructional technology team is dedicated to supporting faculty staff and students and families throughout the districts in the area of technology and instruction the team comprises seven members each focusing on instructional technology student information systems and Integrations this past school year our instructional technology content leaders developed a series of many lessons titled take three aimed at preparing students to become responsible digital citizens and safe technology users take three guide students to take care of their gear take care of themselves and take care of others these menu lessons are integrated into the classroom on a quarterly basis and aligned to appropriate grade levels teacher input feedback played an important role in these lessons additionally these lessons
166are designed to comply with the children's internet protection act which requires that all School District students receive Internet safety training specifically focusing on awareness and response to cyber bullying the instructional technology team provides ongoing support on all district Integrations initiatives and state reporting assisting each department across the district in various capacities within the team three dedicated members specialize in student Information Systems they ensure that parents and Guardians can seamlessly register their students assist buildings with schedules and gradebooks meet deadlines for Destiny required reports required for msip managed student rosters for new online textbooks and handle a multitude of other responsibilities classlink Launchpad which serves as a unified portal for district online textbooks and Integrations accessible to all faculty staff and students continues to experience a year-over-year growth in usage Launchpad makes it effortless for students
167to access their valuable learning resources [Music] effective support instructional technology is key for the successful integration for technology in the classrooms and instruction an understanding of how the technology operates and how to leverage it for instructional purposes is essential in student engagement enhancing learning and improving academic achievement the focus of instructional technology professional learning and support revolves around these aspects within our district three instructional technology content leaders are actively engaged in Daily troubleshooting with staff members creating and sharing technology how-to guides leading professional development for faculty and staff and collaborate and collaborating on lesson planning with various grade levels to design engaging lessons during plan times feedback regarding instructional technology professional learning and support in the Wentzville School District has been extremely positive last school year and throughout the summer the instructional technology team offered
168over a hundred professional learning sessions 91 of the participants found the content to be relevant 92 percent of the participants found the sessions to be engaging and 95 of the person participants found the sessions would directly impact their instruction just a few session highlights include a session called destination anywhere with iPads and Chromebooks which was an interactive playground for our teachers to experience new resources which was also selected to be presented at this year's iste conference which is an International Education technology conference by our instructional technology content leaders additionally Google workspace learning series was provided for all district support staff and administrators which we also partnered with the city of Wentzville on school year as the instructional technology team we're excited to focus on the following leading professional learning on District technology resources and instructional
169techniques overseeing the migration and implementation and training for our new student information system sustaining professional learning related technology safety and privacy for all district faculty and staff maintaining the implementation and offering support for district Integrations and initiatives and then establishing a parent Community Tech engagement program that will include an online hub for parents and Guardians this Hub will provide District how-to guides for our families now Joe klon Smith will discuss specifics in our assessment support area an assessment Department supports many areas of the district assisting in assessments data for making key decisions regarding students and Improvement goals for schools and the district and as you can see at many other areas that allow us to serve the district needs one of the ways we have the opportunity to serve the district is through the sharing
170of our yearly State assessment data this data has previously been shared earlier this year however we did want to share or we wanted to review this with you prior to this year Dusty has kept much of this data embargoed until they release the annual performance report no longer using the word embargoed however as it relates to this data the data presented is preliminary and will not be official until our APR is released in the spring all of our EOC tested subject areas saw growth last year and 65 percent of our mathematicians were proficient or advanced in algebra one we had 63 percent of our mathematicians proficient or advanced in algebra 2. [Music] percent of our readers and support profession and 60 of biology scientists are proficient or advanced percent of our Future Leaders our profession
171are advanced in government in biology we saw approximately a 15 percent growth which may be enough to possibly earn us an additional point in our APR at the end of the year this is due to our content lead working with teachers to focus on the three-dimensional and GSS standards this past year really cool in map grade level assessments for grade threes grades three through eight students either increased or stayed about the same in performance 49 of our readers are writers are proficient or Advanced on a map test our mathematicians were 49 we had 49 of them showing proficient or Advanced that was a five percent increase and this is the second year of an increase for Mass the work around the alignment of Standards pacing guides and proficiency skills are aiding in this gradual Improvement
17249 of our scientists are proficient or Advanced and that it also has that five percent increase for AP testing we have approximately 25 different subjects with AP tests and 72 percent of those taken by students earned a three or above this is a 16 percent increase over 2022. and the three is typically the minimum that is required to qualify for college credit at a Missouri State University currently we have 873 students enrolled in AP classes across the district for a total of 1 301 enrollments for this school year [Music] last year our students in grades 9 through 12 took 1 267 act tests with an average composite score of 21.9 the national average was 19.8 of our 9th through 12th graders fall between 20 and 27. now these schools here are different from how Desi
173reports act on our AP on our APR just letting you know that on that they're only looking at 12th graders but I felt that it was important to look at all of our students who took the ACT last year [Music] looking at our attendance this attendance score of the 82.9 this is a slight improvement from our prior year and all of our schools are looking at attendance in our in their school Improvement plans with that focus on engagement I would really like to look at that eight percent of students who are so close with that 87.5 to 90 percent rate and moving them up to above that 90 percent could make such a huge difference for our students [Music] schools have now finished their fall diagnostic with I ready and this has helped us to
174be compliant with our Missouri's foundational reading assessment and dyslexia screeners we'll now begin our data analysis to determine students who do qualify for winning success plans so that we can notify parents as soon as possible we have here our beginning of year summary for both reading and math green shows students who are on or above grade level yellow is one year below and red is two or more grade levels below students are being scored based on the entire current grade level expectations so for example what you're looking at is at the beginning of the year a typical second grader is really still proficient at the first grade level so because they haven't learned the second grade skills yet it's normal to see a lot of yellow and red letters in Reading incentive students in green
175has increased slightly whilst our students two or more grade levels below has decreased in comparison the district is outscoring both the national norm and the current Missouri averages for reading in math we have stayed fairly consistent and are ahead of the state average and as you heard earlier our incredible math team has been working very hard to identify the needs in our curriculum and make changes for our teachers and students as we make up ground on the national Norms set in 2018. one difference this year is our number one students in eighth grade I ready this year they took our high school Benchmark to be more in line with what Algebra 1 in the high school is doing this note Norms on exists to make for sure that they are in line with the trends
176and to see if any adjustments need to be made currently these Norms are still appropriate for comparisons we look forward to hearing about the data chats teachers are having with students and the learning and growth goals students are setting for themselves for families we will be uploading the family reports to students 360 in just a few weeks so everyone will have access to those reports just like they do their map reports I'm a benchmark assessment to identify student learning strengths and needs and allow students allow our high school students the opportunity to set learning goals as with any new Endeavor there were some bumps in the road but the teachers and students were amazing and patient and I know they are really looking forward to learning learning more about their results teachers will be receiving
177training on data reports the first week in October to further utilize the assessment for their instruction and assist students in setting those goals to summarize this year we would like to continue with the great things we've been doing and would like to implement some things that can help us approve improve as a department and as a district we will continue to learn and grow as we work through our implementation of NWA map Groves at the high school plan to host a day of testing at all four high schools that will include the pre-act for our ninth graders and offer an opportunity for our Juniors to take the ACT at a cost savings for families the reading success plan process and procedures by streamlining the identification and writing process for teachers we'll continue working with administrators
178and teacher teams to ensure consistent processes for finals and Grading policies across the district we'll continue our work with i-Ready working with growth and assisting in school Improvement goal goals and working for an overall clear communication and understanding of data for all stakeholders now Katie will wrap up our presentation with our goals for the 23-24 school year [Music] I promise we're almost done [Laughter] we had a hard time narrowing it down to five and so we tried to be very encompassing of the several areas that you heard about tonight our goals this year are to work hard to support all schools with instructional strategies and through curriculum revisions in the writing process to increase map EOC AP act and I ready proficiency levels it is something that we are taking very seriously that we are
179constantly having conversations about and having many conversations with our ministers at the building level providing actionable data for buildings to have leading indicators throughout the year that they can make database decisions and as we go we look forward to supporting all schools and database decision making utilizing NWA math and map in this case stands for measures of academic progress um but looking at their growth and the pre-act growth and already quadrant data along with reading success plans and monitoring that along the way so we know how we're doing throughout the year we look forward to providing resources and support to buildings as they work to create environments that promote safety and belonging we look to provide resources and support for teachers as they work to increase engagement in their classrooms as reflected by some new
180work that we've done with District walkthrough forms and giving teachers feedback and being actionable in the classrooms with what administrators are seeing and we look forward to expanding opportunities and experiences to ensure that students are prepared to engage in ever-changing Connected world [Music] this time we would like to open up to any questions from the board foreign [Music] metrics I just wanted to say for starters thanks so I'll open it up to questions or comments from the board I have a question yes so yes a second dad thank you so much for such a comprehensive presentation I have a question specific to the summer school um you know looking at the number of skills and the math is that kind of the final evaluation or will those students i-Ready scores be compared to see if
181they're like up to grade level now or they're kind of moving through um through those levels yes so we've done some work with that um many of us were not in the summer school planning sessions last year and that's definitely one of our our goals this year we've been able to take pieces and drill to correct me if I'm wrong but we've been able to take pieces of data the problem that we had essentially with iready is that we put a whole bunch of kids together in some summer school locations and so it's going in and pulling out one by one what those assessments are going to be and so we're looking to shore up a way in order to do that I believe vice president had had a few questions about summer school data
182as well earlier this week and we were able to pull three buildings of data that I can share as well with you too Julie we can put some of that in staying on board as well um in the upcoming weeks so we're happy to do that as we get all of that data gathered we did take the winter scores to identify kids first for summer school last year I was just a part of that at the building level um and then the kids assessed again in Spring and actually did show some growth so we should we saw some higher scores of the spring and so sometimes then when they test again in the fall it's not really um a growth measure as much as it is just a beginning of the year Benchmark so we're
183working through some of those pieces of data and that's why we went into skills mastered because we were able to see just the specific work that they were doing within the summer school program thank you I appreciate that and if I can ask one more question yes go ahead um specific to the professional learning that took place over the summer I'm just curious was it purely the Educators got to select what they wanted or was there like a mandatory you know if you're teaching this then you need to kind of have these core learnings no we can't mandate teachers to attend any specific professional learning in the summer we can offer them suggestions and support but what we did do is we created experiences that were centered around our district goals and csip goals so
