001Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting August 25th, 2025 for the Pavilion Lab Vista Community Schools. We have the open meetings act posted at the door as you enter and any changes to the agenda will be noted as we meet. And will you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nation. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Miss Butler, >> here. >> Mr. Madler, >> here. >> Miss Wit >> here. >> Mr. Lotus, >> here. >> Miss Wood >> here. >> Mr. Bailey, >> here. >> All present. Thank you. We have no excused absences tonight. Communications. We will hear from our military adviser, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Anderson. Welcome, Colonel. >> Good
002evening. >> How are you all doing tonight? >> You look different. Thank you. You look different today. >> You told me to take the jacket off last time and just I feel like a short sleeve blues and a tie isn't right, but we go through more operational. Um, so happy start of the school year. Hope it's going well for all you. U, my daughter's having a blast. The kindergarter is absolutely crashed uh by Wednesday, so the teachers are doing great job over at Patriot. Um, over at Offit um on 5 September, we're going to be doing our end of summer bash and doing our official opening of the new base lake facility. Um, so instead of doing a Fourth of July party this year, we're going to do an end of summer bash. You all
003are more than welcome to come out. Uh, 1,600, 1800 at the base lake and it's just a chance for us to say thank you to the community um, and all the military families. We're going to have free food, some giveaways, we're going to have a movie on the big screen. Just a good day to get everyone together and build that community. Um, with the start of the school year, impact aid is going to be coming up very soon. Um, so just start stressing that now that hey, this is the way to go through and help out the school district. um and get those funding that the district needs to go through and operate. Um please be working with the principles just to make sure they know what's going on with that. Uh running the rosters
004to make sure they've got the right kids accounted for and our school leaison will start messaging that also. We intend to do a big full front push um on our lanes to go through and make max coverage for it. The last one I have for you is our school leaison officers. They've partnered with our exceptional family member program in our military and family readiness center. Um, and the PTI Nebraska to do a getting organized workshop. Um, and what this is, it's going to help families navigate those IEPs, um, 504 plans, parental rights, strategies for resolving disagreements. So, as always, families transitioning in and out, everything's always a little different. It's a little uncomfortable. You don't know how to talk about this stuff. So really just trying to go through and make it as seamless as
005possible for parents who have questions to get connected with those resources to best advocate for their children. So thank you again for having me. Penny any questions? This is my update this week. >> Uh thank you for being here as always Colonel and thank you for the reminder. I know uh that uh Mr. Richards and Dr. Via Rial have also been making a push on getting the uh impact aid forms. It is not only recognition of our military dependence and we want to make sure we have an accurate count on that, but it's real money for the school district. So, super super important. So, thanks for emphasizing that. We'll continue to emphasize that on our end as well. >> Thank you, sir. >> Next up, communications uh reports. Dr. Brickley. >> Thank you very much,
006Miss Whit, members of the board. Uh happy Monday, everyone. for members of the community, members of the staff uh that are with us this evening. Thank you for engaging with your board of education and joining us online. It is a lovely time to be in Pavilion L Vista Community Schools. First off, want to welcome everybody back. This is our second board meeting since school started. Uh our first board or our first uh day of school was two weeks ago today. Didn't include all kids and it was a half day. This will be the start of our second full week of school. And with the Labor Day holiday fast approaching, we're also approaching our first break in the school year. So, uh, Monday is off for everyone in observance of Labor Day. And then Tuesday is
007a professional development day for staff only. So, hope everybody has an opportunity to enjoy this beautiful nearfall weather and uh, get settled into the school year. Uh, also wanted to remind the board that we have concluded all of our visits to our schools. One of the things that's most fun for me personally the first couple of weeks of school is visiting all of our different schools and buildings. We do have the the two high schools, three middle schools, 16 soon to be 17 elementary schools along with the different ancillary programs including PLA, including Ideal, including YATP. And as I visit the schools, I'm looking for two, three, four things. One, want to be seen, want to be visible. Uh two, want to look at the enrollment numbers. And Dr. settles will give us a little
008bit better sense of that later uh in tonight's discussion item, but just want to make sure that the numbers are holding steady. No class sizes are problematic. Three, it's always good for me to be able to put eyes on the facility itself, particularly buildings that have had renovation, expansion, uh work done so that we can kind of have a feel for how that's going. And and most importantly, I think is is for just get a feel for for the the climate and the culture in the building. And you can't always necessarily have a super hyper accurate gauge by doing a 30-minute walkthrough in a building, but it is a good way for me to connect and be seen by the staff. So, really great opportunity to see our teachers, our kids, and all of our
