001I'm going to call the meeting to order. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, I need approval of the agenda, please. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Our agenda has been approved. Um, I want to let everybody know that we are videotaping this and it will be uploaded uh on our the same place that our board meeting are uploaded on our site. So, uh, I just wanted everybody to know that we are videotaping it. So, the people that aren't here, if you want to direct them to that, then they'll be able to watch it. Okay. Um, I want to start the meeting out is I I want to
002thank everybody. Um, I don't have a list of all the people that I want to thank because there's, uh, numerous people that have helped us in this time of despair. Um, we are here to gain knowledge of what we know about our school buildings. We are still working and waiting for answers that need to be done and we need to work through those answers as they come to us so we can plan on getting our students back on campus. Um, and we're here tonight just to let you update you on the information that we have so far. Um, I hate to tell you that it's not a lot, but it is some. and um we will get more information as it comes and get that out to you. But uh we want to share with
003you the knowledge that we have tonight um about our buildings. As everyone knows, on Saturday morning, uh we had emergency crews on site. Those emergency crews were tasked with boarding up broken windows and doors, uh securing and patching up roofs. We had uh damage on every roof in in the district to varying degrees and uh that just a general cleanup message to make things a clean up to make it as safe as possible. Their main focus was to try up everything that we possibly could so that we don't get any secondary damage. That's winds, rains coming in causing moisture where we don't need it. So, uh, their primary focus for those first two days, Saturday and Sunday, was to shore up everything, close up the best we could, and make it as safe as possible
004for those crews. On Sunday, I take that back on Saturday, we actually pulled in the full admin team. We had to pull them off campus. It wasn't safe. They wouldn't let us come on. So, we met off campus and immediately started assessing what tasks we had to to jump in right away. On Sunday, we continued that work with our admin team. We also received a visit um the superintendent from Joplain who experienced the tornado there. Uh Dr. CJ Huff, he joined us. He came in person. I spoke to him on Saturday and he came in person on Sunday to talk to our admin team about things that we should expect, things that we should prepare for and to try to advise us of things that we should avoid as well. He continued to come again
005on Monday and work with us as we started beginning to develop multiple plans on what to do ahead based on what we find out. So, we're not sitting on our hands. We're not waiting for information. I know you all want to know more. We do, too. We are already making plans. We have lots of plans, but it depends on what we find out which plans we can go with those plans. Some of those we were able to initiate some things. Today we have moved out of the old senior high building so that those spaces can be utilized back into classroom spaces in the case that some classrooms we cannot return students safely to. So our full admin team has moved out of that building today. There are repairs that are going to be done while
006we're out. And as soon as those repairs are done, such as broken windows, the portion of the roof was torn off, those things will be completed without us in there. So, we're moving fast so those spaces can be turned back into classroom settings. As far as other things that we've done, everything that we are focusing on right now is to get kids on campus. We do not want to have to do online learning. We know that is not the best way for students and it's not best for our teachers. We want students on campus with each other and with us and that is what we're driving for hard. It's difficult to tell you what that looks like right now because we have a lot of questions that have not been answered yet. Some of those
007questions include we have structural engineers who have been visiting all of the buildings, walking through those spaces, but we do not have in writing yet what spaces are safe. I'm not making decisions until I see something in writing that my kids are safe to be in those areas. As well as structurally, environmentally, we have great concerns. Some of the buildings that have the most significant damage are our older buildings who have the potential for asbestous to be in those. Those asbests areas have been encapsulated for years safely. But because of this storm and the damage that we've seen in that particular building and area, it's possible that there could be some exposure. So, we're not letting anybody in there. We're not going to do anything that's going to put anybody in harm until we have
008results back from that. I have not received that yet. We've also had the insurance adjusters visit. They have been on site making observations and taking notes, but I have not received anything from writing from our insurance adjusters as well. We think that it's very important that we have someone that's working on our side for the district's behalf in our our community. So, I am seeking probably the board to consider possibly working with individuals that would support us such as a public adjuster so that we have lots of representation. We have people sitting at the table with us that are also experts in that area. I am an educator. I am not an insurance adjuster. I am not a contractor. I am an educator. And I know to surround myself with people who are experts so
009that I can make good decisions that are best for our kids, our staff, and our community. So, with that being said, um as a board, we need to um make a motion to contract with NFA licensed public adjuster to be on campus. Is there any discussion about that? Anybody got any questions about that? This is the one that has been on campus so far. How did we come across them? Through CJF, it was high. He came highly recommended. Public adjuster makes it sound like sorry. Public adjuster. Does that mean employed by the state of Missouri or are they just representing? They represent a public entity. They are public. So they're a private company that represents public entities. What what aspects does our motion need to entail here? Um I can make the motion if you
010want. time time wise um anything that needs to be added to it except the name of the company should be all we need. Okay. So, I'm going to make a motion that we contract with NFA license public adjuster. Second. All those in favor say I. I oppose. Motion passes. I also wanted to share that we um are setting up a process because so many people want to help. You want to do something um and so the uh through our local leaders they have arranged and brought in Americaore workers. Those individuals will be stationed at the park center. They are here to not just help the school, but to help everyone in our community. So, if you are interested in volunteering and assisting with anything going on related to the storm damage, we encourage you to