184that it kind of pushed them in certain directions right there just wasn't no prefall so our selections that we offered were censored around those goals and those things does that make sense yeah thanks other questions vice president thank you so I'm not trying to put a damper on the presentation and I know there's been some movement but when I look at the data from the i-Ready reading and math scores and we weigh that against we weigh that against the map scores and those two subjects they definitely align and they've aligned for years and so I also saw that we we have ci3t we have a plan for that but when our core tier one [Music] programs curriculum have been failing students for multiple years and I I'm just I I would just like some understanding
185about why why we didn't start there why didn't we start with with addressing the core one because if the core one is not working you're obviously going to have a larger percentage of students and tier two and tier two and it just seems like we're kind of chasing our tail and we have just one shot at this every single year and we're we're letting a lot of students down and we're letting a lot of families down so I mean I I appreciate all the data but when I look at the the evaluation of academic Services I I can't help but wonder you know with the Missouri reading success or sorry with the Missouri reading instruction act you know that it's not guidance it's it's a law where it is very explicit about what we should
186do be doing um with our curriculum programs and that hasn't happened and just to add uh there's letters training but not all teachers have that letters training not all teachers have science of reading training they're doing cohort training that doesn't seem to me to be prioritized also the the core reading programs have they're not evidence-based they've been proven not to be evidence-based they're not the current our current our current ones and we're devoting two hours to that to our students K through two so I don't know how that's really going to move them forward so with all and then I also saw that and correct me if I'm wrong my understanding is the curriculum resource will be brought to the board in the spring for reading so at this time I would like to make
187a motion I move that the administration recommended evidence-based reading Eli resource rooted and the science of reading that is compliant with the Missouri and federal education laws to the November regular meeting second could I have the second and repeat the motion please as January the second so the motion was I moved that the administration recommend an evidence-based reading Ela resource rooted in the science of reading that is compliant with the Missouri and federal education laws to the November regular meeting and there was a second can it can I ask a question on that so we're in the middle of I think I saw phase two of some of that is that timeline like how does that work against what we're working so what our initial plan was um and Jenny I don't you don't have
188to speak but please jump in and if I misrepresent any of the information because you have been involved in the process for much longer than I have um with phase one and rewriting curriculum last year with this being phase two and the adoption year um bringing a resource to the board is something that we are taking very seriously that is a very large Financial commitment for us and for the school district um we do absolutely 150 agree with you vice president solely that there needs to be changes in our Ela curriculum and we have worked very hard over the last year to make those changes um happen at an appropriate get paste for when we can afford to purchase the materials train teachers on implementing them and then get them into the hands of teachers
189and into classrooms for us to adopt a resource too early my fear would be that we don't have enough research behind the different options deci right now is providing two options for us which we have started doing some micro pilots in one of them in our classrooms and really trying to get those resources in teachers hands to get feedback from them because we know ultimately they're the ones that are that are rolling that out in classrooms to students we agree with you and the urgency and this matter we absolutely do and we are working very hard behind the scenes to make that happen as fast as we possibly can I think originally and correct me if I'm wrong we're hoping to bring a curriculum resource to be adopted and purchased in January in February February
190for purchase this year to train in boot camps and in summer professional development and roll out at the beginning of the year so teachers hit their ground running with that resource we and that probably answered your question but then in the interim what our plan is um is we are training our district literacy coaches our literacy coaches within they will be letters trained facilitators within the district so they will be able to lead that work to the masses within our district and we won't have to send people out for that so that is one of the pieces but we are definitely focused on our core one tier one instruction within our ci3t model and that is something we we are taking very seriously and I do agree with you yes there is definitely an urgency
191for this and and we are ready and willing to do that um and and excited to do that and if I can add to in our conversations with Dusty at our Statewide meetings and things like that they've also expressed that there are other programs that they are currently reviewing and so what the state had said was they put out the call for proposed for different companies to bring or to apply to be reviewed for approval from the state and so companies weren't really super quick at doing some of that so currently the state has two that are on the list and then there are other there are other ones that they said that they are currently reviewing and we're hopeful that there may be others that we will also be able to review that will
192eventually be on the Statewide list as well president Goodson so I understand that Dr tomorrow or tomorrow but our students can't wait I mean I our students can't wait those are recommendations ultimately and not requirements for a curriculum resource and I I just really worry um if we're going to approve the resource in February first of all if I recall I I swore that I heard before my previous that the resource would be coming in the fall so it's coming in the winter and then we're going to approve the curriculum in in the spring which I don't know enough time to get teachers ready to to be ready um I mean I stand by my comments and I guess it's the role of the board there's there's there's plenty of research out there well actually
193not research it's evidence-based there's a difference between research and evidence-based of what works and what doesn't work and I don't understand the delay nor am I going to be supportive of a delay the kids have been waiting long enough and that that's just where I am I appreciate the work but I just believe that we need to move faster and this needs to be the priority we have prioritized other professional development within that plan and not anything related to ELA and math or math so while we have said that we can't mandate any kind of training I supported leader in me and I still do but we we prior to prioritize that and all staff members are trained so I mean this is essentially the hill that I'm gonna die on and whether it has
194board support or not um I don't know but that's that's where I am so can can you make a quick comment yeah sure there's a dark gray minivan going off out there just like the end cap parking spot nice that's funny um so just just real quick so if we I think is I just like dissect the motion and the comments in the back and forth we either approved materials in November or February and then I mean that wouldn't if we approved it in November correctly if I'm wrong that's not implemented save January for our students and and so so then if if it's February the real question then becomes does the teaching and learning group believe that once we select materials in February that teachers and staff will be trained appropriately for then the
195fall implementation of that and there's plenty of time yes okay [Music] I'm gonna let Nicole speak a little bit to letters training and just some of the things that are going on in the interim um just so we can kind of have some more information about some of those um Bridge measures that we're putting in place this year so I do want to say I completely agree with you and our department agrees with you and our teachers agree with you but I also want to say that it whatever program our teachers use to teach they're only as good as the content and the capacity that they have and that's where we've really been focusing on with our teachers to build their capacity to be literacy teachers to be reading great teachers of reading and writing
196so we've been feeding that through professional development I know right now our literacy coaches are working diligently with their teams to plan units based on the Missouri learning standards so they're unpacking those lessons and saying these don't align to our standards these do and let's plan some units based on our standards that aren't necessarily using the units of study so they're doing what good teachers do is they're teaching kids additionally sending these teachers to letters training and having our lit coaches trained in letters so they can bring back that knowledge do some micro PD do some PD in their buildings working in coaching Cycles to build that capacity our teachers know that this is coming they're doing everything they can they've got their hands on the you fly resources to build in phonics and phonemic
197awareness lessons so it's not that we're sitting back doing nothing we're building capacity because whatever program we choose it's only as good as the teacher that's implementing it um I don't know if I have anything else to say about that but if you have other questions about letters so so I would just say to that I would just say to that I agree I want our teachers to have capacity as well but I just and it's my view it may not be the view of the board that has not been the priority so I mean I understand that your view is different but and I don't want to continue to go back and forth because that's not productive but I mean I made my comments and I think the other board members I encourage them
198to weigh in president Goodson yes director Lewis yeah and uh vice president's story I do agree with you I mean what we see right here now and here in my estimation is the impact of taking and spending money on programs that are not required instead of focusing on academics that are required how much time and energy and effort have we devoted to training thousands of teachers all the efforts that are going through it leader in me and it's not even required it's not even required and we're seeing the ramifications of that and I I find it very disappointing that we have misplaced priorities and that's the reason why there is a lot of pushback and there continues to be pushed back against the the the district is that we're not focusing on what we need
199to be focusing on to ensure that our students are going to be successful and I apologize it's kind of a blunt statement but and I don't mean it personally but it's just it's very frustrating very frustrating yeah we absolutely respect everything that you say director Lewis and I think that um I mean I and we can break down those numbers and we can provide all of that for you there is a lot of literacy training that is continuously taking place in this school district and maybe we didn't do a good enough job of representing that to you here tonight to give you specific numbers in that so we are happy to provide that um I go back to we have several things going on in our district we have several people managing and maintaining all
200of those things and working very hard to provide the new professional development in the area of literacy it absolutely is a primary focus for us in the district it absolutely needs to be it has to be it is it has been the conversation that every single teacher administrator coordinator has had around reading success plans and data since we walked in this building this year we started this work when we were given the information last spring before any of us were ever even fully employed in our positions coming up with guidelines and interventions and pieces of assessment that we can break apart and analyze and specifically plan instruction for our kids in the classroom so being an elementary person myself I we absolutely agree with you and see the need for major reform and literacy and
201we have committed ourselves to doing that since we have all taken office or whatever we call this this year I get you one other point and I'll pass the mic if it needs to be passed too is this this is genuine bright she is our Ela content leader so speak a little bit more to exactly what's going on so I'm the person that works with like writing the K5 curriculum with the ELA curriculum teams and one thing that I do think is really important to note is that last year our PD focused for all K-5 Educators was science of reading and so our teachers have been getting a lot of training in evidence-based practices connected to the science of reading and a lot of that education is continuing this year a lot of that work
202is done through coaching Cycles with building literacy coaches and so what's happening is that teachers in different classrooms different areas they are reaching out to either me or different literacy coaches in their buildings and they're saying hey I'm struggling with this one thing connected to my content area can I get some support and we absolutely offer that support our literacy coaches come in and they talk about here the priority standards within our subject area here's how any resources that we have District provided support that and then here's how we can supplement with evidence-based practices to ensure that we're doing what's best for kids and making that sure that students grow so I just want to like clarify like evidence-based instruction is happening in the Wentzville School District when it comes to teaching students how to
203read thanks and just one follow-up while you're while you're putting together curriculum I asked the question and I don't know that everybody sees the Q a that goes out but but I I guess and I don't have kids in school now but we don't teach cursive writing we don't teach students how to sign their name we just approved I don't know how many contracts did you look down through the contracts they're not signed digitally they're signed with somebody cursively writing their name so it's I'd love to see how we can integrate that into the kids at least know how to sign their name at the minimum I do think that teaching students how to write in cursive is an important skill however it's not necessarily one of our Missouri priority standards that we teach cursive
