PLCS Board of Education Meeting October 27, 2025

001Good evening and welcome to the Pavilion Le Vista Community Schools Board of Educ. education meeting for October 27th. Please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation andice for all. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Madler, >> here. >> Miss Wit, >> here. >> Mr. Lotus, >> here. >> Miss Wood, >> here. >> Mr. Bailey, >> here. Miss Butler >> here. All present. >> Thank you. Uh please note that the Nebraska open meetings law is posted at the entrance to the room. We will move on to communications. Tonight we have recognitions for Dr. Rickley. Thank you very much uh Miss Wit and members of the board and happy Monday everyone. Uh for those of you that have watched our board of

002education meetings for any period of time, you'll know that one of the things that we really love to do around here is recognize students, staff, programs that have gone above and beyond uh and brought distinction to the building, the school district, and the community. And we have a couple of individuals that certainly qualify for both of those things tonight. So, we're going to be recognizing uh two different individuals keeping in mind that uh both of these distinction distinctions are very much team efforts. Uh so much hard work goes into leadership. We all know that uh and we have several people in support of uh the individuals here this evening. U what I would ask and since these are staff members, they know how this works, but I'll say it anyway. Uh so we'll go through

003the very first recognition. Uh if we could uh just pause for just a minute, take a few pictures. is that individual can return return to his seat and then we'll do the second announcement and we'll do the same thing if we want to come down and do some pictures. So the very first recognition of the evening is a man that needs no introduction. Our own Tim Johnson who is the principal at Pelli Middle School. Tim received the 2025 Dr. Katie Settles Nebraska outstanding administrator. That is no typo by the way. Our own Dr. Settles has an award named after I don't think anybody else in this room can lay that claim. So that's kind of fun. That in and of itself is is worth a recognition. But yes, the 2025 Dr. Katie Settles Nebraska Outstanding

004Administrator Award, which is presented by the Nebraska Association of Student Councils. This award recognizes continued support of principles or activity directors for student council programs and activities. In recognition for Tim's leadership at Pilion Middle School and the environment he has created to support our students and the future leaders, we also have, I believe, Valerie Perrick, longtime Pilion Middle School staff member. I believe Miss Perrick was part of the crew that nominated Mr. Johnson for this award. Tim Johnson, come down and be recognized by your board of education. [Applause] Kelly couldn't join us. One, two, three. incredibly proud of you and grateful for your support for the leaders of tomorrow. Valerie, thank you for being here and thank you for your leadership in making this ward award happen. Our second recognition of the evening is another

005very special award. We have Ms. Brooke Morehead, the Chief Quail who has joined us this evening in recognition of the Special Olympics Unified Champion School designation which is designated by the US Special Olympic Committee. A little bit about this distinguished award. A unified champion school meets rigorous standards by implementing inclusive sports, inclusive leadership activities, and whole school engagement. With sports is the foundation, the three component model offers a unique combination of effective activities that equip young people with tools and training to create sports, classroom, and school climates of acceptance. There are school climates where students with disabilities feel welcome and are routinely included and feel part of all activities, opportunities, and functions. This program is designed to be woven into the fabric fabric of the school, enhancing current efforts and providing rich opportunities that lead

006to meaningful change for a socially inclusive school. This absolutely describes the environment uh that Miss Morehead has created. Uh one of the things that makes this award particularly special is we had the first two class A high schools in the state of Nebraska received this award. Monarch and Titan have both received this distin this distinguished honor. We received our first elementary school award last spring when Pam Louns at Prairie Queen Elementary received the Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools. So, this marks our fourth building that is a National Banner Unified Champion School. It's a tremendous honor. It takes a tremendous amount of work. Brooke, we are so very proud of you. Please come down and be recognized by your board of education. [Applause] It's because of these guys that All right. [Applause] >> And thank you

007for the uh delegate of Fighting Quailes who uh accompanied their fearless leader. We are so very proud of what you've accomplished at Anderson Grove. Again, Tim, congratulations on your honor. Pelling Middle School, Valerie. Thanks again for being here. And with that, I conclude the superintendent recognitions for the evening. Miss Whit, >> thank you very much. Tonight, we have a school presentation from the Papella Vista High School AP Climate and Culture Group. >> Yes. Uh good evening, Board of Education. Uh it is my honor, uh to introduce Mr. Jason Ryan. As you know, uh we have presentations done by our school several months of the year at the second board meeting. And this one uh is very exciting because it not only ties to our current strategic plan but also our previous strategic plan. Uh and

008Mr. Ryan's going to introduce his staff members that he has here tonight to talk to you about uh the advanced placement climate and culture at Monarch High School. All right, Mr. Ryan. >> You bet. Thank you, Dr. Siri. And thank you, Board of Education. We're we're just excited and and thankful the for the opportunity here tonight to just to share with you about the advanced placement uh climate and culture at Monarch High. And first and foremost, you'll see the list of our our staff members that currently teach AP courses, but it's a collective effort of every one of our teachers, our counseling staff, our our teachers prepare preparing our students, giving them confidence, um imple implementing rigor across the board. And so, it's definitely a collective effort. Um, one of the things we heard from

009our external team last year recommendations was how do you continue to maintain and sustain rigor across the board and and this is just one way and it's definitely a a goal of ours and in a concentrated effort and we're very intentional and we know we got to continue to get better. We would uh like to also recognize the board. The 2018 bond issue that passed has allowed us to administer all of our tests at Monarch High. In previous years, we would bus kids down to the central office here. We might use a church in the community. We we've used Beardmore before, Embassy Suites. With the additions at Monarch High, our kids can take tests in their building. They're more comfortable. They can have breakfast before they get going. So, that's a that's a shout out

010to our community and just a wonderful opportunity for our kids to be able to take tests right on their home turf. The foundation also is a big supporter. We hear all the time it it costs $99 to take a test and we don't want that to be a barrier for our kids and we hear all the time because if kids don't earn a certain score they might not get college credit and so the foundation and you'll see the numbers here in the presentation but if students take three or more tests the foundation steps up and helps take care of that for our students. So just a wonderful another example of our foundation showing up and going to work. Our counselor, Wes Caruso, one of our our counselors, is kind of the lead counselor that oversees

011AP. He was instrumental in putting this presentation together. He handles all the registration, lines up proctors, and and does a ton of work behind the scenes to make this as seamless as possible for our students. Dr. O'Hanlin, who's with us tonight, um you know, we have students that take three, four, five AP classes. So, putting the puzzle together with the master schedule, allowing opportunities for our kids to be able to take three and four courses, it takes a ton of time and a ton of effort, a ton of juggling. And and uh we appreciate Angie's work with the master schedule. We always talk about how our our master schedule student friendly. It's not necessarily teacher friendly. It's about our students. And we have to remind our staff and Angie does a great job. She'll be

012here at the end to answer any questions that any of you might have. Finally, our two presenters and teachers tonight, Nick Reading and and Greta Hubert. Ironically, I met with some students leaders this this morning and and uh both their names came up uh just about what they do in the classroom, how they prepare prepare uh uh our students for for the next level. Um how they use every single minute. They talked about Mr. Reading, how we don't want to be late to Mr. Reading because if we're late, we're going to miss something. And that's the type of teachers they are. They spend their summers grading AP tests um across the country and they travel to different places and and spend two or three days probably longer um grading tests and and that's just a

013way for them to understand the curriculum to see what you know what the examinations are all about just again to prepare our students um the best of their ability. So, with that, I'd like to introduce Greta Hubert and Nick Reading, two of our AP teachers at Monarch High. >> All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Ryan, um, for that introduction. And we're used to to students raising their hands and asking questions, so please, this is informal. If you guys have any questions during the presentation, just let us know. Um, but we're going to start off with Oops. This might not be the right spot. Let me fast forward a little. Here we go. This looks right. I think the purpose tonight is for us to give you guys a snapshot of what's going on. Could you

014hear me? All right. Should I use the microphone? Okay. What's going on at Monarch High in terms of AP classes? And we want to talk about what's happened. >> It would be easier. Okay. >> Um, Yeah, we'll just trade we'll trade places. >> Okay. U we'll trade places, but where we've come from, um I've been teaching for 22 years at the high school and 19 of those have been teaching AP. So things have changed over the years. So where where we were in the past, our our five-year trends will show you some of that, but also just our our goals for the future. But not to forget to celebrate because we are really proud of a lot of the things that we've already accomplished. So we're committed to all student success and we know that

015that in that's going to take a variety of of classes on level honors AP and AP is just one part of that role whether their students going to go to college or not we still challenge everybody to take at least one AP class especially if they plan to go to college multiple AP classes to prepare them but this is just one part of that of the whole curriculum that that we we stress. So benefits, lots of benefits. Um, each class kind of has their own unique goals. So I'll just kind of speak as a whole. We we feel like there's a handful of benefits for all the AP classes that we have. Um, intrinsic motivation. Sometimes you'll get a kid that just really latches on to a certain topic and they really appreciate it and