009staff members uh doing what they do best. Also wanted to thank the board. We had all six board members in attendance last Saturday, a week ago Saturday night at Beardmore Event Center for our PLCS Foundation Gayla. Uh Mr. Danker and his team will be delivering a report later this evening. I don't know if he has any firm numbers yet on um numbers of people that attended the money raised and all of that. It looked to my untrained eye like we had a terrific crowd besides the six board members and spouses. So, thank you for making that a priority. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring the community together and raise some money uh for a really important project which we'll also be talking about a little bit later on in the agenda. Uh the community
010engagement center specifically. Uh also uh about a week and a half ago we had the opportunity to attend a round table at ESU3. I believe we had three of our board members attend uh the session with Congressman Bacon. Uh an opportunity to talk a little bit about uh some issues facing uh public education and also to hear a little bit of Congressman Bacon's vision as he wraps up uh his final term in Congress. Uh he has been a friend of the public education. He's been a friend of the L Vista Community Schools. He was a taxpayer here for a good many years and just a a great human being. He's he's represented this district well in my opinion and certainly appreciate his service and wearing our nation's uniform for over 30 years. And finally, as
011I wrap up my report, I would be remiss if I didn't remind everyone about a real important event this Friday night. It is opening season uh for fall sports. So whether you're in cross country, whether you're in marching band, whether you're in volleyball, softball, doesn't matter. Friday's extra special because it's the Monarch Titan football game which tends to attract more than a few uh district patrons. We also have prior to the event our Foundation uh pep rally. So, it's just a really cool kickoff to the weekend, a Labor Day weekend of football weekend. So, hopefully we'll see a lot of people at Monarch Titan at Foundation Field. And with that, Miss Wit, I would conclude my superintendent's comments. >> Thank you. Next is board member reports. I don't have a whole lot to add. Obviously,
012he covered a whole whole bunch with the foundation. Uh then we will hear more from them. I did want to kind of remind uh the board members that my last foundation meeting will be November. So, we need to start thinking about who will replace me because I've completed my two years um on the board or will have completed them. So, just one of the things we need to uh think about, probably have somebody in place obviously for uh the meeting after I guess it'd be probably January or February when they meet again. So, just wanted to bring that up. But, yeah, looking forward to hearing all from the uh the foundation uh um everything all the good stuff they got going on right now. >> No one else? Well, I did attend uh the Pavilion
013L Vista High School preview night, the marching band. My grandson's in It was a after the rain, we all got to sit on wet benches and watch them march. And it was really lovely. They they're doing a kind of a it's called the in between and it's kind of like u here's Johnny, you know, from this kind of scary area. It's really cool. >> Okay, no more board member reports. Let's go on to committee reports. Building grounds and finance. >> Uh we have our next meeting uh next Friday morning. >> Human resources and student services. We have our next meeting scheduled for the 15th of September. >> Thank you. And curriculum and Americanism. >> Uh we have not met since our last the last meeting. >> Short and sweet. Okay. On to action items. Action
014by consent. Will I need a motion, please? >> I'll make a motion to uh accept the action by consent items as listed. >> Second. >> I have a motion by Mr. Bailey and a second by Mr. Madler. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Madler, >> yes. >> Miss Whit, >> yes. >> Mr. Lotus, >> yes. >> Miss Wood, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. Oh, I meant to mention, Miss Stephanie, that you and I ran into each other at the preview night, so that was nice. >> Representing the district. >> Yeah. And next on our agenda is the discuss is the uh vote on the 36th Street land parcel and that is Mr. Richards. >> Thank you, Miss Wit. Um tonight we'll
015ask the board to approve the sale of approximately 1.17 acres of land that uh is east of Anderson Grove Elementary School that the district has no plans to use in the future and it's um kind of in a tough spot for us to ever use. Uh the developer is planning to put a senior living facility um center in there and I know we've discussed that the last few meetings, but if there is any questions before you proceed tonight, I'd be glad to try to answer those. >> I'll make the motion to approve the purchase agreement with Foundations Development LLC as presented and designate the assistant superintendent of business services the authority to sign, execute, and deliver such agreement. and any documents or agreements called for in such agreement for and pay any additional fees associated