204so it's not necessarily a primary focus for us it is part of like a third grade standard in ela but it is definitely not a priority standard that's necessarily assessed and so we like that's our primary focus of curriculum I get that neither is the leader in me is not a state mandate either but we do that I'm not going to call the question [Music] yeah any other questions here I have a question just pertaining to the motion that um vice president Stoli um if what would your expectation be of when new um the new curriculum would be implemented if they presented that in November so I mean I don't have a specific date but I think it needs to be as soon as possible I mean school districts across the country are moving to
205this and I'm not saying we're not I recognize that we are but usually the Cadence is they approve a resource in the fall they do training and you know throughout throughout the school year and they're doing they're ready to go for next school year so I mean I can't say per se but I I think waiting to approval curriculum in Spring is is too late so Dr tomorrow I think it'll come director or vice president Stoli from my lengthy experience and curriculum and instruction as well typically and I can't speak necessarily to what the Wentzville School District has done for many years in the past because they've been very delayed in a lot of their curriculum revision but typically the instructional resources are brought to the Board of Education in the early spring because we
206as those teams of teachers are writing curriculum they also want to Pilot and test out and they also want to align that to the curriculum that's being developed and so while there those items may not be directly hand in hand lock step through that process those those purchases typically do in most school districts go in the early spring [Music] secretary Isaac I think you had a comment I release your mics on so I apologize it's been on for a while so you mentioned we are micropiloting at one school in elementary school not yet we have contacted um can I say what program yeah okay Benchmark Benchmark Advance are we doing wonders as well okay okay we are doing both of them micro pilot micro piloting meaning that Desi approved those resources late summer late summer
207August August um and release those two names um we got a hold of the Publishers and they have agreed to let us pilot partial pieces of their curriculum units and so that is what we we will we will pilot in more than one building Okay the reason I ask is what would it take for you guys to be able to do what um vice president Stoli has motioned for more money I mean like whatever I'm sorry what was that right so it yeah and it's it's pulling teachers out of classrooms um and the limitations of that sometimes but um pulling teachers out of classrooms reviewing materials and making an informed decision that we will have for five years six years um in a very fast Manner and to Pilot these materials in more classrooms um
208does the do the Publishers limit how many classrooms you can pilot these materials in or is that just based on on budget we can only buy x amount of materials it's not budgets the budget is not necessarily what would prohibit us from piloting things in multiple places it's again the capacity to train teachers to Pilot the resources so again that would involve pulling teachers out of classrooms and sub capacity in order to cover those classrooms so the way that things are structured right now is that we really only have the capacity for curriculum team members to do the pilot and get trained for the pilot because they're the ones who have the sub coverage and who we've kind of already established something against our um like our sub calendar and whatnot so I think the
209teachers being in the classroom is kind of the inhibitor we don't want to stop instruction one of the other potential barriers with this as well is if is the schedule in which the board would want us to implement the new resources so if we purchased in November we get them in sometime maybe in December we distribute in January we also have to train teachers on the new resources there's also another component of significant work on the on the part of the curriculum team and or grade level teams of assessing where in our current programming we are how that relates to the new programming and then figuring out how to mesh those together especially if they happen to be different types of instructional strategies that haven't been taught with the kiddos than for potentially us to
210implement that for maybe two months at the end of the year so I do think that we also have to look at the overall process the impact on our teachers and staff when we are talking about layering on another complete program with a lot of components a lot of training on top of what they are already doing on a day-to-day basis with our students I do believe that that is a lot for us to ask of our staff at this moment in the middle of the year and so obviously we serve at the will of the board and we will be doing whatever whatever's needed you call a question comment if I could please so just um hearing everyone and talking and I can I really appreciate all of you putting together this you know
211the slideshow all of your research Gathering all the data I mean I I can see that that was a lot of work but um I'm hearing a lot of we can't and going back to the teacher kickoffs we were wealthy teachers and everyone we were chanting how can we and I understand that this is going to be very hard right now because it is going to take up a lot of time but I will ask how can we make this possible well I want to know what we can do to support you guys so if it were to pass what would you need from us whether it's budget whatever it is I know Rick's probably grinding his teeth behind me when I say that um but if it were to pass what would you need
212I I honestly Katie I think I've been asking for more time and and what I'm saying is we've had a lot of time I mean I I would Echo Renee director hanky's comments and we do need to wrap up this conversation because we are going in circles but but point is like we could rear we could re-prioritize our our PD again I was supportive with Leader in Me but that is what we prioritize that slide Deck shows that and so that is what we did and I I can see your faces out there but I mean the feedback that I get is this the teachers the teachers do not like the Core Curriculum not it's not an opinion because it causes problems for the teachers in the higher grade and as far as the curriculum
213resource I I value our teachers opinions but these are evidence-based resources that have been vetted by other states that have proven results in Mississippi Louisiana Colorado so what possible more information with just two meetings that that I heard with the two curriculum resource vendors I think we have the information we need we just need to actually progress instead of just do a lot of movement but I mean we're beating a dead horse so I I call for a vote yeah so Matthew can you roll call this vote please Matthew can you read the motion again please thank you it is Mission at the administration recommended evidence-based Ela resource rooted in science and reading at least on the Missouri science and reading laws to the note under board meeting so Mr kurtzman may make a correction
214yes thanks thank you the motion was I moved that the administration recommend an evidence-based reading Ela resource rooted in the science of reading that is compliant with the Missouri and federal education laws to the November regular meeting that was the motion thank you you're welcome okay Matthew [Music] friends are a good song Nick director Hankey hi vice president stolen hi director Olson aye secretary lizac hi director of this hi director Scott hey motion carries okay other discussions on the presentation questions comments from the board there was a lot covered so I have a question whenever you're done oh did you have a question okay um mine is just a comment well it's kind of a question the 97 Effectiveness I think is the word the staff out welcomed relevant there we go um did they
215give any feedback not that that three percent is like damaging or anything that's a really good percentage but did they get feedback on what yeah for I guess it was PD that they there was 97 that thought it was relevant that was for the news here so did they give feedback on like what would be I know it's only three percent again but was there feedback on what they wanted to see better like the people that brought that down to a 97. I would say that more drought specific specialty areas coming out of people to offer enough special areas for our target areas yeah that's a great number I mean as long as because like if they're having like a la carte like going forward or where they get to pick what like exactly what
216they're looking for to help them in the classroom I think that's awesome thanks yep Dr torma and so I just want to make a comment too I just want to say thank you so much to the academic Services team because the work that you have done is incredible so the the Improvement that we saw last year when the entire staff was working short-handed and in a lot of turmoil that three of our members here started their jobs this year June 1st and have put in a ton of time a ton of planning strategic planning urgency putting together professional development plans that are incredible the support that you have given to our administrators and our teachers already this year has been incredibly different than what we've seen in many years past the work that we're doing
217at secondary an instructional Tech assessment Elementary it's phenomenal and you need to know your work matters and we appreciate you very much I 150 percent agree with those comments [Music] any other questions comments Dr LeBron finger up um I'd like to speak to Echo some of what I've heard in the sentiments and then to um push into the discomfort that we've that we're discussing as well because I think that's important um to acknowledge and thank the um honesty and the vulnerability of the team and of the openness to look at our data review our data listen to our families and say like we want academics to be a main priority we absolutely agree with you and I think this is a point that we can rally together and continue moving forward um we want to
218own our data we want to own where we are and we want to keep moving forward we want to do that together as a community I wanted to say the two words that I wrote down were excited and grateful um not only am I exceptionally proud of our team but I'm excited and grateful that we've been able to have such robots us Conversation Over academic achievement it's awesome we we care about our kids we want our kids to learn we may have points that we disagree on or timelines not may not always be the same or line up but we are in it for the right reasons and we're talking about the right things and so I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to have that conversation I'll be a hard conversation
219sometimes because we're excited about the work that we're doing and this team has really worked hard to be open honest vulnerable and collaborative and I want to thank you guys and I want to thank you guys for the opportunity that you've given them to Showcase what they can do and we're really excited to see what they're going to do in the year ahead tip any other questions comments on the program review that we've shown okay so I need a motion to approve sorry let me get the right language sorry we need a motion to approve the academic Services Program evaluation as presented second David I just have a question I was just wondering why why are we approving as a board program evaluations because they're more of a report out I I don't know do
220they need an approval per se so it is typical practice and part of our msip um documentation that we turn in to show that we are doing this and it should be something that we're bringing to you for you to review and to approve if we're just bringing an update not a comprehensive program evaluation then that's something that we typically don't ask for approval on but this is a typical practice for programmables so then I just have a question so with the motion that we just made and passed and approving this or not approving this how does that play into our motion so the motion that I laid on the table was the first motion right so since that passed how does that affect it's up to the board it I mean this is just
221approving the evaluation and the report that we saw and as you heard from Dr twombo it's meant to be a record basically for the board that we have evaluated our programs as per M6 [Music] any other questions comments okay Matthew can I get a roll call though please president Goodson hi hi vice president stolen hi director Olsen hi secretary lizac hi Dr Lewis hi director Scott aye commotion carries thank you Matthew we need a motion to approve the district professional development plan as presented motion Katie second any discussion here okay all those in favor say aye aye that is opposed motion carries moving into Old business 13.1 we need a motion to approve the purchase configuration and management of student Information Systems services from Focus School software so I moved second that was Shannon and
222Katie any discussion here that this is the king from the last meeting and brought here Ford for a discussion yes so I asked a series of like security questions as far as like securing the data which will be all of our students staff parent data and they have a really good reactive measures they're they're really good but they're proactive measures I think could be improved so that is my concern with this company thank you any other questions comments from the board you've seen them I have questions yep comment um there's a Community member request for I guess like the breakdown of each module so that we can a la carte this program because like the bathroom tracking feature I don't I don't know that the board wants that we voted down the other Hall Pass
223thing and does that bring the price down if we do those sorts of things I can't speak for the rest of the board but I I believe I supported the motion on that most specifically because this feature was coming president Goodson yes yeah I just want to assure that that's the reason why I so did as well so we want to track the kids in the bathroom that's not what was happening so no I don't agree with that okay any other comments questions okay mend the motion or make an amendment to remove the hall pass feature software to pass this without the hall pass feature software second [Music] discussion on the amendment president yes I just see clarification Jen was it you that made a motion so you keep referencing e Hall Pass I didn't