016and they want to dig deeper and that's great. Um, collaboration. We do a lot of group work with students. um presentations, just even working together and they learn how to work together. Sometimes if you get the kids that are interested and and they dig deeper and they really keep going, you know, that's great conversations that you that you might not otherwise have. Um rigor is a big part of why we have AP courses. Um we have multiple levels and this is going to be the most rigorous option we have. great conversations um synthesis evidence those higher level do things that we try to do those happen in our AP classes as well organization and balance and my daughter's a sophomore and one of the first opportunities to take an AP classes sophomore year AP world

017history which is what Greta teaches and I'm already seeing at home you know some of the stress she has but I call it positive stress where she's learning how to balance her time you know sports activities studying so this is a skill that they have to practice preparation for what is going to be taught in college. A lot of our students are going to move on to college courses and this is going to help them. Um, we'll talk more about the AP exam and credits later on, but even if they're not going to earn AP credits, just sitting in this class and taking this class at this rigger will help prepare them to be more successful in college. And then GPA, we have to remind our students sometimes it's a whole mark higher uh for

018the AP class. and they need to be reminded that yeah, maybe you get a B in this class, but if you study really hard and you learn a lot, that'll count as an A towards the GPA. And we'll get more into the college credits uh with the AP exam, but I think that's one of the the the best benefits of AP classes is they can save a lot of money with college tuition by taking AP exams and passing is a three or higher. Um their scores of a five is the highest, a four, and then a three. So, if they can get a three or higher, they can save a lot of money and they can earn some college credit. All right, Greta, do you want to talk about admissions? >> Um, yeah. So, just

019one of the things that the colleges look for, you know, is are you taking a rigorous schedule? And when they see the students are taking AP, they have more confidence that these students are ready to go and that they're prepared. And, um, we'll talk a little bit about the distinctions that they can earn, too. So one of the great things that happens is students can begin to badge or earn these credentials. So they take so many exams and they get a three, four or five. They can earn levels of distinction. And I think we have that one on the next on the next slide. So you can see here the different type of accolades they can come out with. And I think that our students are increasingly taking pride in this because this is a

020national distinction. it, you know, like schools can say they're offering something that's worthwhile, but when you when you have a national credential that says like I'm in the top 15% of the nation, that is a real, you know, standard that they can feel proud and confident when they go and apply for colleges. And we have more and more of our students that are going after um, you know, this motivation. And I I think it's okay to admit that students really like to compete sometimes and they like to earn these credentials. And so yeah, they get to walk out of there with some of these. So Mr. Ryan talked about the cost and I do think it's important to realize that, you know, AP exams do cost money and $99 itself can be, you know, a

021hardship for families, but then you think about the juniors, you know, who may be taking three or four exams. And so now we're talking about a $400 conversation. And so we're so thankful for the support of the foundation because it really does make it accessible. We do try to help our students talk about, you know, well, what is the goal of all this college credit? Because if you can walk out of high school with one semester, that's what we try to get them to picture. What does one semester of college costs? At UNL, if you guys have had people that have gone through college, we know it's pricey. It's upwards of, you know, 12,000 $15,000 at a state university. So, you know, this is this is kind of a big deal and we want them

022to to have all the benefits that they can possibly have. So, really thankful to foundation for that. What I'd like to do too is just kind of paint a picture of what it looks like at our school because I think maybe people picture AP students as kind of like these little elite pocketed students and it's not. You know, at our school, we have at any point in time almost half almost half of our students are taking an AP class. So, this is a big part of our student population. That's part of the growth. And just talking about the access, you like we don't screen. Some schools do screen. Some schools will say like not for you, but we have open arms. We kind of say let's go. You can do this. You should try it.

023especially if you're going to college. And um and that's important. The the teaching part of it, I think, is one of the ways that I believe our program is growing stronger every single day. So, we have what' we say 18 teachers that are teaching these classes. And with each class, usually there's more than one teacher, which means that we get to work together. We get to collaborate every year. we get to get better as a team and um we have some younger teachers, you know, that have demonstrated skill that are joining our AP teacher team. So, it's not just all of us, you know, experienced people that are up there. Um it is a tremendous amount of work. I will say like teaching AP is not um a cakewalk. It might be a perception that

024you know this is oh you get the easy kids. Well, we are managing um high stress levels. We're imagine we also because you know half the kids are there we're taking students of all ability levels and we're working with all ability levels kind of even in an AP classroom um trying to make sure that even if they're like iffy on the line that they can succeed. Um I just want to say for me personally one of the things that has helped me grow as a AP teacher is I've not been pressured about my performance. And that's kind of ironic, right? Because without any pressure at all from administrative team about like show me your scores each year, it has given me the freedom professionally to experiment if you will, not afraid to try new things.

025And then every single year we see increased results, what you guys will get to see. >> Greta, maybe you and uh Nick will get to this later in the presentation, but what type of special skills, credentials, or training, if any, are required to be an AP teacher? Well, besides cuteness, nothing. No. Um, you know, really anybody. I think our school um and our admin team like you want to prove to have strong relationships and strong skills in the classroom and then you know strong content area but you don't have to have any specific credential. Okay. This is what we offer. We have a wide range. So, we offer about half of all the AP classes that you can possibly take. So, if we're preparing our kids for college, like it doesn't matter if you're going

026into engineering, premed, you know, liberal arts, you you're going to have the opportunity to build your skills in these different fields. I'll give you a second to look through there. Some of them are year-long, some of them are semester. And then our building goal is just increase the number of students that are choosing rigor and enrolling, increasing the number of students that are actually successful, meaning they have a C or above, increasing the kids testing because that's what we want them to do, and even increasing the pass rate on the test because of course, if they're doing this, we want them to have that credential as they come out. Um, we have a bunch of statistics about like the scores and things like that. Do you guys have questions so far? Uh, one for me

027on the probably related to the last one. Where have we seen increase in student interest in classes over the last handful of years? Like have we seen students start to get more interested in, you know, government and politics or history or English language? Have you seen any of the student trends over the last few years on where they're kind of gravitating to >> or has it been pretty steady? >> Yeah. >> Okay, we'll show Yeah, >> for yeah for these AP classes or music theory >> we are having growth in the sophomores with AP world history just the numbers keep increasing but content area I think we'll we might have some better data as we go and Dr. Hanland is the enrollment expert. Yeah, >> we and probably in the social sciences, we're starting to

028see more kids go into some of those opportunities. The AP micro and macro classes went way up this year. Um which we got a little dicey with um staffing and I went to that teacher and I said, "Can I put 31 in there? Just we'll see if it if it ends up that way." Um and then our AP chemistry and biology classes have also gone up. Um because we've been trying to get take the four years of all the course >> and then is there any area of like that we don't offer that we're looking into in the future of offering AP classes? >> Well, that comes at the district level. So, um yes, there are and advanced placements just recently added some new offerings and so we're looking at that and currently we are

029um considering well we're going to add an additional math class. >> Okay. So, but AP the college boards monitors uh what particular classes are available. Um and then of course you have to have your syllabus approved and there is AP training for instructors and so on. So it'll take us a little bit of time but uh Dr. Sour has been working with the math teachers and we are going to add an additional math class and but like for example personal finance has just came out and some other opportunities and we'll look through the toolbox process to see what align and what fits. >> All right. Perfect. Thanks. And and going back to the the offering that we have 18, I don't know that there's any school in America that offers all 40 AP classes. So,

030I think we're doing a pretty good job of offering roughly half. You kind of have to make some decisions. Like in the science world, in AP physics, there's five AP physics classes. Well, you can't offer all five of them. You either go the calculus route or the algebra based route. And we decided years ago to go with the algebra based route. Um, so I think we're doing great. we have a lot of options for our kids, but you know, there are some areas for improvement in science. We're thinking maybe AP environmental. Um, but there's always decisions to be made because if you offer something, does that take away from another class? Um, and those are conversations we'll have in the toolbox process along with our district toolbox process. Um, there also is every 10 years

031the AP um program themselves, they will reintroduce new ideas and new curriculum and that can drive some changes to our enrollment as well. Uh, but this is our five-year snapshot of over the past five years. And this is just for our high school AP courses. So, this is not related to the AP exam because not all students take the AP exam, but holding steady, if not improving over the last five years in the number of students who are participating in AP classes in our high school. Um, currently only allow 10th through 12th graders. There's not really a freshman course and there's only one course for 10th graders. So, it's mostly our juniors and seniors who are are putting in the work in AP, but lots of credits are awarded. uh the success rate there for