016with this transaction on behalf of PLCS. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Lotus and a second by Mr. Madler. Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Wit? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lotus? >> Yes. >> Miss Wood? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Miss Butler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mitch? >> Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Next action item, resolution increasing the district's base growth percentage used to determine the school district's property tax request authority up to 3%. Again, Mr. Richards, please. >> Thank you, Miss Wit. Um, as we discussed in the last meeting, uh, we're moving into year three of Governor Pan's uh, new school finance laws that, uh, put caps on revenues across the state of Nebraska. um you know, in the first two years, uh we've stayed under
017those caps. Um have been able to do that. Um for the reasons coming up in 2526 that we talked about in the last meeting that I'll cover a little bit tonight, uh we're going to need to try to override that uh 3% revenue cap this year. Um under our current revenue cap, property taxes only are allowed to increase 2.25% this upcoming year. Um, we have a $550,000 loss in federal title one dollars. Uh, we have an estimated increase of 4% in labor costs for 2526. We've added a new SRO sergeant position. um you know when we have other increase in costs including transportation tier or three alternative school programs um addition of new bus routes this year um new young adult transition program building costs and then of course last but not least uh we're
018going to be opening a new elementary school in August of 26 um so trying to you know get that thing ready to open up in 26 in this fiscal year uh is why we request uh this resolution tonight. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have um before we talk about the pass the resolution. >> If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and read the resolution so you're aware of what it says. Resolution of the board of education to increase base growth percentage to determine its property tax request authority. Whereas the board of education for Sarpie County School District 77-000027, commonly known as Pilion La Vista Community Schools is planning the school district's annual budget for the 2025 2026 school year. And whereas the funding needed for the school district to meet its
019obligation to its students will require an increase in the base growth percentage used to determine the school district's property tax request authority under Nebraska Revised Statute 79-3403. And whereas Nebraska law authorizes the board upon an affirmative vote of at least 70% of the board to increase such base growth up to 4%. Be it therefore resolved that pursuant to the Nebraska revised state statute 79-3405, the board hereby increases the base percentage used to determine its property tax authority for the 202526 budget in an amount of up to 3%. Said resol said resolution was adopted by the board today. Okay. If so, done. >> Any other discussion? >> I think just one other point uh to bring up relative to uh Mr. Richard's statement and that is the budget and the tax ask won't be finalized until
020of course the board takes action on it. But uh we know property taxes are chief among the concerns of our taxpayers and constituents. And one of the things that we are working on is dropping the levy. Now, it would be premature for me to say how much we anticipate dropping the levy, but our goal would be to drop it at least a set and a half to two cents. More on that as we work on firming up the budget, which we will be bringing to the board in the next couple weeks. I will make the motion to approve the attached resolution authorizing the district to increase its base growth percentage up to 3% to determine its property tax request authority for the 202526 fiscal year. >> I will second. >> We have a motion by
021Mr. Madler and a second by Mr. Lotus. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call. >> Mr. Lotus? >> Yes. >> Miss Wood? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Miss Butler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Madler? >> Yes. >> Miss Wit? >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Moving on to discussion information items. Strategic planning update. Miss Siri and Miss Boon. Drs. Siri and Dr. Boisen. Sorry. Same thing. All right. Good evening, Board of Education. So, um, tonight I wanted to give you an update on strategic plan and some of you are very much aware. Um both subcommittees have talked about this, but uh for transparency sake, we wanted to bring it to the public and also kind of uh let you know what next steps um are in play with our
022strategic plan. And again, I want to thank uh Dr. Tammy Voison and Dr. Christopher Via Rial because they help facilitate our first um community advisory council meeting back um in June. And just as a reminder for our public, why do we um conduct strategic planning? It's really to set that vision for the district for the next five years. And as we are coming to um a conclusion with our current strategic plan um as we reflect back on the three branches that we really focused on which were the areas of curriculum instruction along with technology um mental health and um retention and recruitment of staff. Um it's had a huge impact on the district for the five years and we're excited to look at what the next strategic plan will bring. So where we're at in