224say e it's a hall pass so you said Hall Pass okay thank you yep okay we have an amendment to the original motion Matthew can I get a roll call presentation aye vice president story nay director Olsen hi secretary Isaac nay director Lewis hey director Scott promotional fails okay go back to the original motion and second that we have on the approval any other questions comments on the original motion okay Matthew roll call please [Music] vice president aye director Olsen secretary elizac motion carries Escape moving on to 13.2 we need a motion to approve the adoption of policy 4414 policy 4866 and policy 6123 as presented Julie president yeah hang on I just got to make sure I got a Katie for motion and a jewelry second discussion please [Music] discussion there's a minivan going
225off in the parking lot again [Music] burgundy Honda Odyssey I'm sorry I'll get her sleep I do have one is this discussion portion yes okay on the 4414 I don't remember but I'm pretty sure that I suggested we use the word shall because that's the word we use in other policy and it's a legal term shall instead of May or must that's that's the only thing I have it's in three spots on here so I guess motion motion to approve all three and at and replace the word must with shall in zero four nope and four four one four [Music] second thank you I thought this was required and thus the word must being used I don't know who from the admin team can speak to that it just said May before and I think
226that was the reason why it was changed I think this is brought before us because they needed to change it to must as I understand it well I motioned the last time this came for us to change it to Shell but it says must that could then be my error because Iraq my recollection was that we had said the word must so that's what we used but various different policies must and shell mean the same thing so I think you can either change it to Shell and it's fine or leave it with mustard yeah I have no idea I certainly had a lot of policies so if I didn't remember um the other discussion on the amendment to just change the three words to show is how the right one yep okay okay all those
227in favor say aye aye all those opposed motion um [Music] because we had a motion for um the second relay of policy was that friendly too that was not it was an amendment so now we can go back to the original motion good call Matthew thank you [Music] dude what did you that's actually a great Point Matthew what did you have on that motion that Amendment motion just to change the words to show so approve all three policies in a place and replace the word must with shall and policy 4414 unless the board disagrees a truth that is an amendment to the original we go back to the vote okay okay um so we have a motion and a second to approve the amended policy 4114 and the other two policies here all those in
228favor say aye aye all those opposed motion carries okay on 13.3 this is a revision to a policy I proposed at the last meeting specifically around um security protocols at the bottom of the paragraph here I'm open to board suggestions on whether or not my language which is the same language in here in the last meeting warrants being considered the first reading versus the second ensuring we file a policy 520 I want the rest of the board to weigh in on that first before we discussed I would like this to be the first round [Music] thoughts on it um any comments other than what's in here so there's one sentence at the end any comments from the board on it before it comes back to us again and make an amendment you can ask forgot
229yeah okay yeah um adding leaving it the way it is with with your Amendment and then adding board members may choose to obtain a Saint Charles County Police Department criminal background check and sex offender registry check which will permit them entry into all district facilities and the board members photo ID badge will have a police Shield symbol to reflect their pre-screen status and if that happens annually okay I think if board members want to be in and out of the schools frequently the extra [Music] potential for risk of exposing data with extra files that are created extra data that's maintained going through the Raptor system [Music] I just I think I think if you go above and beyond on these things that's just as good as the Raptor system if not better yeah my comment
230there is I I feel like we really are not above visitors and we ask our visitors to do the same and second I think the Raptor system is a routine check our staff as part of their background check is routinely updated in case status changes this would not then facilitate that impact and so I I don't support the change I'm fine with the language as written and please don't get it confused I don't think I'm better than anybody else in this District I don't like the Raptor system because of the liabilities I just wanted to state that I support um what you said Jason or president Goodson and um I think that all board members should follow the exact same policies any other visitor to our schools I would agree with director Olson and I
231know at the last meeting a lot of our constituents had spoke on this and they did ask us to have a background check I am not opposed to that in fact I went to the Wentzville Police Department to ask for a background tip background check and if an individual does it it is much harder to obtain one than if we would have the school district do it for us and it would be a lot cheaper I believe our background checks on teachers are 1750 where I was quoted a hundred dollars or more if I did it personally so I am totally for background check the comments nope I'm hearing that I assume the policy you know will come back to us in the second reading we can discuss amendments and vote on it at that
232time any other comments okay all right let's move on to new business tax rate approval I know Rick is dying to hear from the board on the tax rate so we need a motion to approve the proposed tax rates as presented [Music] moved second I was Shannon and Katie any discussion from the board we had the presentation Mr Lewis yes thank you well Rick do you want me to restate the question certainly okay so could you explain to us the ramifications now that the county has passed the ordinance the bill related to isn't it s b 190 yeah which is which is the the senior citizen uh freezinger uh uh I think percentages thanks yes the uh it is in law now it was passed by the state and once the state passes Senate Bill
233190 it needed to be put in effect by either the county or a vote by the citizens since the county voted to put this in effect it is the law for the state or for the County of Saint Charles that being said uh it is not in effect even as voted for fiscal year 2324 which is calendar year 23 so it does not affect the taxes that we're discussing tonight matter of fact in 24 25 that is not a reassessment year so it will generally have no effect on fiscal year 24-25 or calendar year 24. on the other hand in year 25 26 which is a reassessment year that will be the first year that we will feel the pain of this that again will be December of 25. my calculations have approximately the 50
234formulas Excel formulas in here as well as about 30 assumptions and as the state makes changes to what they thought was a simple item to put in I make changes to my formulas and calculations as it stands right now on my calculations if the Consumer Price Index is at two percent our effect will be uh four hundred thousand dollars on funds 100 on funds one and two and 177 a thousand on funds three and four if the Consumer Price Index goes up to five percent in the year of uh in the fiscal year 2526 if the Consumer Price Index is at five percent it will cost us for funds one and two approximately one million and for funds three and four approximately 440 000. on the other hand there is some controversy with the state
235right now uh ASB is informed as set the Missouri Tax Commission believes that this should go into effect for seniors the year they turn 62 instead of 62 in the year of 2024. that being the case there would be a one-time hit if we had to go retroactive that one-time hit depending on whether the Consumer Price Index is two percent or five percent can range anywhere from three million to seven million dollars one time one time effect but let me just say that it is very heavily weighted the information that I'm getting from from all the financial advisors as well as all of the elected officials that I've talked to or that I've got literature from from the state of Missouri it is almost almost certain and I'm not going to say certain that that
236effect going back to the year they turned 62 instead of all people at 62 is rare that that's going to pass so the effects in my mind if I were to tell you where I fully expect it to be nor 2324 Norfolk 24 25 and the minimal effect of only the uh tax of the reassessment years and no uh going back to recount when the senior citizen turned 62. I guess that'll give them time to work through potential lawsuits too right and let me just say that there are a lot of factors in here that are not yet determined by the state I'm keeping up to date on them and I can tell you that my numbers are fairly accurate to where things stand right now with the state and the county any other questions
237comments on the tax rate item so are we voting to put the tax increase on the ballot no no this is a requirement every year for us to have a hearing which we just did that does based upon re-evaluation years which we are in and then have the Hancock calculation on CPI adjust the tax rate as appropriate and so we have a 37 8 decline in tax rate because of that change basically it's a 39 what you're voting on is actually a tax reduction I gave myself three units of tax increase it's a tax reduction of a rate of 39 reduction just to be clear it's a rate reduction so it's just under 39 cents our tax rate will go down by that and it is now the lowest tax rate that this district has
238had in over 10 years foreign and that's easy to do when our appraisals go up 22 percent so yeah that is true okay any discussion else on this no okay all those in favor say aye aye those opposed okay motion carries uh 14.2 so so this one's kind of me and I heard some feedback similar from other board members and so I'll just kind of kick off her discussion no no action necessarily from the board being centered here um you know I think we all agree our policies are old and some of them certainly need a lot of work of which you know the board is given some level of priorities which we find a number of policies here uh being revised that being said looking at other districts there there are committees There Are
239Places and forums for constituents to fill out and ask for a policy to be revised or new et cetera and so I think it'd be a good opportunity for us to consider a committee in which we can bring community members in you know there can be a two-way street you know talking about you know how we go about policies what needs to be considered when we're doing so and you know kind of develop that as well as the two-way street being what's the level of priority which ones should be first second why and give some direction to the board and the admin on how we should think about that so that's just something I wanted to discuss as a board if there's support maybe it's just giving guidance to the admin to consider something for
240us as a committee going forward you have some comments on that sure so when I saw it on there it was like you read my mind because with all the policies that came on the agenda I was like holy cow um so I just kind of brainstormed and this is just feedback um or I'm actually seeking feedback from my peers my ideas were in a policy committee um 100 agree with forming it I think it should be at least three board members two individuals from the following groups faculty support staff Administration maximum of six may include three individuals from the following groups students parents Guardians taxpayers that don't have students in the district so they can't double dip maximum of nine and those interested in participating in the committee meetings should Express their interest through
241the Google form and the applicant responses should be compiled into a spreadsheet and provided to the board for review and the board shall at the next meeting decide as a board which applicant to assign to the committee or which applicants and the rationale behind this is that the power and authority as prescribed in the state law to compose and pass policy which governs our district belongs solely to the Board of Education this is our main function as a governing body accordingly the assignment of participants and guidelines set forth in the selection process for this specific committee should be executed by the body foreign members president gets in yes so I I agree with you and director Olson that we do need a policy committee um as far as feedback Jen that was a lot and
242just wanted so um you know just with all of us hearing it the first time and again I mean I'll volunteer myself if if you would like to work together and we can try to hammer this out to bring something to the board and work with admin yeah I think I think that'd be good I I I I'm not going to react to necessarily the prescriptive nature I don't disagree with the statements of the body and and our responsibility I'd want to know what like other districts do how it works why they do it so so if there's examples and that you know can be brought for us to consider I think that's all I'm looking for okay any other comments there Danielle please sure it's kind of it's germane because it's policy a notion
243that the policies all of our policies notate the statutory Authority as well as laws and statute of the bottom of each section of the policy can you repeat that motion just so we have it clear a notion that all policy rotates the statutory Authority as well as laws in statute from the bottom section of each policy I I don't know that that's going to be applicable to every policy msba sample policy has all of that on the bottom do they I wasn't sure okay any other give me a second okay any other discussion president Goodson yes Jen could you would you be open to amending your emotion just to add that it also reference the policies that so like we have I think it's related to it yeah yep yep what she said [Music] sorry
244it's a huge undertaking so as we go through through this I agree with you because I come from a long background at msba policies and I 100 agree so but as we go through this process it will take us some time to be able to cross-reference and do all of that so this is one of those things that I would request that as we are going through and reviewing the policies and bringing them to you that then we're making sure that that's a part of that process but going back and hitting all of them all at once may not be a practical option at the moment so question on that since it's not something that's questionable it is the statute that is assigned to this policy I don't think it necessarily has to come back