032C or better that's the high school course just the grade they get in high school and then the total enrollment holding steady or increasing the next slide though is the AP exam so this is different we encourage all of our students to take the AP exam um and most do I would say I mean it depends from teacher to teacher class to class but again five-year trend holding steady if not improving in the number of students that are a taking the exam which is a feat in itself just to sign up and commit to doing it and then be um passing, which is three or higher, which is our goal. So, and I I kind of have to brag on my teachers here a little bit because I'm not sure everyone knows how difficult it

033is to pass some of these exams. So, nationally, I think the average varies from from class to class, but I was just looking at the data yesterday and a lot of the pass rates nationally are in the 60%. 60% of kids who take the AP G exam across the country will pass. But Monarch students are so much better than average. We were awesome. We're 10, 20, 30, 30% higher than the national average, the state average. I mean, we're pushing 80 90 95% pass rate in some of our classes. So, super proud of all the work that our teachers are doing and all the work that our students are doing. Um, I like the competition part of it and and the the best part about the AP exam for me is I can see how do

034my students stack up against everybody else across the country and then I know I get great feedback. I know that I'm doing a good job in class. I know where I need to improve. Um, so that's what I what I like about the AP exam. And these are those three levels again for AP scholars. This is asking quite a bit to get distinction. If you look, five or more AP exams with a with an average of 3.5. So those numbers are a little bit lower, but the number of kids that are taking three or more are pretty good. You know, 60 kids last year took three or more AP exams um and passed. So that's great. And we have a little poster as you walk in the high school, you can see uh the students

035in the past who received these honors. So I think that's really cool. This is a snapshot of this year's enrollment. In 10th grade, you can see there's just that one class as an option. 10th grade world history modern. That's what Greta teaches. But look at that. 50% 50% of our sophomores chose to take that challenge of the AP world history class. I think that's great. 11th graders, they can take one. That's when it really opens. You can take one, two, three, four AP AP classes if you choose. And so you can see a lot of our juniors are taking multiple AP classes. Seniors as well. And sometimes kids see that senior year and they're thinking, I want to get a double early release and kind of have a fun senior year, but we always encourage

036them, stack up your classes, take those classes now while while they're free and while you have teachers that are going to help you. Um, so that's good to see that a lot of our seniors are continuing to challenge themselves as well. >> All the numbers are awesome. You know, we're really proud of those, but we just wanted to share and kind of give you a picture of the culture, too, and how it wasn't by accident. And you know this is through so much hard work of our students but just really top down. So one of the things I think our school's done is just really taken everybody that's part of this community the parents and supporting them with like from the beginning of the year this is your role. This is how you can help.

037And parents really are concerned as you guys know like we are stressed out about how to best help our kids. What do I do? What does this look like? And so we work to support them. And um just all the teacher collaborating that we do like I already talked about like having more than one teacher and supporting our teachers even the admin. And just recognizing our students who are choosing to do they're choosing to do this. They're choosing to sign up for hard classes and to challenge themselves and to ask more of themselves. And this is an ongoing conversation at our school. what can we do even better to celebrate these young people and to give them um you know special treatment and recognition for doing the right thing. So we have teachers that have

038had like a special breakfast um the day of the exam. We have um a new board that Mr. Ready mentioned when you walk in our school that it's displayed if you're a AP scholar. And I think we're continuing to ask the students in conversation, what's meaningful to you? And and to continue to recognize them. And then, you know, I think we can talk from the top down. I wish we had students here. And it's always good in hindsight. We don't want them here like right before a test to talk about how hard it is, but we know from their voices and from what we see that this is an incredible growth experience for them. So, uh, Mr. Ryan and our admin team got some quotes from students and I'll just touch on a couple key

039things that I think that we both see from our students. So this first quote here is talking about the fronts going through the AP experience together and prepping really gives these students a community. Gives them a community of other people that have high expectations. They get I know I know it's hard to believe you know I have teenagers at home but like they get excited they like working together what's a study group meet at Panera you know they they walk out of it with that connection and community next quote here challenges it's not an easy they are learning how to fall down they're learning how to struggle we want them to do that here where they're supported before they get to college. This is the one that gets me every time. I didn't know I

040could do that. And this is what keeps me every single year never giving up on the student that I'm like, "Oh my gosh, why?" You know, this seems like a stretch for you. We have students every single year that do not think that they are that smart. I do not think I am that capable. They walk out of there with that credential. They are so proud of themselves. And I think about that sophomore student who starts sophomore year and they get they come like I didn't know I could do it and it slingshots them forward had they have a whole new understanding of who they are as a person. So like on one hand tests aren't everything. We know that, right? But on the other hand it is forming how they define themselves and it

041gives them this whole new idea of who they can become in the world. This last one here from the student voices is prepared, you know, and ultimately that's why we're here. We want them prepared. And when we have students that go to college and they're in premed and they're in higher, you know, high stakes situations, that is what they say when they come back. They're like, "I was so prepared. It was easy like it was I you know like I was ready to go and my own kids have gone through college. I have seen this very firsthand. I had one student that was going through engineering during the COVID years and he was in his weed out classes and so like life comes full circle and um you know he he didn't struggle in school.

042He's not a genius but he didn't struggle in school. Got a high ACT score but you know we had a tough phone call and he was like it's rough like people are not making it. and both of my sons have quoted coming over from college like I would not be doing this if it were not for my AP classes. So they do get it and um it's nice it's just nice to know that what you're doing is actually serving the mission of the kids and their families in our community. Um the we're going to kind of conclude here with teacher voices. Yeah, I think you're going to see a common theme in the teacher voices, deep conversations, right? Rewarding. Like Greta mentioned earlier, there's a lot of work that goes into teaching AP, deep conversations,

043foundation for the students, especially those English courses, the foreign language courses where they have essays and world history with all those essays, a lot of grading, but that connection you make with the kids, the the deep conversations that you see happening in the classroom make it worthwhile. Motivated upper classman. So these kids come in, they're motivated, they're ready to go, and that makes you stay on your toes, and you're motivated and ready to go, watching them grow. I'm really lucky that I I teach AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2, and AP Physics 1's a junior course. And so then I see those same kids, some of those kids take AP Physics 2, and seeing them, they're a completely different student after two years, right? I mean, they've grown so much. And that's really fun.

044That's what keeps me in doing AP as well. So engagement, deep conversations, the student growth. That's what teachers are consistently saying that they appreciate. So again, our grow our uh our growth goals are to just increase AP participation. We're doing great, but we want to keep pushing that. We want a culture where students are just expected to, you know, okay, I'm a sophomore. I'm going to take AP World History. It's my first try. I'm a junior. I'm going to take AP or a sophomore. Hopefully took honors chemistry. So then junior you're going to take AP chemistry or AP physics. You just we want to just make that the expectation to keep going, keep pushing into AP classes. And then increased test participation. It gives the teachers great feedback. Gives the students credit hours they could

045earn for college. So financially that's very beneficial. Teacher professional development is important especially for new AP teachers. I know I did that the first year before I was an AP teacher. Did some professional development that really helped. Um grading the AP exams. Greed as an AP reader. Uh we have a couple other AP readers as well. That's great insight behind the scenes to see how the rubrics are designed and we could bring that back into the classroom and then again potentially adding courses like we spoke about earlier. >> Well, just wrapping up, we just want to, you know, thank our school our school team and our admin team and thank the district. And I just want hopefully we are all appreciating it just seems like a natural process, but I don't think it is. is

046by design. It's by design with, you know, how our administrative team has set this culture of like we welcome all students. We trust you as professionals and we're going to give you the tools to get better at your job. And then how can we continue to support and grow? And so, you know, we just want to make sure that um we're thanking everybody and you guys included, you know, for being part of this, you know, opportunity to help our students reach their goals in the future and really supporting our families, too, because as you guys know, like, you know, helping your kids get through college and be successful in life is what we're all trying to do as parents. And whatever we can do to show up, it's, you know, it's a tremendous opportunity. So,

047I guess if you guys have questions and Dr. O has a lot more data stuff if you guys have any more of that stuff. >> I don't have any questions, but I know that people in sports or the kids that are in the sports, they strive to get goals. And I think that academic striving is as important as physical striving because it builds that desire because you like the feeling of striving and how much work you had to put into succeeding in something. Um, so I think that's what this course does for the kids is give them that feeling of success through that striving effort. Thank you for what you do. >> Yeah. Uh, thank you for the presentation um, and going through it. And I was just putting some numbers together. I think it