023the process is goal identification. We've done a lot of work with our stakeholders and collecting feedback and we're really looking at what are the areas that we want to focus on for that vision as we move forward as we ask ourselves what do we want for learners um from our district for the next five years. So this was our community advisory team. We met June 18th and 19th right here in the boardroom. Uh we had representatives including students, uh administrators, teachers, a couple board members, uh parents, uh as well as business partners all came into the room and we really did a lot of reflection and um information analysis as we looked at um all of the information that was collected from our stakeholder groups and what they thought we could do better as a
024district and what they felt our strengths were. And so here's just some pictures that Christopher and his team took um as we process through um that model. And again, we do use the Cambridge model for this process. And you can see here, here's just a couple of examples. One of the activities we did on the first morning was what does the portrait of a graduate look like? What do we want our students to be able to do when they graduate from Pilion Le Vista Community Schools? And then we also did a reflection on our current mission statement, belief statements, and our parameters. From there, after we dug into the stakeholder feedback, uh we began to look for themes and overlap and we landed um basically in two buckets or two groups that we had large
025themes that centered around. The first one was about perseverance to purpose and it was really continuing to focus on those rigorous academics and plan pathways. The plan pathways specific came out from our stakeholder groups um from our parent group as well as several student groups when we talked about making decisions for course registrations and what their actually course layout will look like as they proceed through middle school and high school. And with that um the areas that we see being included in that was rigor again uh again surfaced specifically around grit and perseverance. um that idea of getting students to engage in their learning, that academic student pathway planning and expansions of advanced classes, specifically AP advanced placement classes, internships, and capstone projects and really overall just raising that academic achievement in our district across
026the board. Breaking barriers was the other themed area that um surfaced and that really is about engagement for all and specific things that we talked about in that area included uh the continuation of mental health supports from our current strategic plan. We've seen um a real advantage for our students there. Engagement in attending school specifically focusing on student attendance and their participation in their education. skills for success. Um that SEAL focus um for all students and behavior supports making sure that we're engaging students um so they can learn. Um grit and perseverance was kind of a crossover and building connections and relationships with our community um engaging in in that partnership. We'd like to see students, all students engaged in school activities as we know that research shows that that lends itself to academic success
027and beyond. Increased family engagement, whether that be in communication or information or both. And then finally, the recruitment and retaining a passionate, engaged staff. So, those were the two themed areas that um came out of that two-day process from that advisory council. And so that is where we currently are. Our next steps in the process is we will form action teams. There will be multiple action teams for the two areas and team leaders will be trained in the Cambridge model and we'll select action team members to serve on those action teams. Um those members include not only internal staff like teachers, administrators, um but also students. we might have uh parent volunteers involved in that, business partners and so on. So it'll be a diverse stakeholder group. And then the next thing as far as
028presentations for the board, uh we will bring back after the board retreat here in September any changes or recommendations that come about the mission statement and the belief statements um from that process in June. And so we'll have a brief update on that and then we'll bring the goal with the action steps for each of the areas um to the board of education hopefully no later than the end of October. And that concludes my presentation on strategic plan. Questions on that update? Fantastic update. I appreciate it. Um the only thing I I wanted to ask just because I didn't see it specifically mentioned. you mentioned pathways and AP and all this. So, did were the trades mentioned along those pathways as well? Was that something that was brought up during that whole process? >> Yes.
029Um, absolutely. I think a continuation and we feel like that we've really built those out. I think we're really kind of um maybe came to the surface was through them like are there additional academy opportunities for kids with internships? Um so, specifically in that >> Okay. >> area. Thanks. >> I just really appreciate how you were able to uh put these goals together because I think the goal statements really capture the discussion that occurred during those those couple days. Um a lot of the themes that were shared and and that occurred over and over again were captured. um and just making, you know, learning accessible to kids, giving them a variety of opportunities and turning them into or helping them develop into that graduate that we want them to be when they leave the district.