245to the board [Music] yeah I mean I guess a question if that's germane you mean basically to the policy changes it not effectively changes making references at the bottom I don't I maybe want legal guidance on that and come back to us on whether or not that's true but I'd support it if that was the case is that okay if we just give that direction go make sure that we can do that without needing board vote yeah so that way you don't have to put a whole lot of effort bringing everything forward at one time or whatever yeah and then they can Pace that I don't disagree okay so can I also make a suggestion sure that we don't have maybe we should limit to two or three policy revision at one time yeah there's
246a lot here so I can imagine the reason for the motion I think that works for most things my my one maybe hesitation with that is if there are like I think a lot of these are here because the legal requirements they either got enacted in law and so we're being responsive to making sure that our policies align to law so I don't know that that can be the case every time but certainly it's not my preference to go through you know plenty revisions at the same time so I don't know how we balance those two things though and so with our policy service at different points in the year we do receive basically a batch of updated policies recommended policies based upon new legislation changes court cases things like that and so this was
247the vast majority were based upon legislative changes that came through in this batch [Music] to me I think we can manage that through motions of agendas you know if we don't want to be 20 we can move and table and so just use the governing power if we think there's too many and we need time those sorts of things I'd hate to try to box us into things that like that if we need to bring those in but that's just my view [Music] quiet over here okay I admit I don't know what our motion is that we're voting on so much just to add the statutory Authority and hold on so hold it but I want to make sure we we had a motion about your details I think or was that just a recommendation
248I can't remember the motion I have yeah so I had um a motion by director Olson that all policy notates the statutory Authority other policies as well as laws and statute at the bottom section of each policy and do we all agree as a board there the timing of bringing that back is somewhat of a discretion and okay we get we gave guidance and that's clear okay I'm seeing head nods no disagreement okay all those in favor if there's no more discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye I was opposed okay okay moving on so we have a first reading to policy 340 um so I'll just make some quick comments um if I recall and it's it's been a while this was something that came out of our Workshop in May in
249terms of board ethics being stale and old I think um vice president stolen I would acknowledge that some of the items that were in our old board ethics included things that were very specific to I think past board issues and I think there was an acknowledgment you know through this worrying and other things that are refresh if you will of the board ethics was necessary and as I understand the way this was prepared was with the MCE is the Baseline within some discretion with admin to kind of keep some of the past things in here that being said this is a first reading and I will take comments on the changes yes um I would like to just motion to table this first read and start from scratch after we have a sit down I
250don't know if it's going to be like a half a workshop or a full Workshop this is this is the document that we govern ourselves with and our meetings and how we treat each other and I think that it would be very very beneficial to this board if we sat down and had a strong conversation about that with each other I mean the coming together of sorts the revisions are in my opinion the opposite direction of what I thought our feedback was in the five-minute conversation we had about it in May um the Mec nope msca the msba guideline or policy example is more centered on the actual governance and it is specific to the board um and it takes out a lot of the feelings and emotions that are in it right now prior
251to the revisions so I thought that was the feedback at least that's the feedback that I gave I thought I had some kind of agreeance in the room but maybe I didn't um but but yeah I'm I guess I'm making a motion that we table this until we have a workshop specific to it can be a half a workshop if we do two things in one but specific to our code of ethics second president Goodson yes so um so director Olsen I I just wanted you to know that when I presented this as a suggestion um it's merely that and it's just something to work off of because I do agree with President Goodson written one is very specific and I will agree with you I too want to focus on the governance the part
252that I do like as an example for this policy are just one through four the for the first subsection um so I mean I know what you're I understand what you're saying but um I guess just to have one entire meeting about that I I don't know could you give some more feedback of what you don't like because I mean I can give feedback for me like on the second page [Music] um I would strike number one under Edition members of the Board of Education will and I would also strike number 10 under that same section um so that way again I'm not opposed to what you're saying but if there's something we don't like about this one let's take those out I'm not familiar with the msba policy maybe Dr tormala could share that
253with the board and staying on board so we have something to go off of um I'm just not familiar with that policy okay okay and I mean it doesn't like I said it doesn't have to be a full Workshop even if it's a quarter of a workshop just 30 45 minutes whatever to spend with the board talking about this specific so a question and some additional comment to to points already made who put this together I mean was was this drafted by I mean was this pulled from a policy someplace okay because so I thanks for that so can somebody Define above board [Music] could you help us out where you're referencing sorry number eight assume that all transactions are ethical open and above board yeah it's a that might be a terrible job of
254doing saying this but it's it I use the phrase but it's like if you think the standard is here it's me you know and you're basically exceeding that standard by everything you do so if you think that it's gray here I'm Number Eight you you go above and beyond or above board to do that I I would happily welcome a counter to that but that's how I use this I could come up with multiple definitions my point is yeah is is that there's there's work that needs to be done in this hence the first reading but avoid inappropriate and disparaging remarks both in and out of the board meetings who defines what is inappropriate and disparaging I tell you what I I don't like how your hair is Jason is that disparaging is that inappropriate
255I like your hair school board and lawful session no individual has a legal authority to request action from the staff so that means that I can't talk to anybody I can't make a call so I don't interpret that as that it just says can you read that to me one more time sorry I'm my computer is frozen yeah just a second to avoid let's see to recognize the authority rest for the school board in a lawful session and no individual board member May has legal authority to request action so I think that's like a directive yeah like a directive or emotion like you have to have the coin majority yeah that's what makes sense so I I can't go to to any Deputy superintendent we've had a discussion say hey can you get me this
256yes my point is that there's it's not well defined yeah yeah okay yeah I'm not I'm not arguing the specific of what it should be but to avoid any comments which may be interpreted as under and undermining the administration of the district okay I don't like how this board meeting went today am I undermining the authority of the district I mean there's throughout all of these there's lack of specificity and what it does is it takes away our ability to lead to me to be directors of policy and it puts it on if we cross a line that is in the sand that you can't even Define in some cases I can be guilty of something that's how I interpret this and it's given given what has happened in the last month or two I
257feel like this is a significant attempt to try to close down take away the authority of the the board and that's all I had to say thank you president yes so I just want to speak for myself that that that is not the intention I just from my point of view is I remember us talking about it in May and it's just kind of been up in the air and so I wanted us to start somewhere I think many of the because we've had a board of ethics for quite some time and like I said it's old and dated and had some specificities based upon issues we govern ourselves by board majority I mean I could David I could claim that many of the old bullets are doing the exact same thing I mean so
258I think to say there's Mal intent with changes that are just used off an MCE Baseline I to me that's a leap and that's not certainly the intent here feedback is always in this board you know rules and governance by majority so no mountain [Music] foreign so president Goodson um yes director Olsen so what you're proposing I guess my next question would be if you want it to be tabled then I think we should decide when we're going to talk about it because it is hard for this board to come I guess when would your what what does your timeline look like I would like the literacy Workshop to come first so something after that maybe bye end of year beginning of year Workshop if there's a workshop that we're having in that area and
259that vicinity [Music] okay any other questions comments we've got a motion and a second to table this to a workshop what was that did that answer your question yes okay okay Matthew just to confirm the motion it's emotional motion to table it policy the first reading of policy zero three four zero to a workshop okay uh let's see what we'll call though [Music] it wasn't a good thing all right director hinke aye vice president strolling aye Dr Olson hi secretary lysac aye Dr Lewis aye director Scott aye motion carries okay moving on 17 40. sorry I'm out of order here policy 1740 this is again a first reading if let me put a motion to table the first read of policy 1740. second hang on just I got a motion a second I'm trying to
260pull it open is there a table date or no okay any other questions comments from the board on a motion to table the first reading the president gets in it by me yes just curious on why uh [Music] we discussed partially in closed session and I but I don't so any other questions comments here okay I've got a motion in a second Matthew roll call please aye secretary aye Lewis aye director Scott aye motion carries okay moving on to 16.5 policy 1720. get a revision and this is just an ad to the evaluation process using the msba timelines I don't know if um vice president's story wants to make any comments I know you provided this recommendation but if there's any comments we had not to put you in this month thanks so yeah I'm
261just looking for the board to we we have never had a time period a timeline to the evaluation of the superintendent or had anything that was connected to that timeline and I think this is helpful I think this is a way for us to check in to make sure as director Olson stated we our jobs are our job is to review and create policy evaluate the superintendent and evaluate the school district and so I think this gives a great just framework of what to do when to do it and and that's I mean that's my feedback because we've never had it on the time that I've been on the board where did you find this chart so as the memo and policy suggest is from the msba oh [Music] um so I have some suggestions
262for revision sure um and I know we're not voting on anything so this would just be like something we'd pass along later yeah this is just guidance and it can be adopted and then when we vote second reading we can consider it um in August September area the second box down which is that stage two right right can you just say which stage so stage two second box um board [Music] has discussion um I feel and I'm not it's probably gonna feel like nitpicking Jason president Goodson sorry but I feel like um we should be able to to however we want to do it at the time I mean you do there's an agenda right for our meeting but for a single process I think for it to say board president leads board discussion that
263kind of makes me think that it can't be you can't have robust discussion it's going to be led by you know certain things and you know let's say 10 years from now it's a different group of people and you know it's not always going to be us and that's what I'm looking at here um so if it takes out the you already have a leadership role as president when you're president so that's already assumed that you are leading the meeting um and so director Olsen sorry may I make a suggestion yeah I think we're all tired so what if we just what if we just strike board president leads why don't we just start it at four discussion on the superintendent self-rating does that work yeah I don't care I don't need to lead the
264discussions it doesn't matter to me and that's on stage four and five and the last one I have I swear it's in several yeah okay yes yes it's three places it says leads to step forward does uh and this was a question about the city signature Clause part down here in stage five does doesn't the secretary [Music] sign that that stuff I sign every contract that we approve as a board so I don't know I mean I didn't know what that was too something in their language that was different from what we do okay and the very very very last thing I swear the board in stage six it says the board and I'm thinking in consultation with the superintendent determined the goals and indicators for the next evaluation cycle the board and superintendent collaboratively
265determined versus again you might think it's nitpicking but that's just my thoughts on this timeline yes Mr Lewis just a comment for uh vice president's story I appreciate pulling this together I think it's only fair that we have something specific for the superintendent so that she knows how and when the dates and how the process flows and stuff and I I didn't realize this is something that wasn't we didn't have before but I think it should be quickly put in place so we can follow some specifics I agree thank you vice president slowly okay any other comments here to this first reading all right so 16.6 sorry I have a comment on that Yes actually sorry director may I go first just because I asked it to be asked for it to be pulled and
266then is that it is all right okay so what I was just going so my feedback is it says the superintendent May establish a behavioral risk assessment it says wrist twice a behavior risk assessment team um I think that should be that we will um because the MCE policy actually says that the superintendent will establish a behavioral risk assessment team and then it goes into detail about what that would be so um that's what I would like to see reflected it just and I'm not going to read the whole thing but it says the team only on a regular basis and we'll report on an outgoing basis to the superintendent concerning the tab the status and then provide District staff with information to assist in the identification of students with significant behavioral concerns assessing the