048had on there over the last four years, we average a like 2,000 credit hours awarded for each year, which, you know, at a thousand dollars a credit hour probably in college, that probably is reasonable right now. I mean, that's $2 million in tuition saved by our families from those credits each year, which is substantial. Yes. Um, you talked about, and that's just from the credit that they get from those classes, but you talked about how it prepares them to be more successful in college. Once they get there, the more they're much more likely to succeed and not be spending money that they might not see a return on once they're in college for those families as well. So, I think that's great. And then it's the opportunity for the students to get more indepth in

049these subjects and these areas that um they might not know they have an interest but they might it might trigger an interest to go study further on that subject or the opposite. It might show them like you know what maybe I'm not overly interested in this subject. Let's save some money and not go to college for this. Let's go let's pivot and go a different direction. So which I think we talk about quite a bit. I love those opportunities for the students and the families to get those experiences here in high school uh before they get off to college. So, yeah, I appreciate all you do, all the all the staff does uh to give these opportunities to the students and anything that the district can do to help uh even get that message out

050more um and and market it out more. I know Dr. Via Real would love uh would love that opportunity to help you out. So, thank you. I guess my question kind of follows that in that your communication with parents. I saw that you have the the AP night, but have you found it a struggle to get the information out to parents or, you know, is there what other methods are you using to make parents aware? You know, how do you start in the freshman year or is it something in middle school that we start talking about? And then when these kids are in these classes, are you seeing that it requires additional communication with parents to keep them informed? Anything above and beyond that you have to do? I think, you know, you've highlighted how

051this really is a a culture that you're developing and so parents are key to that culture. So just how do you hook them? How do you keep them involved? You know, what are you doing to make sure they're active participants? >> I can I can start. Um so as far as the the parents concerned what I my biggest struggle I have early on is when the students are struggling the beginning of the year sometimes their first instinct is to say well I'm in over my head and maybe I just need to drop the class right but I always encourage and the counselors encourage and teachers encourage stick it out right and so I think that's the biggest thing that I need help with with parents first of all is just don't let your kid drop

052right make them yeah it's going to be a challenge but you know I think it's important that they struggle now while we're here to help them um learn some grit and perseverance. So, that's the biggest thing that I appreciate the parents do. And it took a while. I mean, going back to 2014 when we changed AP physics curriculum, just for an example, I think I had like 30 students drop that first semester when the curriculum changed because it was just it was so hard and it was just a big change all at once. It took a while to get confidence and to get parents to say, "Stick it out. You know, it's going to be challenging, but it's going to be okay." and now it's not as big of an issue anymore. So, we do

053appreciate that that parent support of yes, it's going to be hard, but you can do it. You can do difficult things. As far as communicating, is it more communication? I think I haven't really noticed. I mean, I've taught on level, honor, as an AP, and I try to communicate the same for all of those levels. Um, we do have a special college and career fair actually tomorrow at the school. Um, but I think our teachers and our counselors do a good job of just promoting and and challenging kids. you know, if I'm if I'm their freshman teacher, I I kind of promote and I challenge, hey, next year maybe you take this class. And so, we do a lot of that with the the guidance counselors and with the teachers to to get them into

054the the challenging classes and to guide them into those classes. >> Did you notice anything else about communication with the parents? >> I think I think what parents find trickiest is the payment piece, just to be honest with you. like sometimes as parents you can get inundated and um you like some districts take payments through their apps you know and I don't think like we fully are there yet so I think like that's one way um but that's just how it is at every school you have to use a different payment option and every school has their own choice so as a parent it's just not native and intuitive like oh this is how I they have to figure out one more process but I don't know maybe social media you guys would know better

055where parents like dig in and really consume the info. So if social media is where they're learning more about the benefits or stats, it could be a way to, you know, make them fully aware. >> I think whatever you're doing, it's working because you're having such a great turnout. But I, you know, I just think, you know, communication is always one of the hurdles that we we all in whatever we do. And uh so >> yeah, we need to continue to be intentional with the conversations but no doubt on from the social media the marketing piece and also celebrating and highlighting promoting what we are doing. Uh I think we we need to continue to you know work towards that and be smart about that as well. I do have to throw in my two

056cents as I as I get the students that um you know after high school when I teach in college and I don't get anybody directly since I teach something that's not you know specific as an AP course but the this the things that you talked about the you know being able to manage time management and learning how to struggle and some of those things that we do see you can definitely I I don't get a list of hey these these kids in your class went through AP and these didn't. But you can tell you can tell the ones who have the experience of working in groups and collaborating and those who have had to struggle and those who know how to manage their time and everything. You you see that in the classroom, you know,

057when I teach these courses and I've been teaching at UNO for 10 years and you can tell the students. And so I truly appreciate not only the subjects you're teaching them, but all the other things that you're teaching these students as they show up in college because it, like I said, it is noticed. So appreciate all your hard work. Really do. >> Nick Greta, excellent presentation. Dr. Row Jason, thank you for being here. We did notice the monarch suit, by the way. Don't think for one minute we didn't notice that, Greta. Well, well, well played, ma'am. >> Thank you. >> Carrying on with our agenda, we have reports from the superintendent. Thank you very much, Miss Whit, members of the board. Uh for those members of the community or staff that may be watching at

058home, thank you for engaging with your school district and your board of education. Uh we are well on our way to second quarter, well well on our way to ending first semester. Um, fall always goes by in the blink of an eye and it feels like when we come back from uh, fall break, which typically marks the end of first quarter, you have a few weeks, you're at Thanksgiving. You come back from Thanksgiving, you have a few weeks, you're at semester break already. So, anyway, uh, I'm not one to wish time away, but it is uh, going very fast. A few celebrations, a few announcements. One, just want to thank uh, Dr. Becky Meyers for her leadership on the PLCS community closet. You'll be hearing from Dr. Myers uh later on, but another very successful

059event. It marks the second uh and final community closet event of first semester. We'll follow it up with some additional ones that she will be sharing with you second semester. Also wanted to thank Dr. Via Rial for his efforts with the family engagement series. I think I mentioned at the last board meeting, we did two different screenings, one at Monarch, one at Titan of Screeners, which documents some of the the challenges facing our teenagers on everything from drug and alcohol use to some of the dangers of social media, uh how constant screen time impairs a whole host of mental health outcomes. We didn't have the numbers that we were hoping for. I think I counted 15 roughly at screening one and I think Dr. Dr. V told me we had five approximate screening too. 20

060is better than zero. Uh and we we always know that that no matter how many opportunities we uh create and how much information we share that there's always more we can do. Uh but special thanks to Ms. Wood and Miss Wit for attending the screening event at Pilion L Vista High School. Uh also wanted to share we had our first elected business elected officials advisory of the year. one of several advisories that the district hosts. Uh we'll be doing our second student advisory later this week and we've already hosted our first teacher and classified staff advisory, but this was the first of the business elected official uh advisory meetings. We had over 40 people. Miss Sheller warned me multiple times in advance. She's like, Andy, I don't know that we're going to have enough room

061in the we we hosted in this room in the boardroom. Like, no, no, no. We'll always have more people RSVP than show up. Well, as usual, Stephanie was right. I was wrong. uh we had at least 40 uh which is a really good problem to have. So we spent a lot of the lunch period talking about topics that they want to cover over the course of the year. The list didn't wouldn't surprise anyone around uh the boardroom table. It was everything from uh how trades are being trade education is being incorporated into our high schools to the importance of mental health. Um and then we spent a little bit of time uh Dr. Siri spent some time talking about strategic planning and our own Lee Danker uh made an appearance from the foundation to talk

062about the community engagement center. So it was a really great way to kick off our business elected official advisory for the year. Also wanted to share with the board we have started our PLCS pickme up. So this is a program we've done for years and years where throughout the course of the school year we try to do little things little tokens of gratitude so that our staff know that we are thinking of them. Typically, they're distributed by central office staff, myself, cabinet, central office directors, and we visit each and every one of the buildings and programs across the district. And that may not sound like much of a task, but it typically takes us at least four weeks, if not six weeks, to get to every building, every program. But every one of our 1,800

063employees in theory will get touched. And for those that are not, uh we have a way to reach back out to them if we miss them. So, we've done everything from uh sweatshirts in the past. who've done personalized coffee orders. This year we are doing a popcorn in their school colors, which is kind of a cool little idea, I thought. So, we got started, but it'll take us several weeks to con conclude those. And lastly, we are in our final week. I believe Dr. Siri of Outdoor Ed, I think maybe today, tomorrow, Wednesday, we'll be wrapping things up. We've been blessed by pretty decent weather. I think we've had a couple of near rain outs, but for the most part, outdoor ed has been a smashing success. Thank you to the PLCS Foundation for supporting