011go to the park center where you can register with Americanore. They are coordinating that through our administration so they know specifically our greatest need each day. And then they are going to band once they check you in, get your kind of what duties you can do and things like that. They're going to give you like a wristband and you'll be able to report to school or wherever. And then that way everybody knows that that person has been checked in, they've got a wristband on and they're okay to to be there so that we just don't have people coming and going and we don't know what's going on or who they are. So, um, this is a safe way for our volunteers to be on our campus and we know who they are. When we get
012to that point, 18 and older, I don't know the details of that. I would say probably contact air. Um so that's really all so far all the information that we have. Um we have had a lot of donations so far for our volunteers that have been at school uh with food and uh we know there's other people out there also that would like to make donations and if anybody wants to make a donation uh we are trying to set that up on our district website but right now we don't have that set up so please contact Kate Martin if there's anybody that wants to make a donation to the school right now and we would be very thankful and very appreciative. Um, at this time we really don't have any more information to share. I
013wish we did. Um, but this kind of thing takes time and we want to give those people time to be able to do their job because we want our building safe for our kids and we want our kids back on campus as soon as we can. But first, we've got to get the work done to make sure they can be on campus. Did they give any indication when the asbests report or the structural report would when they would hand it in in writing? They've not given me dates. We we have been told verbally that some asbestous reports have cleared but not all. Some of the tests some of the the tests from the environmental hygienist have come back. We've verbally been told that those are clear, but not all tests have results are in. Oh,
014the structural engineers were on campus today. So, I'm not sure when I will get that. We hope very very quickly. Again, I just want to reiterate to everyone um that our our goal is in person on campus and we are going to try to utilize every space we can to make sure our kids have an amazing great end to their school year with us, not at home. Madam President, do we consider uh buildings off campus? Are those all on the table or are we considering only on campus? The district office personnel have moved off campus for students. Have you thought of that? We have thought of that as an option. The ultimate goal is for this all to be together on campus. If structural engineers got back with you tomorrow or Friday, when will you
015know um have information about school for parents next week? I'm going to continue communicating with parents and staff as we have um just as soon as we have plans that are solid that provide safe spaces for students, we're going to roll that out real quickly. Staff's going to need to know they will they will be steps. They will be in steps just like our step was to move out so that that space can then someone can move in and then once someone's moved in then hopefully students can come after that. Um, are are you able to give parents and the public more updates on the mitigation um things or like a will we have to have roofs repaired um before it starts? engineer can sign off on that or do we uh or is there
016mitigation on a small home? You can tarp a roof. I don't think you can tarp a school. So, we have patched um a lot of the areas um to try to at least keep additional moisture from getting in any additional damage. And many of those areas where it's patched, it is safe to go ahead and have people in underneath that. We we have roof problems all the time. That's part of big buildings. Anybody that has large buildings, large facilities knows that. So, there are areas that we will be okay going in under even the patched circumstance. And um any indication from our local utilities the level of safety? I haven't heard from local utilities pertaining to safety gas, water. Are they do they have to stay? They have isolated the areas where that doesn't need
017to be turned on. That was done immediately on the weekend. And the areas that are safe have been turned back on. Is there anything not turned on yet? The areas that are isolated, yes, there are areas that are not turned on. The gas lines were were turned off that night immediately after the storm by our city uh officials and the emergency management group. Most of those are turned back on in areas that they deemed safe. Dr. Jones, when you say um all options on the table, could you ever see a scenario because parents are wondering where um is it all school students back or is there ever does a school or does a Missouri Department of Education ever let us um bring back a section or an age group of children? So I have been
018on the phone already multiple times with our DESIE super uh Desi Commissioner Carla Esinger. She has assured us that the students this attendance that we are missing will not harm the district financially and those days um are not going to count against us for this time that the students are not in. There is not a rule that all students all have to attend all on the same time. So that is a possibility that we could stagger or we could bring some in in different time frames. Again, those plans, step A, step B, step C. I don't know at all if that is something that we need to consider at this point, but it's a possibility that the district that that Desi would allow us to do. I ask for a question. [Applause] If you are
019um we need to make sure that as parents you all have updated your information in the portal so that you are receiving our our communications. So if you haven't received some yet you might want to get in and update your information so that you're certain that you're receiving everything that we are sending out. in those buildings that you said it was safe to go in. Um, do you have any sort of assessment on a cleanup process when those structural engineers come back? I'm talking about just hygienic cleanup. The emergency crew that is under their purview and their scope as well. So, they're already on site and ready to do that. Okay. We truly have been blessed to have Dr. Huff on here on campus for those two days and he is coming back because um
020we would not be where we are right now without his some of his guidance and his um knowhow on how to kind of navigate through this. So, um that has been a that has been a blessing that he has been partnered with us um to help us and he is coming back next week um also to kind of see what our progress is and see kind of what help us through the next steps because guys this this isn't something that we're going to get right the first time and I mean we may have to backle leg once we get more information as the information comes in one piece may be okay. We think we can go down that road and then another piece comes in and stops us dead on and we've got to we've
021got to change courses. So, we need to support our administrators and their decisions that they make and they are making the right decisions for our kids. It's those people that need to be making those decisions because they know how our kids what kind of buildings our kids need to be in, what how they need to learn. Um, if it was me, I'd say let's all go out and have a classroom outside, but we can't do that with all the kids that we have. So, we've got to let our administration make those decisions to get our kids back on campus. And that is our focus is to get our kids back on campus as safely as we can. Anything else? Okay. Entertain a motion. Second. All those in favor say I. I. We are adjourned. open
022session. Thank you all for coming. I wish we had more answers, but we just don't.