267risk of each student to engage in violence or other harmful activities and this is from what I understand just kind of somewhat of a reflection of the safe schools Act so that would be my feedback because I would like to see the entire adoption from MC Don these Dr tormo any comments to that so the only reason that we um adjusted in this manner was that the policy from MCE was an optional add-on it's not a mandatory thing we are in the process of moving in this direction in fact we started last year and I don't know if Dr Mueller is still here and wants to jump in and have a conversation we started last year training teams with the msba process for this behavioral risk assessment and so we are definitely moving in that
268direction however the district is not yet at the place with the optional wording that was in the MCE policy so that's why you don't see all of that language here at this time I have a comment um I don't believe we should be and I don't know if this is mandatory if this is part of the guidance or whatever but I don't think we should use the acronym especially as negative connotations and in the context of unruly children it kind of yeah that's terrible yeah sorry that is they don't like that either it's wrist twice on purpose behavioral risk assessment risk team is that a thing then it wouldn't be Brad anyways okay any other comments on this one all right it's moving to 6310 so this one is the sorry I'm missing I skipped
269one I think 6242 my apologies so 6240 is controversial issues and religious I love putting vice president Stoli on the hot seats I think you brought these revisions as a recommendation to the board you want to talk sure so um again just yes they're revisions and I think it just we had talked about that we wanted to work on this and it was just kind of again another policy that was floating out in the air so um the original policy is I think a total of two sentences um so it's a guide of something to work off of and this one does actually cross-reference our other policies okay can I ask I can't remember did this one come from either MC or msba Okay so this one was pulled from from a school district I
270was looking at which I can tell you in a second if someone wants to jump in I'll look for I have I mean a few sure comments um I understand that the original policy was very short and to the point I also sometimes think that less is more because I read this policy both ways it's a preventative measure for you know things getting out of hand or going way off topic but it also kind of opens the door for it and provides guidance on how you can do it and I mean that's just my feedback there's a lot of students given access to per the incredible information then who decides that there's a there's a big divide on what's credible as far as the information that could be given to them um [Music] age-appropriate for
271the suit or suitable for the age of the students who determines that um again we got credible information here some of it seems like it you know they could when you go beyond the already controversial issues that we have in curriculum um and then you you add in sensitive topics and and that are outside of curriculum if we're if the policy says if it's in curriculum then you can teach it but you have to teach it you know with our curriculum guidelines I think that like I said less is more that's I mean so may I ask her sorry president yeah I was just trying to figure out so you like the reference where it says it mentions the curriculum it it aligns with the curriculum or I don't remember the verbage so if under
272partisan and political or other controversial issues right after the part that's underlined in the sentence that ends with below in this policy six two four two if we added something if we added Incorporated in there somehow that if it's in curriculum if it's yeah I think some of that speaks to it or at least I thought it did it did if you go to number three I mean I know you don't like the terminology sensitive issues but it does say in accordance with the district's curriculum mission and vision so we could we could use that boarding right and then I I don't know that I necessarily disagree with you that less is more but I mean from where I am I we have had some events in the district that parents have expressed that they
273feel it's I mean the privilege walk was one of them that they weren't I mean they did not think that was appropriate at all and I would agree so I I don't know maybe it's just is that in curriculum I guess right so I agree with you so what I'm saying is I can see I support the language of tying it with curriculum absolutely but I would also say if this is too much I can I can see that point of view but I think we would need a regulation to go with it so we could maybe that's a compromise as we direct the administration to provide a regulation to accompany the policy and again this is just a first Rage would we be approving the regulation see that's I I don't like I mean
274I think we should dictate I think you're I think the reasons sorry to cut you guys up I think the reasons you're bringing forth some more clarity here is important I think I really liked that um school-based procedures will be developed for approving the controversial issues that will be presented in the classroom so this creates like a layer of like as I read it again right and the layer of review whereas before maybe that wasn't happening it gives Clarity to that they're expected to present this in objective and partial neutral manners which we should absolutely expect through policy of our staff and in you know giving places where if they have concerns where to go I'm not married every bit of language in here but to me I mean I get to concern I don't
275want to make a pathway to them and say well look we have a policy that says we can talk all controversial but in height especially in high school there's this controversial issue will be significantly noted in like social studies and things that are happening in the news and you want to talk about it and I think they're relevant to curriculum in many cases but you can't be biased and you should do this process or have a process not necessarily specifically and so I like the first attempt at this I don't know that I have heartburn over many things but I do like the attempt yeah I mean I just I would agree with that and I like that it says the department of academic services will provide assistance and training for the teachers so hopefully
276that will provide additional Clarity of what the policy actually means oftentimes the board in the past has past policies and it's just been acknowledgment from the staff that they've received the policies but do they fully understand it so I mean anybody else have comments on this well seeing some head shakes maybe because it's 10 40. maybe okay uh any other questions comments here okay let's go on to 6242 keep me honest I think sorry dang it all right 6310 School libraries I think this was in relation to vice president's story again on the hot seat so this was an it was an honest to [Music] um at the end of the meeting the resident agenda item and that stakeholder had said that their point of view was our policy was dated I would agree with
277that view because there's no reference with it aligning with Missouri law so that's I took that feedback and we talked about that after that Patron spoke and so that's the reason for that and that also extends to the classroom libraries yeah I think this this that's right I forgot about this one this reflects I mean at least at a minimum certainly want board feedback some of the because board gives some directions here and I think I appreciate vice president stully taking the effort to to first stab at this I have some comments yes confidentiality at the bottom uh right before the last four words [Music] where it says party accept as provided by law except so it would read the district recognizes the need for confidentiality of school records therefore no person will release any
278Library record of any student faculty or other Library user to any third party except to their parents guardians or as provided by law oh I think that's fair [Music] any thoughts from Batman and I think that seems pretty clear can you read the last part again I think it's just to add parents in front of them did you add parents before third party or after third party right here third party accept comma to their parents guardians or as professionals [Music] okay so in that regard though the parents would never be considered a third party unless the student is 18. if a student's 18 the student would have to give permission to release those records however parents through FERPA and all of that would automatically have access to any of this so would it be would
279it harm to put parents and Guardians just so that the public doesn't look at it and think because you know they might not dive into verba I well one I think this was always there but two I actually don't think this sentence you would want to add parents to therefore no person will release to a third party as provided by law no it would be accept except sorry as except as provided by law just asking before it goes to the third party as provided by law the parents are informed now this it's saying that the district will never release their Library records to any third party except for as provided by law and I'm adding except for their parents and Guardians and as provided by law see I just make sure the edit you just
280want to make sure that parents can get these records okay I would do that my views in a separate sentence for that to make it clear yeah so maybe like if you can say something along the lines of you know Library records will be considered a part of a student's academic record and is releasable to releasable to Aaron's Guardians that makes sense okay that sounds better any other comments questions here I have comments sure on the regulation um so the regulation isn't on there yet because I think right I wanted to give comments so that when they go do it because we don't approve that right so just comments for when they change it [Music] civilization and bring it back to the board just to kind of look at it and remove the reference to
281the Ala from the regulation language uh the leader of the organization is in conflict with American values at its core I shouldn't be sorry yep I know I'm totally interrupting so I'm gonna so I did want to let you know like there was work done in correlation to this policy it's not on the agenda because I thought we should wait until the policy passed but that whole which I don't have the regulation in front of me but the Ala um reference that whole part it's like a first part right Jen yeah it's like my feedback was that should that needs to go away I I don't have because it doesn't align with the law so yeah so yeah that's just that's my feedback on that do you I agree with whatever you said Mr Roswell
282so what is it okay if you share that out with board members or in doctor terminal if we share out with board members what we had done and then John you could give your feedback from there look right now no no no no yeah yeah I think we're on the same page though with what you're saying I think so too okay ah this thing wants to restart every time okay so we've made it through 6310 and we've got a chunk of policies here for revision Dr trumler remind me on these this grouping here this is just the ones that need to be changed yes are primarily the ones that are adoption as mandatory by the policy service and it's based upon law or there is like there's staff contracts and that was a change based
283upon a psrs requirement that was changed so these are all um based in mandatory changes I have a question on a couple of them sure [Music] I'm five is the sunset Clause required that is in State Statute correct the 2905 the sunset Clause that's actually outlined in State Statute but that sunsets the statute not necessarily our board policy right it can be or so we don't have to have the sunset it was included as part of mce's model policy on this issue okay um my feedback is I would like the sunset the sunset or claws removed um if Pat if you look into that and if it's doable yeah I'd want to I mean obviously 2027 happens if there's new law or changes I I don't think we're going to be bound by if you
284strike it or not but if the Law changes we got to make sure our policy follows the law anyway so I don't have heartburn really anyway so I think it can be done I think the issue would be it's intended to serve as a reminder for review in the event that the general assembly does not extend that law beyond the expiration date and so it doesn't have to necessarily be included but I think having it included sets forth a reminder for us that there is an expiration on the law and so we need to pay attention and stay up to date on whether it's extended or not and I think I guess I guess my point here is if a future board wants to revise that policy or amend it or we send it or
285anything like that I think they can they can do that they don't otherwise it could just stay in place earlier did you have a question or comment on any of these no I didn't I always just I just saw a smile over there so I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing you okay one last thing for sure six of these were are related to laws that went into effect August 28th or previously last year when the I believe I think it was the library book um obscenities or whatever it was that bill um we had we had policy before that statute was active um and I don't know if this has something to do with when the governor signed these things into law like what was the delay in getting policy and why
286don't we have policy before we have law so a lot of it comes back to the policy Services they will wait until things go into effect than to get us the model wording so literally we receive these um and brought them to you like as soon as we could review them and have conversation and then bring them to you as well so it is one of those that it's we also stay on top of the law to try to make sure we are compliant even though we don't have an active policy approved yet and especially since we go through the two readings it'll take us a little while but we are compliant with everything that we're bringing to you right now [Music] okay any other questions comments okay moving on to I don't know why
287he wants to restart this my numbers restart every time we need a motion so some 14.1 board and put in a motion to approve the kids in the middle contract as presented [Music] motion Julie second Shannon discussion yes so it really pertains to um I guess we changed the numbers so on mine it's 10 11.10.11 and 0.12 that's right um so I think this is about the eighth mental health company that has been brought forth to us um well since I've been sworn in in April so and I asked last month you know when we're talking about mental health whose role is that is that the parents or is that the government and I just have a couple of questions so how many more Health companies or excuse me mental health companies are going to