064that financially. Dr. Siri and I had a chance to visit last week. Uh we didn't get to see all the stations in action, but we did get to see kids ziplining before we left and uh it's pretty amazing and what they're doing at Camp Joy Hauling to dig out the pond and the zipline station. We added a new station with archery. It's some of the experiences our kids have. It's it's it's just it's remarkable. And we've got a really good partner with the camp and Dr. series team puts in a ton of work, a ton of work preparing for a quality experience for all of our kids. So, kind of a fun experience. >> Tomorrow's the last day. >> Tomorrow is the last day. >> It doesn't rain >> and it's like 98% chance. Brooke,

065hopefully it's not the fighting quail. I think you've already had your turn. >> Trumble Park. Okay, so the road runners might need road runners pack your rain gear because it might get a little chilly and rainy. And with that, uh, Miss Wood, I'd conclude my superintendent report. >> Thank you. Now, board members reporting. >> Uh, I did attend the screeners as Dr. Rickley uh mentioned the video at Monarch and I just want to thank the staff that presented that night. The staff and parents that attended um it provided some great information. Um, and there was some good dialogue and questions. Dr. Siri was also present and able to um you know address some of the questions that came up during that but it was a small crowd but again those that were there um I

066know appreciated the opportunity to to hear the information. Um I attended a liaison breakfast um at uh Patriot Elementary on October 21st and principal Mindy Grim and her staff were very welcoming. I think that we decided that maybe this was the first liaison breakfast that we've hosted. Um and uh it was a great way to start your day with uh positive staff and uh they had a lot of positive things to share with us. Uh some of their celebrations just included um what a family atmosphere that they've developed there and how the Patriot staff cares very deeply about the students and works very hard um to ensure success there. One of the things that they've been working on is the purposeful planning time so that they um can use time to collaborate and work together

067to meet individual student needs. They did share some information about their two building goals that they're focusing on. Um, one is in the area of the English language standards and the other was in the area of uh working on um engagement strategies to help with reduce some major and minor behavioral uh referrals. And so engagement strategies and and and working with staff to develop those strategies was one of the emphasis that they had. One of the things that they shared that I thought was was very creative and also very positive. Um they've started a new structure of core teams and they call it the ABCs. And the A team is the academic team or the school improvement team. The B team is the behavior team and the C team is the community and culture team.

068And they have every member of their staff participate on one of those teams. So it allows all staff members to feel involved in the process of uh developing their culture and making decisions uh for their kids and staff. Um some of the challenges that were shared again um I think you know as a member of the board we often hear about the mental and behavioral challenges facing our kids today. Um and they again um are doing many things uh to to address that. Um they talked about check-in checkout as one of the strategies they're using. Um skills for success. Um and they felt that that's been a very positive way to start their day with lots of resources and it's quick and easy. But again, it is a challenge that they face. Also being a

069building that has two or three sections um causes some staffing um changes yearly which can be a challenge. Um and again, you know, our special education staff in Paris can be uh spread thin as we in our district try to have our inclusive practices and classrooms. Um but again, a a very positive uh group of individuals there. Uh very proud of their school, what they've accomplished, and um have some great goals in place and and and strategies to move them forward. I also attended the teammates board on October 21st. Um in that they've they're off to a good start this year. Currently have about 80 matches in place and that is um from fourth grade up through high school. Uh they do have a waiting list and I would encourage especially if there's any men

070out there looking for an opportunity to do some mentoring. Uh we're kind of short in the uh male mentors at this time. So please reach out if that's something that you're interested in. Um the teammates uh this year they're going to be working kind of focusing on two areas. One being the recruitment area and the other uh in the area of finances and increasing their um uh the money that they have for the program. So, uh again, uh this was a a a group of this board is is very um excited about meeting the needs of kids in the district through the teammates program. >> Uh I also had a liaison lunch, although I wish I would have gone before Miss Wood because she does such a great job. I don't like going after her

071of expliving us a recap of her liaison breakfast, but I had a liaison lunch at Anderson Grove. Also, thanks Miss Morhead for allowing uh your staff to to have lunch with us and Miss Siri and Dr. Rickley. I spent some time talking through the Special Olympics National Banner Unified Champion which we celebrated earlier tonight. uh the successful PTO fundraiser uh that they just went through and uh we also had some conversations on technology and what's the district plans with you know onetoone devices more devices um especially at the sixth grade level with which was you know great to have Miss Siri there talking through the district's thinking uh and having that conversation with the staff and I think the most of the time was spent on the CK CKLA which we talk about I think

072on at every leazison much especially at the elementary level uh talk about how it it's it's great to see the the students be um much more engaged in this curriculum which we've heard over and over again which is good but the first time uh that I've I've also heard you know it's more rigorous and engaging but at that elementary level it is important for more uh individualized learning when when students are falling behind and talking about with the new curriculum how do we adjust to handle those students that are falling behind with the more rigorous uh curriculum uh and talking through those challenges and thoughts and and go forward plan. So, I thought it was a great conversation. Um again, thanks to Dr. Rickley and Dr. Siri for being there and and having those conversations

073with the staff and again, thank you, Miss Morhead for it was a great uh great conversation there. The staff was very open. Uh and you can just tell their pride of working at Anderson Grove uh was showing the entire time. and you just you have a great team there that's that's ready to help our students and our and our family. So, thank you. Uh and then I had we also went to took the kids to Terra Heights trunk or treat on Friday night uh which was great. An amazing turnout. Hundreds of people there. Uh thanks to Mr. Fritzen, the principal over there, all the staff, the PTO, all the volunteers for their, you know, two two and a half hours. Uh it's a great event for the students running around in their costumes. Um, and

074I know all the all the schools are getting those doing those right now. So, for those staff and the volunteers and the PTO's that are putting those on, thank you for doing that. For the the students and the families, it's just another thing that that just helps us uh, you know, uh, be more of a community uh, when you can get those people turning out at our schools and and having it as a place for our families uh, to enjoy. So, thanks everyone for doing that. Well, I'll wrap up with uh all the fall sports and activities are all have all been coming to a close or moving into the the playoff uh situation. Uh I just want to acknowledge all the the student athletes and the successes and the coaches. Um, we've had representatives,

075I believe, at every state activity uh thus far um with uh ban being the last to wrap up uh this weekend. And obviously, football's moving into the playoffs as well as softball. Um but uh once again, we should be super proud as a as a district with the successes both on and off the field between athletics and activities. Uh we have another state champion uh in class A girls cross country uh runner up on class A boys. Uh the teams all had great successes both Monarchs and Titans. Tennis uh had had a successful year. Medalists in golf um and and and then band like I mentioned earlier. Uh numerous awards uh for individual groups uh percussion and and such. Uh and unfortunately Millard West won class A again uh for band but that's all right.

076So again uh great great things happening um from activities and athletics and I failed to mention the last meeting um that I had attended the state middle school cross country race that is held uh annually now at pavilionist the south at Walnut Creek Lake. Uh and just uh what an event. If if you've never been uh I mean this is uh for those that don't follow cross country, the state meets been held in Carney for at least 30 plus years. Uh and now we've established, you know, the state middle school course and that being held by our district uh is is is a great honor. and to hear uh friends and co-workers and things that have family in all parts of the state to go, oh, you know, he set his goal to get to

077Papio South. Uh and to see the hundreds upon hundreds of kids running uh in middle school um when I ran in middle school, I was one of two. uh the middle school programs were just starting and to say in 30 years to see what the middle school programs across the state are producing let alone uh what that event uh means to our community. So big shout out to the uh Pavilion of South staff activities directors uh and I saw numerous student you know current student athletes from Papio South volunteering uh and ensuring that that race was successful and and cheering on all those student athletes. So pretty cool event that we get to host every year. So >> thank you. I uh I did attend a liazison lunch at the ideal uh school which is

078a school where kids are assigned if they need credit recovery assistance and everything was very positive this year. I think they were most uh grateful for I don't know what you call the draft program or whatever it is you do to select the students who will attend uh based on need and um the positivity was uh palpable I think with from the group they seemed more I've been there before for a liaison lunch and they just seem more relaxed more more happy with the way things are working out it was a it was a good lunch um I also attended the screenagers engagement it was very worthwhile and as exited the uh event. I think most of the parents agreed that every parent should see those and how do we get them more involved. So,

079if we can figure out a way to um either market or find another way to get people to see those kinds of things that um bring a lot of information to moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and guardians who need to hear it so that they can help their kiddos if they need it along the way. It was very positive. Um and then the band. My grandson's in the band. He's in the Monarch Marchers and uh it was their last event was spectacular. I hadn't seen the entire show before because they have this little kind of pre-show thing that happens and these this video that plays and it's just wonderful and um I think both Monarchs and Titans receive superiors across the board. So, they all finish very well and we're very proud of