288come before us and how many is to is enough why so many and are we looking at who is on the board of these companies natural abroad maybe answers some of that I may have to ask you to read reference some of the questions but um some of these are new additions in response to the um I think it's the initiative responsive Services grant that we were awarded last year which was 160 000 to meet the immediate need I think it's the immediate responsive service is great to meet the immediate needs of students that are um could extend outside of the educational realm get both kids in the middle and I believe Annie's hope is the next one are not General presentations those are presentation those are offerings that are available for individual students and
289families who request them or they could be referred by a staff member to the parent and the parent would have involvement and provide consent for that and we do typically find that kids who maybe need access to some of these additional Services once those needs are met they are but better to be my goodness it's a late they are able to be more attentive to us and meet those academic needs and so while the academic needs are primary we also try to meet other needs within the realm um of outside services at the parents discretion correct me if I'm wrong but kids in the middle specializes uh for therapy with children who are going through divorce and so no one else that has come to us or specializes in that area that is correct okay
290president Goodson if I may and just to speak to Annie's hope I know like they're just for like children who lose their parents correct or like close yeah grief loss of a loved one but I just wanted to ask um you know personally I you know the more mental health and capabilities we can bring to our students the better um because correct me if I'm wrong but I mean these aren't infinite resources you know like one particular group doesn't have the infinite ability of like 20 students needed them that you know they can appropriately provide services for all students because when I'm assuming not their only District um that they work with would that be fair it's correct me so um and this is just kind of a response to one of the speakers from
291earlier tonight one of the public comment speakers my objections to when I do object to the counseling services or the third party services that come up is primarily based in the role of government um the health and mental health and psychological health of children is is at the discretion of their parents so the first three things I asked Jerry every time where this comes up is do they do school-wide presentations does their parent get notified prior to them being identified or talked to by the third party and is a permission slip required so those are those are my criteria I I 100 understand the value of having especially with two parent Working Families you know maybe there's not time in that schedule between seven o'clock when you get home and do the homework and get
292everybody dressed for bed to go to also go to therapy for something that just happened tragically in your life so if there's a program at school to provide that for a child under the direction and discretion of their parents and Guardians I'm okay with that [Music] second on 14.10 the contracts in the contract kids in the middle any other discussion Matthew can you do a roll call vote please president Goodson hi director Henke hey vice president Sterling aye director Olson aye I'm sorry could you repeat that aye thank you secretary elizak aye director Lewis aye director Scott aye commission carries we have a pirate on the board no did we need a motion to approve Annie hopes the center for grieving kids contract as presented so moved Julie Katie discussion here or do we cover
293yep okay discussion and I meant to say this on the last one Jerry did answer my questions and the answers were no they don't do school-wide presentations no they don't um yes they are parents are notified before contact is made and yes they have to have a permission slip and that goes for that the kids in the middle the Annie's hope I think that was the only two I sent you okay about and preferred okay any other questions okay Matthew roll call please foreign [Music] carries okay we need a motion to approve the Robert bertolini contract as presented so moved Julie second Katie discussion um so is this the same kind of situation where parents are notified this one's actually very very different okay um bertolino is a psychologist and he confers with our educational
294support counselors so because there is not anyone um in their realm who oversees them administrative wise who has the expertise in Psychology or has a doctorate in that level or can even really give ethical or legal advice as a practitioner the esc's contract with him he attends their meetings provides professional development for them and um I guess provides responses and answers to how to practice within an ethical code additionally he can provide feedback for like guidance counselors or ssis if they have questions about a particular case so that they staff particular cases and ask questions so it doesn't work directly with the kids he does not work directly with the kids he may know like they may staff a situation with him and ask questions any other comments questions Matthew can you do roll call
295please [Music] vice president Sawyer aye director Olsen May Secretary of Isaac hi director Lewis hi Dr Scott aye motion carries okay we need a motion sorry I had to refresh I was getting issues we need a motion to approve the Concord theatricals contract as presented 600 bucks so I moved second Shannon any discussion yes let me find that page it was just that I don't know if anybody had time to look into the question that I sent at the very last minute there was which edition of The Script did we purchase because I looked on them I looked on the invoice it didn't say I tried going to the website and there was no identifying like serial number to kind of track it down the reason I ask is because just the the main addition
296that they're selling and that high schools are performing is not they do not recommend it for audiences under 14. there is a younger version and and they do it for you know the younger grades as well um and I know this is a high school play but it's it's always been you know they're performing to the families in the community and families have younger children who come to these shows and if it's not appropriate for children under the age of 14 show but the option that is appropriate for kids as young as eight so any other questions comments from the borderness or is there sorry oh I was just going to make the comment uh this is not the actual script or the contract for the script what this is is a contract saying that
297as we purchase the script this is what we will do and what we will not do and to keep us out of trouble because this is a spin-off of a Harry Potter play it's a play a spin-off of Harry Potter in this particular case they did not tell us which version we were getting I don't know the version I can look into it for you but if we sign this I suspect that they're going to come back with a contract saying okay you've agreed to this now we'll let you go ahead and sign the contract for the script or okay now we'll do the version of the script we can do this I guess a couple ways you can say if this is a certain version you don't want it and you can vote on
298that uh uh but I don't know which version this is thanks Rick any other questions comments from the book so the purchase of the actual script will come after this this is the mou for we can't say Harry Potter during the show this is all the things we can and can't do if we move forward with this script and that's the reason because we don't have an invoice and we don't have the script copy of RPO here rather than an invoice and that's why the price is not in the actual this accurate okay okay Matthew can you roll call please for some good song hi director Henke aye vice president aye director Olsen hi secretary lizac aye projector Lewis hi director Scott aye commission carries 14.14 we almost have one question on that Jason as
299I move back to the uh to the school Holt High School who recommended this so did you just vote that it's okay to to sign this but we're not going to sign the invoice until we understand what it what it what version it is contract or whatever it says contract but I guess um the thing is it may just come up on a bill list uh I don't want them to just invoice us without giving us another contacts I just need direction into what Edition it is I guess that's what I'm looking for I'll look into it I just needed to know Direction on what you wanted yep okay thank you okay that Matthew I can't remember if that motion went through or not it didn't I don't think um yes I did we have
300a motion on the preferred family health care not yet okay sorry we need a motion to approve the preferred family health care contract as presented so moved second discussion that's Julie thank you discussion as the other two um I asked if those three questions and the answers were yes they have to contact the parents yes there's permission slip and no they don't do school-wide presentations yeah Matthew roll call please director hinke hi vice president stolen aye director Olson hi secretary Isaac aye director Lewis hi director Scott aye motion carries we need a motion to approve the September 2023 fiscal year 2024 P card bill list as presented so moved Julie second Shannon comments questions yes I have comments if I can find them [Music] which one was this P card okay okay and this is
301not I'm not objecting to painting Wheels I just want to make a comment so and I'd like for board board member feedback on page 31 of the pre-card list it shows we spent 99 for the general counsel to attend a webinar for the National School Board Association nsba and I believe regardless of the value of the content of this webinar our district should not be sending a single penny to an organization that labeled parents who exercised their first amendment rights by speaking at board meetings as domestic terrorists this organization attempted to Lobby the president of the United States and the justice department encouraging them to take action against parents FBI agents were subsequently dispatched to monitor various school board meetings around the country as a result the Missouri School Board Association withdrew from nsba back
302in 2021 because the because of the appalling comments and actions by this organization it's my individual board member of you that going forward we do not do business with or send parent and taxpayer funds to an to the National School boards Association who labeled parents as Public Enemy Number One any other questions comments from the board roll call vote please Matthew sure so director Olsen are you looking for direction from the board then are you looking to not pay this particular no I'm not saying not to pay it I'm just looking for feedback from my fellow board members on that so you're asking for us to collectively give direction to not spend any more taxpayer money on and okay I just wanted to make sure you're clear I would agree with that any other questions
303I would agree with that too the msba has dissolved their relationship with them for those reasons and I think that's appropriate they are the entity that trains school board members in the state there's a comment back from Wilmington I I would ask that the board consider making a decision on this issue until we've had an opportunity to assess the potential impact as it relates to my position nsba provides training and guidance to thousands of school attorneys across the country and the training is based in the law and not on um any particular political pointer agenda that's being Advanced so they are really legal training materials and opportunities and so I think I would ask if you would at least consider the impact before making that decision they're the only resource for legal training for Boards
304of Education they are the in my view leader nationally in offering professional development for school attorneys across the country so not exclusive but again in my view the leader okay any other questions comments all right we've got a motion and a second to approve the payment here Matthew will call please is it a good thing hi director Henke hi vice president Sterling aye director Olsen aye secretarial Isaac aye director Lewis aye director Scott aye motion carries okay we need a motion to prove the September 23 fiscal year 2024 AP Bill list addendum as presented who me excuse me I got a motion from David do I have a second Julie slap Happy yes second Julie any discussion comments here thank you then okay I'm Matthew rokoff please feel some Goodson all right aye vice president
305aye director Wilson aye Secretary of Isaac aye Mr Lewis hi director Scott aye motion carries okay 14.17 the impossible task of calendaring time with this board outside of regular meetings uh did we fill out the form does there consistent state or not I saw a form oh I threw it across the table [Music] Matthew do you happen to have the I threw it across the table before we left close somebody have it in their files I have the dates if you you know we had we had a sheet that yeah all the board members either responded to us or they were writing down their availability to try to narrow it down to the date that works best for everyone I mean I wasn't on October 5th I think I was on everyone positive but that
306one no I was not typed in yeah I can't make the fifth so you were only one yes I I was the I was yes on everything but the fifth I truly never saw it we're not going to solve this tonight I guarantee it because it's not here I I really he's got a form we should fill it out be very flexible with our time if we want this literacy Workshop to happen in a workshop versus otherwise it's going to be a regular scheduled meeting I love 11 pm meetings that can happen we can do that we also have the construction issue that we punted um but that that'll be the outcome if we can't land the date so just does the board agree with that like if we cannot land a date both the
307construction Workshop that we rescheduled and the literacy Workshop will be in the October board regular scheduled agenda can we start that meeting at 10 A.M we may need to you may need to so I need to put more I thought we were only signing up for one date so I need to go and put more so if we can get to consensus that would be great I think we should separate them as best as we can uh Dr Tomlin question yeah so um Dr Brett Schneider just mentioned that if it's possible since the board voted tonight for us to be able to select a literacy resource by November there's serious concern from the academic services department on the capacity and the ability to handle all of the volume of this work and so if that's