080our band and our other athletes and activities participants. So, thank you everyone who attended those. Any other comments for board? Moving on then to committee reports, buildings, grounds, and finance. >> Uh, we have not met. Okay. Correct. We have not met. >> Human resources and student services. >> Uh, we have not met since our last meeting, but we do have a uh negotiations uh kickoff meeting uh tomorrow night here at the central office >> and curriculum and Americanism. >> We have not met either. I'm sure you went over everything last meeting when I was gone. So, yep. Thank you. >> Thank you. Moving on to action items. Our only action item tonight is action by consent. >> I'll make motion to approve uh action by consent items as presented. >> I'll second. >> I have

081a motion by Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Bailey. Any discussion? Roll call. >> Miss White? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lotus? Yes, >> Miss Wood. >> Yes, >> Mr. Bailey. >> Yes, >> Miss Butler. >> Yes, >> Mr. Madler. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to discussion and information items. The first item is the bond 2023 facility improvement update. Mr. Richards. >> Thank you, Miss Whit. Uh, good evening, everybody. Um, tonight we just want to kind of give you a broad facility improvement update uh across the district from our bond of 2023 um projects. Uh last time we did this I think was January and uh we had Pat Carson from BCDM come in and um we'll have him come in again probably around January or so uh to

082give a a little bit more on that. Um but tonight I just want to kind of get you updated where everything is um and where we're going in the future here. So facility improvement overview uh looking our at our completed projects. We have quite a few of them now. baseball, softball, uh fields, uh the security window film and all the buildings are done except for the uh ones we're in in process of doing with the projects. Um but those will be done in conjunction with the projects uh Terra Heights, Trumbull Park, uh Park View Heights, Hickory Hills, and the YetP uh building program. So, just kind of looking at some of the things that we do, and I know you guys have been out to a lot of these buildings, so uh but just to

083reiterate, you know, we're really going in and giving it a fresh look with ceiling tiles, LED lighting, uh new carpet, new paint, um in some cases with renovations, we're doing the um you know, media center, front desks, um and the front desk in the office, those types of things uh throughout the building. So this is just an example of Terara Heights playgrounds. So we're hitting those as we go as well with reservicing and then our engineers are kind of taking a look at our playgrounds equipment wise and if there's a need uh we will we usually update those at the same time because once you get this surface down, you don't want to be pulling equipment out and then trying to put it back in. So, if there's some playground equipment that's been around 12,

08415 years that doesn't look like it's going to last, you know, another five, uh, would typically take it out and replace it. Uh, these projects, um, here's our new front entrance for Terra Heights, uh, as part of the project, the kind of designated entry area off to the north side of the building. Now, that came out pretty nice. And as well as you can see the new parking lot and uh you know flag pole and and things around that area. We even in this picture we removed we had a lot of HVAC equipment right there as you walked in. We put that on the roof uh to kind of get that out of the way. Just little things like that. Here's an example of Trumble Park of some playground equipment done with a swing set

085and just a look into a classroom with fresh new carpet. LED lighting is so much brighter in those classrooms and the ceiling tiles really kind of whiten it up a little bit to make it more bright in those classrooms. Parkview Heights. Another classroom look in for a renovated classroom. It's all kind of looks brand new and that's kind of what we wanted. Get a brand new feel in these old schools. And this, you know, all the a lot of these older buildings, we went in and added classrooms if you remember and redid the old classrooms and made those bigger so we had bigger learning spaces throughout uh each of these older schools. Another Park View Heights picture. And then Hickory Heights. Um, of course, this is a little more extensive with the They didn't have

086the front entrance done yet. I mean, Hickory Hill, I'm sorry. I got Hickory Heights up here. Okay. Oh, that's not good. Yeah. Um, so we added a new front entrance. We had a new kitchen area. Expanded the gym um as part of that renovation. They're getting similar things as Trouble Park uh Terra and uh Park View as well. So, look inside Hickory Hill. Uh we have the nice little front desk area. Um some new cabinets. I I think this really everybody that walks into this place is just like, "Oh my gosh, it's so brighter." Uh with the new flooring and um you know, new ceiling paint and all that stuff has really brightened that area up. Uh going stairs there and then getting into our YATP uh program building. Um all of you I think

087were at the grand opening of this building. So it really came out nice and that's going to be a nice program for us and building for us in the future. Just some inside looks at the commons area uh where we have a kitchen in there for kids to practice uh skills. We have an apartment. Uh it's for them to get some life skill learning. Um a bed, a couch. You can see the kitchenet in there. Pretty nice little apartment. And then our current projects we're uh continuing with are Le Vista Middle completion of summer of 26. Um Pilion Middle completion of 26. I know there was some questions there whether we would get to that. They got enough done. They feel comfortable that they'll have that done next summer, which is great news. Um, Lincoln

088View is our new elementary school completion June June 1st. Uh, I know that seems a little early. We really, that's the deadline we put as part of that project um to get it done so we can do things over the summer in there to get ready for the start of school. So, we're not butting up against the start of school and wondering if we're going to have a school done and those types of things. But, I think June 1 is actually conservative. I mean, they're telling us May 1 at this point. That's that's really good news. Uh that's Boyd Jones on that one. Um we have Bell Elementary under construction right now. That's uh to be done next summer. And then Portal, both of those are halfway through or a little bit more than that

089of those projects. Le Vista Middle, um we redid that track if you remember. uh new scoreboard there, new field goals, um new shed down on the end as well with some sidewalks. And if you see up on the hill there, we added some bleacher space and then put a stairway all the way down to the field so we had another way to get down there, but not going all the way down to the end of the field there. So, lots of lots of good things there on the outside. Um, same with the inside, you know, just that renovations that we're doing throughout with the older schools right now with lights, carpets, ceiling tiles, paint, all those good things. Pavilion Middle, same type of project on their track and field. Um, this one, all both of

090those got a little delayed uh early in the summer with we had a ton of rain going on. So, the outdoor projects in these two went a little over what we wanted to, but they did pull it out here in the fall on the track parts. Lincoln View Elementary, those of you I know you've driven past it, they had a great winter to work last year, so they got ahead of schedule last winter. They were able to kind of complete a lot of the outdoor stuff. Didn't get held up by much all winter long. So, that was really good news. Um, so we're looking good here. The remaining projects we have are Patriots. Uh, we'll start designing. I know we had a page turn on that project last week. Uh, both Walnut and Patriot page

091turns. And then, uh, we'll design that and then the I think I can't remember which school is which with Boy Jones or to look at my list, but Boy Jones and Samson will be doing those two projects. So that'll be good. Then they'll go out to bid with their contractors and give us a guaranteed maximum price here. So you'll see I think we have them scheduled Greg Steering come in from BCDM kind of give you an overview of the project at the last meeting in November and then we'll bring you some numbers for one of the schools in December and then the the other school in January for those bids for those projects. But things we're hearing prices are even gone down more since we've done our last few projects even on the bids. So,

092that's good news in the construction world. Um, but there's a lot of eagerness for getting some of those bids and uh we're seeing some lower prices there. Where our buildings rounds finance subcommittee are working on some middle school land purchase. Uh we're trying to get some land picked out what would be the best spaces to do this. Uh we'll bring that to the other subcommittee of the board here with uh some recommendations. Uh my guess is by November uh our next meeting is November 14th, so we'll have some good information there. Hopefully by December we can get to the other subcommittee and start having some discussions on a middle school land purchase and wrap that up maybe in February or March time frame kind of ballpark. Um but uh we're working with a really good

093agent that's giving us some good options uh right now on the middle school and there is still still some out there. That's a good thing. Um and then you know the biggest thing we got 12 schools into this project right now the bonds all 12 schools. Um so we have another nine to go. Uh so those schools we still have to get safety and security infrastructure going with. Um I know our technology team and uh construction teams are really busy with these projects we have going on right now. So, we're going to start that design for probably half those projects of those nine schools uh next year, next fall about this, a little before this time. Try to get those out bid out to bid for the summer of 27 and then do the other

094half in the summer of 28. That'll complete our bond pretty much at that point. So, that's kind of the tenative uh look at what we have remaining and the schedule and what we're looking at. >> Any questions, comments at this time? No, my only comment is uh big thanks to uh Dr. Vill and his team with uh continuing kind of the bond squad and the bond up uh updates. Uh it's really great to see the students uh you know delivering and and presenting on you know what they see happening at their schools that have been impacted by this this bond. So those are always really great to see those posts on social media and I think it gives folks a really good insight that you know maybe aren't on that side of the district and

095their school isn't under renovation but we're hitting pretty much all of them. So and the middle school tracks look phenomenal. Uh that was a a long time overdue to go from concrete to uh real track services for our middle schools. So big thanks uh to all the construction crews and and getting as far along as as we've been able to get. So thanks uh Mr. Richards to you and your team as well for staying on top of all these projects and and making sure that our our contractors and our partners are are meeting our standards but also keeping us on on a nice tight timeline. >> Yeah, I agree with the bomb the bond squad the kids. I've seen several on social media and I'm always just thrilled to to see them and watch them