308the case I think we would like to respectfully ask if we can delay foreign I support them do you do you know how long you would need what how long would you like to delay we were not prepared for the thought of Expediting this process to November this was something that came out of the blue for us so we need to go back as a team to be able to look at that and re-evaluate re-evaluate and try to put a plan together so we are not in a position yet to be able to give that direction I'm supportive of that and come back to us at a different day I got a head not anybody else disagree with that was there a timeline anyways for that we never settled a date because we couldn't get
309a date that worked I I just would say we need to push forward we can't we can't allow our students to continue to wait so can can you just provide some some more understanding about because the the ELA resources one component of the literacy Workshop so my take in Dr Koma Kirby from the same resources that would prepare for a literacy Workshop would be the same resources now expediently approving a material the board decided to change and this really comes down to capacity of Staff our staff is working extremely hard right now on many many things and so in order now for us to read readjust and realign we need to reprioritize their time Dr tormala could you update the board in staying on board on that progress and when you might just the timeline
310we'll be happy to do that okay moving on to 14.18 discussion on agenda setting board comments and action items I think I'll start with this but this is I think Jen had some requests to have this we've talked about board comments before Shannon's actually helped prepare or gave some feedback onto an action item list so I'll make some comments and we just get into discussion on the agenda setting uh not first to admit like there's a lot of requests for a lot of agenda items and as you can see like scheduling and getting that time and making sure it's appropriate is incredibly hard and fitting it in where it makes sense given you know what what we're working on what should be worked on Etc is a challenge right now that being said my thoughts
311on agenda setting is is that we create a space where board members here can motion to set agendas and then if the board majority agrees with that agenda item we can vote on it there the only ass that I would like the board to consider is on the timing of when those things come to us in terms of when the agenda items are set there needs to be a level of discretion if there's 22 items that the board approves for agendas when those come back where they come back there needs to be a level of discretion some of those probably can be done either through you know closed or open and so there needs to be a level of discretion on board comments I think there was a request before our alignment from the board
312to have I think it was a don't I apologize if I'm wrong director Olson and director Hankey to work on some level of parameters for how board comments would work at the end of the meeting happy to have you know those provided we can weigh in and then lastly the action items here there were a lot of action items today and the goal is anything that we're giving with this specific thing anything that we're giving direction on as a collective board we're not necessarily motioning but we're trying to give Clarity or direction we can create a running log of that so that it's clear and at the end of the meeting we can make sure that it's captured it's accurate and that you know we can talk about those things so that's the three pieces
313at least from my perspective I happen to open that to the board I have some comments as it pertains to and getting board majority for adding things to the agenda I don't think that we should start that practice the practice has always been one person can request something to be added with support from others and it will eventually get added I don't think that we should be and I don't know what what the idea is as far as like what you're envisioning if it's like a spreadsheet or something but I don't think we should voting and motioning on things outside of like the meeting so if we would have to wait until the end of every meeting to make a motion to put something on the next agenda if that's what you're talking about but
314I still again don't think we should be emotioning and requiring seconds and then board majority to put something on the the list of things to be added to an agenda if we are specific and we're like we want this on in next month's agenda I understand that would be a second and then a vote because we're giving direction that this is going to be on next month's agenda I would understand that stipulation but typically we don't we don't have to vote on adding something to the agenda um the other piece before board member comments or the board member comments and I guess the reason that I struggled with getting anything together on that is because I don't want to limit this board I don't want to limit whatever we want to say I mean we're
315limited we self-censor up here um we are Guided by our policy and and we walk that line as we see fit um yes it's mutual respect I think should should govern that that part of the agenda board member comments like don't take 30 minutes you know 15 seems kind of long too so if you have five minutes worth of comments whatever but I don't think we should be putting something in writing that restricts what we can say in our time on the agenda and that's that's why I struggled to get any kind of parameters back to you on that because I've written them down I just I erase them any other questions coming president Goodson yes I would just like to add when we're talking about agenda setting Dr tomorrow I think it's really helpful
316to the board just to see um if you could just give us a very high level rundown of what might be coming the next month ahead like a program evaluation or something a new business so that would also help us wait against our way against do we want to discuss this item for next month maybe there's a really big program evaluation coming up and we need to report prioritize as a board yes um I would really like to move the resident agenda item under the public comments as number five and then add the Boe comments right before adjournment and I say that because it makes sense to get their comments out of the way before we start making decisions on things not that we take action on what they say but it might be something
317that's relevant to what we're doing and um some meetings like tonight they would just now start speaking any other questions comments from the board on this kind of section president yes are you asking for agenda item requests right now uh no it was just a matter of structure um and a discussion if there's some support I'm I'm just telling you from the way this works there is a lot of requests here for agenda items and having alignment on those agenda items and visibility for people to see the community see I don't I don't see a harm in voting on agenda setting ahead of time if it got to a place where the board disagreed with agenda setting there's also a vote on the agenda so it kind of preempts the ability for boards to have
318if I put something on that four people don't agree with and an agenda then gets overruled at the beginning you're you're still voting on the agenda so that that is Impractical how that works and I'm just suggesting that we period a place that you recommend it we vote on it it's clear we move on there's no then judgment there's no ability to ridicule think differently assume intent about what the outcomes are and when this is and I'm asking for support in putting that together yes I don't disagree with you I just want to clarify voting on that in the I guess like what kind of flexibility does that leave you and Dr torma in you know completing that finalizing that agenda for the next month yeah I mean I thought I've looked at some other
319districts that do something similar you know like what the comment I made there is like a level of flexibility I'm looking for what is the agenda and what are you trying to get it and then I think that the regulation or how we work this session and what Guidance the board gives there I think what I'm asking for is a level of flexibility for the reasons you're citing between board president and superintendent you can make it so that there's a follow-up required to ensure that you know hey this is we've talked about this is the plan you know this is when it's going to come and how we're going to do that and follow up with the person that made the motion in the first place but that's off the cuff kind of what I've
320seen so we would have to let's say tomorrow something comes up and I really really really want to add it to the agenda and it's super important and three other people agree with me but we're not in the meeting so we can't vote on it we're gonna have to wait until the October meeting to vote to put it on the November's agenda I would say that there's plenty of ways to be flexible with scenarios and any kind of um you know way we do this but yeah I think we just leave it vague then and that part of it because yes it's a hard job to Wrangle a bunch of people that want to put stuff on the agenda but I mean we're not still alive and I think that's a positive noted any other
321questions comments on this one president Goodson yes just to the board action items I'm seeking just opinions from my peers so the way it stands now it has a start date and responsible party I think it would be helpful because as a I think it adding to this template would be specifically who's working on this like we gave direction that director Olsen would be working on some things right so it'd be helpful just to see like okay director Olson is doing that and we certainly don't want to overwhelm a particular board member or have them take on too much responsibility and then it obviously has a start date but then I would also say you know is there a quote unquote due date did the board give a timeline to that and then add that
322to it like that makes sense to me no issues there okay so I'm the motion to move residential agenda item to number five on the order of business can I just I I want to cut you off and appreciate if there's a second it's that's not on the agenda for us today to talk about there's a specific policy we adopted on that I want to I would want to make sure we're polishing you know Sunshine Law our agenda has been posted if there's feedback from the community I'd want to hear it in specifically moving that but that would be my recommendation before Motion in a second on an item not on our agenda yeah um president Goodson I would agree with that director Olson I I think that we'd have to bring back the policy
323and just re-adopt it to the gender setting isn't that what that is no I just brought a discussion around what I just described but I'm saying to make a motion to create up to edit the policy that now has the um resident agenda items we have a policy on that I'm saying that is not on our agenda to vote on now this is a policy the order of business is a policy I think the order of business is a 4-1-1 reg I think if I'm not mistake okay yes this is regulation zero four one one correct it is the order of business which is the agenda setting correct on the agenda for today agenda setting is on you have you have 16.18 maybe the number change since I printed this but or since somebody printed
324it but it's discussion on agenda setting it's Germaine I get that but the reg wasn't cited that's why I'm I'm taking that stance I'm happy for the board to overrule that but I don't think we should discuss that until it's put on the agenda [Music] board member comments that's on this regulation as well so I mean that's two things that are part of this regulation you're telling me I can't make a motion to amend it I think the the clear discussion was not the timing of that the reg wasn't cited the board member comments were to check in on where that was given the last Direction that that's my viewpoint I'm happy for the board to weigh in differently I like to make my motion to move the resident agenda item up to number five
325under public comments on regulation zero four one one second questions comments on the board no Matthew can I get a roll call on that are you asleep I'm just kidding no sorry I'm just getting my paper already here president Goodson okay director Hankey aye vice president stolen [Music] I'm still trying to read this to be honest right now right now it's at number 11. I just moved it up to number five no I'm saying the policy Greg I director Olsen hi secretary lizac I director Lewis director Scott May motion carries okay uh any other comments questions in this area all right so I have a motion in this area sure I would also like to add board member comments as number 12. violation zero four one one thirteen second discussion from the board my view
326I I think there was a reason the board gave direction to put parameters on that having five minutes 15 being ambiguous there are plenty of places I think were my comments before for the board to give direction to give motions to talk about agenda items and I think it was the consensus to have a level of um subjectivity to how this would go so that we do self-govern ourselves and it's clear what the expectation is of board members during that period of time so that it doesn't appear if someone objects to what you described as taking too many Liberties it's clear why that's the only reason I think the direction was that President I was basically going to kind of say the same thing without any sort of parameters it's very subjective and what one
327person may feel is appropriate others may not and I feel like you're just going to be it's going to lead to more divisive issues among porn okay so I've reached out to multiple school districts and Boards of Education across the state to get their practices and they don't have any limitations on what their boardroom comments section is the ones that I've reached out to and it's been five or so five or six any other questions comments Matthew roll call please president Goodson can you ReRe Matthew could you please read the ocean motion to the resident oh sorry wrong one I want you to add board member comments as number 12 to regulation zero four one one and then move the German to 13 I think was yeah okay uh Matthew roll call please president Goodson
328hi director Henke hi vice president aye Dr Olson aye secretary Isaac aye director Lewis aye Dr Scott hey motion carries president Goodson yes I don't know if I need to make a motion but in the last month's meeting we discussed um reviewing the bus routes will that be on the next agenda Dr torma I think that's right I think we said last time that that comes to the board in October and so there will be a report that comes to the board and I think at that point there was a request as well just to talk about any adjustments that have been made since the beginning of the year so the transportation team will be prepared to have those conversations foreign to adjourn open and go into clothes for purposes of legal personnel and staff
329motion second Matthew can I get a roll call please I can vice president yes president Goodson all right Dr Henke hi professor's installing aye Dr Olsen aye secretary Isaac director Lewis hi director Scott motion carries