096talk about their buildings and and how important safety is to those kids because one of the things they've always talked about is how safe their schools feels and if a kid feels safe in school they're going to do well. So that's one thing. um Parkview Heights. I remember doing a leazison on lunch there and the they hadn't even started. The classrooms were so tiny and they were all squished in there and just seeing that gigantic classroom. It was just like so impressive and they must be thrilled to have that change. So, thank you very much. >> Next on our agenda is the 2025 classified staff desktop purchase. >> Welcome, Matt. >> All right. Hopefully, this will be pretty quick. Uh, so part of the as part of the cycle, um, we've got our desktop machines

097that the classified staff use on a six-year cycle. Um, and we purchased them back in 2019, so they were up for a refresh. Uh, so we're working with multiple vendors to get quotes for, uh, Windows machines that'll fulfill those needs. Um, so I'm hoping to bring that to the board for the November 10th meeting for approval. If you have any questions, let me know. Are you using um Microsoft Windows operating system on those machines? >> Like >> say that again. >> Are you using the Microsoft on the Windows machines? It's like Windows 11. >> Yes. >> Is that what we're going to? >> Yep. >> Do you know anything about the I've heard that they capture your data and keep it? Is that Do you know anything about that or >> I do not know.

098>> Okay. Well, you know, there's conspiracy theories all over the place. Yeah. >> And we also use Google obviously. >> Yeah. So, >> I don't think it matters what behind the scene. I My husband's been trying to think if he doesn't want to move up to 11 because they're going to capture all of his data and he's worried about that. So, I'm curious if you find >> the network team does not seem to be worried. Okay. And we're already on Windows 11 >> and we have our own protections in place to help with that. So, good. Okay. >> Matt, we know that there was some early concern as recently as a few months ago about tariffs, uh, different technology coming in from different countries. What if any impact are you seeing with price with desktops,

099laptops, Chromebooks, iPads? Are you seeing any significant movement yet on price? >> We did actually last spring. We saw it jump up. They've come down slightly. Um so it actually worked out that we waited a little bit to purchase these uh machines. They have come back down a little bit. There are talks of higher uh tariffs increasing. So that may I'm hoping to get in soon enough to where we don't have to see any of those price increases. Yeah, good question. Y any other questions? Thank you. >> I do feel like six years flies when you're having a good time. >> There you go. >> Feels like we just did this. >> Last item on our discussion agenda is the PLCS community closet. >> Welcome, Dr. Myers. Thank you so much for um inviting me

100here to speak with you about the PLCS community closet. It's one of my favorite topics to visit with you about. >> Oh, very good. >> Wonderful. Awesome. Okay. Well, I just um am here to give you a little bit of an update. It's been a while since we have um spoken in in much death depth about the community closet. So, just wanted to provide you with the latest and greatest of what's been happening um and what our students have been working on um when it comes to the community closet. So, um just a review of our purpose. Uh our purpose is uniting our community to support students and families by reducing barriers to learning. And we really have four facets that uh we work on uh for that focus. The first is probably what you

101hear about most and that is access to essential clothing and personal care items through the community closet. Um and we'll be talking a little bit more about that process and how that works. um community partnerships and collaboration. This is something that um we greatly value. We have outstanding community partners in in um with our school district and we have been able to tap into these partners and um form new partnerships across the past uh five or so years. And so I want to share a little bit of information about that with you. Um we also um have studentled community service projects and we'll talk about that piece um and job skill development. So uh the community clo closet really uh began to form as an idea that Dr. Rickley had uh I would say it'd

102be about um towards I would say 1920 Dr. for Rickley. It was this little speck, this little speck because it was uh my first year ho over here at central office and he um sent us an email. Hey, I I saw this program in the school district, you know, just passing this idea along and um we got so excited. We got so excited about it and began to form a committee to talk about the possibilities um and and it kind of um all stemmed from that. So, it's evolved quite a bit since that time. We um are very careful about making sure that the program stays within the bounds of of what um we as a school district can and and and should be doing to support our students and families so that we can

103maintain that focus on learning and removing those barriers from learning. So, just to give you a little bit of an idea of um the families that have been served by the community closet over the past few years, uh we we started out really in a classroom at Carriage Hill. Um and at that point in time, we were just a very small operation. So, um we kind of packed everything in in there and um we were just trying to figure it all out. How do we know what's coming in? How do we know what's coming out? How are we best meeting what are the needs and how do we best meet them? And so across that amount of time, you can see um that really in the first real full year of implementation, we serve just

104around 700 families. Um and then that has stayed between um 700 and and a little over 900 for the past few years. this school year already um in in just this first quarter, we've already served 356 families. So, it's pretty impactful. Um the items of dist uh items distributed. So, this would be this could be anything, clothing, um hygiene products, uh car seats, um feminine hygiene products, diapers, you name it. anything that comes through the community closet. We're up to 124,000 um items that we've distributed at this point and and we're really really proud of that. We receive outstanding support again from our community partners um but also our students and our schools and we'll talk a little bit more about that. So um access to clothing and personal care items. I think the the

105probably what you hear most about are the events that we have. Um and we have about four a year at L Vista Middle School and they are something. Um they are it's really exciting. It's fast-paced. It's fun. We have volunteers. Um the volunteers are the only reason that these events are possible. and um they support families as they shop for items at these two-hour events. So um we just held our winter coat event last weekend and um it was a huge success. So in just two hours time we distributed 567 coats and um 1,500 hats, gloves, and boots. And again that's only possible because of the volunteers. it it's just truly so fun to be a part of that. Um, one thing that we're really um stressing with families and in our schools this year

106is that um we have uh private appointments available. And this is really a way for our families to come and and shop and be able to try clothes on and take the time that they need to look around and get those prefer preferred items that they pick out and really have time instead of just at the events. It's it's kind of fast-paced. So, this is more like a shopping experience. um Ashley and Virginia over at the closet. They make it look beautiful and smell beautiful and it's just kind of a a boutique experience that families have over at our closet location. And so Dr. Varrial is helping us um communicate that out so our families know that you don't have to wait in line. Feel free to make a a private appointment and and shop.

107Take the time that you uh like to find those items that you're looking for. Um when it oh couple more things and also just want to mention we do have a partnership with Calvary Christian Church for diapers and so we do have a diaper bank at our closet location. So that's something we definitely want to promote. And then um access period and the period project we support that as well with feminine hygiene products. So we're super excited to be um partnered with that program. Um, as far as community partnerships and collaboration, there are so many different organizations that we could mention here. So, I'm just going to highlight a very few. Um, you'll also notice on these slides, there are just some quotes here and there to share with you. Um, just some some honest

108feedback that we've gotten from from different folks. But, um, that top left picture that uh that's Mitch and Stephanie from the city of L Vista. And each year they do a coat drive um to help us have enough coats for the for the closet event that we just held uh last weekend. And they are just tremendous partners. I think we've been doing this uh with them for four or five years now at least. So it's it's wonderful. The bottom left I think hopefully you saw this on social media. I got such a kick out of this because um the way there's a Tim in that picture from Calvary Christian Church. They're just outstanding partners for us. He said, "You know, I don't think we got as many coats, you know, as we normally do. I

109don't know. We we got about four or five bags." And so, um so when we went to pick them up, this was his definition of of a bag of of coats. And I mean that was it was just jaw-dropping um amazing. So and then in the top right uh the Pilian Lev Vista Schools Foundation also um obviously they're just outstanding partners to us and they do so much to go out and seek grants for us. So one of the just this is an example of one of the grants that they secured. This is through um Warner and it was $5,000 uh for shoes. So, these are just some of the shoes that we were able to purchase with that money, which was amazing. Another example of a grant they got for us, a donation was

110for uh um car seats. And so, we have a little bit of funding for that. And those are the kinds of things that that we want to help families with, too. It doesn't just have to be clothing or hygiene. It's just some of those um those things that come up that are they're um kind of hard to to fill uh in the school setting. From there, a a really important piece of um the community closet is that each of our schools and our students are invested in it. This is a really important piece. So um whether it is we have a lot of whole school type um donation drives or service learning project or clubs or activities. Um on the screen is a few examples on the very left the the totes. It's actually really

111cute. This is uh the Titan football team and on the little hangers for the closet are little pictures of underwear and socks. But they did a drive um cuz the underwear and socks that we give are obviously brand new. So we we have to purchase those and so they did a drive. They've done one for the past I think three years for underwear and socks for us. The middle picture is the key club from Monarchs and they did a whole drive of clothing for us just a couple weeks ago. So that was super exciting. And then the picture on the right, these are the um portal stars, the star council. Uh they, this was last year's picture. They uh the starter council did a service learning project at school, 1,85 pairs of socks, and they're

112on our list again this year to do another drive for Socktober. So, um I really, these are just some of the folks, some other just to give you some examples. Um Golden Hills, Ashbury, and Portal are all doing a sock drive this month. We love Socktober. Um that's just such a huge need. Our central office um we're gathering donations right now of hygiene products. Um and thank you Stephanie, you are an amazing leading that. And then Prairie Queen is also doing a sock drive. And then in November, Carriage Hill, Patriot, and Anderson Grove are doing um hygiene drives. So everybody is very invested in um in making sure that we have the items that that families need. And it's just an amazing thing to be a part of. And then um this this last facet

113I just wanted to mention is job skill development. So students um in our young adult transition program are um able to serve at the community closet as a job site and this is a treat for everyone. Um just being able to to work with the students and the staff over at YATP has been a great opportunity um for our team, for the students and for the staff. So just some of the the things that they they do to support the closet. This is one of their job sites where they learn skills. Um so they do uh some delivery. They'll come pick up the donations from central office and and they have a route that they go on to take the donations. They also um do folding and sorting and hanging of clothes and learning those

114skills that prepare them for their um post secondary um lives. And so um we have a a quote up there from from Dr. opposed the principal and it we just sometimes we just kind of sit back and and and really um are grateful for the opportunity that we have this um for them within our own district and and they don't need to necessarily go outside of the district to learn these skills. Often um we'll be asked how do I uh make a donation? We do have information on our website, but did just want to share that um we accept donations here at central office during our uh regular hours and then um the foundation supports us by accepting uh monetary donations through there. Um and then uh we often get um inquiries about volunteering for

115the community closet. I think the biggest way um that we need support with volunteers would be at our events. It's amazing how um how many people it takes to make something like that happen. Um but I'm looking around and so many of you have volunteered at those and we're so grateful for that. It's it's truly a joy to be a part of. Um and this was our just from our our closet event and we did have a few more folks. That's a lot of people. And we got, let's see, we had 123 families went through and they served all of those families. I think it was in a little over an hour. All of those families came through. Um, and then we just had a few uh trickle in after that. That's quite a feat.

116So, it's it's pretty impressive. but they do that um by helping them from right when they walk in the door to helping them out to their cars and and it's a really enjoyable experience. Um I will say the majority of our volunteers are staff and if you think about that they've been working like you know all week long and they donate their time on a Saturday. It's it's just I mean it's just such an amazing thing to be a part of. Um, and we're just so grateful for everyone that's able to do that. Very quickly, just wanted to add just a couple more um, quotes um, of just some supports that the closet has been able to provide. Um, just this is an example of, you know, wrestling shoes, but um, I would say venture

117to say most activities and sports areas we've been able to support students in these areas. Um we had a family that uh had um suddenly had um become um experienced homelessness and so um that created some uh issues with school attendance amongst other things. And so um that we that's an area that the community closet really does support um directly to to reducing those barriers. Um when when students are feeling uncomfortable or worried about what they're wearing or all of those pieces, you know, they're not available for that learning and there you know many times um that truency is an issue. Um, in addition, uh, we love to go, uh, find prom dresses and homecoming dresses. That's something that the closet has been able to do. We do love getting, um, donations of, um, prom

118dresses and and homecoming dresses. Uh, and we do have some funding for where if we don't have the the right size, we want our students to have take part in those extracurricular activities. So we do have some funding that we can support students in that way as well. Um and then just more with just some of the social emotional piece, you know, this this um the community closet is really tied directly to our strategic goal on mental health. Um just in so many different ways. I never even knew that direct tie um until I've learned so much from our our uh last strategic plan process that I see all that interaction now and it it's truly outstanding. Um so there yep just a few but I would love to answer any questions if there wasn't

119any information that you're wondering about or any questions I can answer about the closet. >> Dr. Myers, could you tell us a little bit more about how I would arrange a private um appointment if needed? >> You bet. You bet. So, um we have um a phone number and and email on the website. Um but it's community closet atplcschools.org and really um call, shoot us an email, and then we'll work with families to find a time that works for them. So, if it's a situation where a family, you know, is working during the day, we can figure out how to schedule a time outside of that. Um, and and really try to find a time also where if the the students want to try on clothing that they could be there. So, during the school

120day is not always the best time for that. So, we're happy to do that according to their schedule. So yeah, >> I know that um you you had the quote up there from the school counselor. >> Sherry works at Carriage, which of course is a title building and and I know she has talked to the counselor there about a couple of families that she felt might need some help and they were he was able to work with those families and get them set up with appointments. So I know there are a lot of different ways to do that. I know that the school counselors do a lot of work with with with being able to approach the families, you know, delicately obviously because, you know, it's obviously, you know, very tough time and can be

121embarrassing for those families, but that that was that's been a big thing and I know that there we've seen a number of families that have been helped through that uh the counselors. >> You bet. Thank you for mentioning that, Mr. Bailey. I will tell you, our counselor, social workers, and administrators, um we are in constant contact with them. um if we're noticing maybe uh a family is clearly, you know, going through a patch of time that is and it's we don't we don't need any information. We just want to support our families. But, you know, it could be a job loss, it could be a death in the family, it could be medical bills, whatever that is. But if we're kind of noticing where the need might be quite a bit, the the social workers

122and and the counselors can help um support families by um maybe introducing some more sustainable type ideas um figure out some ways um some other avenues of support that maybe they didn't know existed in our community as well. And I will tell you, um, teachers like Sherry Bailey and and being able to, um, get us connected with families has just been absolutely outstanding. So, >> and Dr. Myers, can you uh share with the board why it is important for the district to serve this need for our families? >> Yeah. Well, I will tell you, I could go on forever, so cut me off because I noticed I was last, and that's probably why because I could talk about this forever, but but really, um, as a as a principal in this school district of two

123non-title buildings, okay, um, it's it doesn't matter what school, we have needs in every single one of our buildings. And sometimes it could just be a patch of time where a family is going through some hardship or it could be something that um is a little bit more lasting. But if we're talking about our focus is on student learning, then we need to figure out ways to remove those barriers so that they can have access to that learning. And if they are unable to focus, if their basic needs aren't met, um if there are um you know the social emotional pieces that I I mentioned before, truency, all of those pieces get in the way of that learning. So it it truly goes hand inand this is a a support program to enhance the all

124the awesome things that are happening in the classroom. >> Yeah, >> Dr. Myers, I just wanted to thank you for your leadership. A program like this doesn't happen without a voice, an advocate, somebody with a vision. That person is you. Um, also want to make sure that the foundation gets their credit. We don't we don't get this program up and running without the generous support of a grant from the foundation. They've continued to support us in many ways. People on this table, there's board members that I've seen on those Saturday mornings volunteering their time as well as the administrators. Um, how lucky are we to live in a community that that supports something like this? Um, you know, even in an affluent community like this where we see five, $600,000 houses, people that are seemingly

125have life figured out and are prosperous beyond measure. But behind every one of our communities, every one of our neighborhoods, every one of our elementary buildings, there are people struggling. There are people living on the edge. There are people living hand-tomouth, paycheck to paycheck, and they need help. Um, one could maybe argue maybe that's not the traditional job of a public school. I would say it is our job. If not us, who? If not, now when. So, for you to be part of the solution, for us to be part of the solution, this is one of these things I just I couldn't be proud of. And >> we're doing God's work here. So, >> thanks for your leadership. >> It's a joy and I I appreciate the opportunity. And again, I want to echo what

126you said about our foundation there. we any request has been met. I mean it's been remarkable. Um sometimes I'm I don't know if I should and it just they are able to help us secure that funding to make it happen. Um you know car seat for example may not be a traditional thing that that we would look for but yet you know they've come through for all that. And then again, you know, Ashley and Virginia, we we have um two employees part-time that work in the closet. They're everywhere. So, they're outstanding and they they truly do all the work. They are just wonderful and we get a lot of great feedback about um them from our families. So, thank you. >> Great report. Thank you, Dr. Myers. When I got my agenda packet tonight, I

127thought this would be a short event, but we have had some excellent presentations and good reports. Very worthwhile. >> Uh, finally, uh, future board calendar on October 28th, leaison lunch at L Vista West with Mr. Lotus. November 3rd is a no school staff develop development day. November 4th, leazison lunch at Yatp with Mr. Bailey. November 7th, leazison lunch at Ashbury with Miss Butler. And on November 10th is our next schoolboard meeting here at 6 p.m. No other business. We will adjourn at 7:39. >> Very good.