030So, great job in coming up with those um statements that captured the dialogue. Thank you. >> I think one of the things that I'm most uh impressed with and and by the way, thank you to Miss Wood and uh Suanne. Miss Whit for uh participating in representing the board. It's super important to have board representation when we have uh conversation of this of conversations of these nature. Uh but the other thing that I think is really remarkable about this is it not only preserved the best of of what we're already doing and that the three previous strategic planning goals were mental health, academic rigor, and a focus on increased staff recruitment retention efforts. All three of those are still embedded in there if you were looking carefully at the the listed items. But I think
031there's several things that were discussed during this uh process that will go above and beyond that. So it really is as I see it not only building upon the the wonderful things that we've done the last five years, but it's going to push us in slightly different direction some of the other areas including some of the areas that Mr. Bailey mentioned with themies and a focus on trade. So really great work. Uh really appreciate what you did Dr. Siri as well as Dr. Voice and you guys did uh outstanding work. Yeah, it was a a great experience. And I I want to bring out that many of the things that this district does for the kids are not driven by the district. It's driven by the student. What they want to achieve what they want
032to do when they are when they come to their high school and if they pick an academy or if they just pick general ed, whatever they choose to do is their choice, but they have a lot of choice in this school district. And we do not suffer rigor or curriculum to make them achieve. they have to achieve and meet those goals, which is another great thing this district does. So, thank you. No other questions for strategic planning at this time. We'll go on to staffing student enrollment update from Dr. Settles. Yeah. Hi, everybody. I just wanted to kind of give you an early fall update. So, as you know, October one is when we have our official numbers for the school year and then we measure everything from that point um on. So, what I'm
033looking at and comparing to where we're at right now is where we were at October 1 of last year. So, what we had reported as our official numbers. Um, so not a huge surprise, but as you've been hearing from me throughout the summer that we are up at all levels K through 12 right now. So, that's a great place to be. Um, I do want to thank the board for being supportive in offering those three growth positions that we typically don't need to touch, but as we had some numbers creeping up, especially at the primary grade levels uh this summer, we did use actually all three growth positions already. In special education, we have not needed to use the two growth positions yet at this point. Uh, we'll keep you posted on that. As far
034as for staffing, we did not fill a school psychologist position or a point4 special education teacher position. And we did contract for a speech pathologist, speech language pathologist at the secondary level as well as one of our school psychologist positions. Um, which was kind of a unique situation, not something we've typically um done very often. So, those will be positions we'll be looking to fill early for next year. Um, overall, uh, our highest area of need as far as staffing goes continues to be pair of professionals. Uh, we know that we staff pair professionals heavy. So, we're always going to have positions open. um as we really do try to keep those positions as close, you know, the need that we have and the money spent on staff as close to students as possible and
035obviously pair of professionals are very very close to students and helping students in classrooms every single day, but um we do continue to have openings in that area. Um overall doing pretty well as far as that goes. Uh I did want to give you just some overall numbers. So, I mentioned that we were up at elementary, middle school, and high school. Our total um when we consider in preschool, preschool, we we currently are less than we are in October one last year. That's very typical though. Uh preschool grows all year long. So, we for sure will start um the year with the very fewest and end the year with the most students as um child fine laws. Uh we continue all throughout the year to add preschoolers. So um we currently at the preschool level
036are down 36. That's not at all unusual for this time of the year. In fact, that's probably less than we were down last year when I gave this report. Um so overall, um preschool through 12th, we're up 48 students right now. And that puts us at 12,117 students. If you're just looking at K through 12, we're up 84 students right now. And it's been a while since I've reported that number um that high for K through 12. So definitely seeing um the housing areas fill in and uh seeing that growth here with students. So that's my early report. Um we will be back later on this fall to give you the official report that typically takes the month of October or so to clean up. Um, one thing I should mention that we don't include
037in these numbers, but they are obviously are reported um, in a different way to the state and that's our students that are educated externally, but our Pilion Lev Vista Community Schools students that we educate externally. So, level three programs and um, some other programs like that. But everything that you heard tonight, that would be all of our um preK um birth to 21 programs that are here in the school district. Any questions at this time? >> Thank you. Our next item is the Pavilion Lab Vista School Foundation yearly update. Mr. Danker, >> welcome Lee. Welcome, Terry. Thanks. there. Can you hear me now? >> Thanks. Hi everybody. Thanks for uh letting us come back for our annual visit with you guys. I have um the pleasure of having my leadership team from the foundation here
038with with me. Terry Dods leads our kids club program and Midi Beak is our director of development. She's back there. So, they're the brains of the organization and they put this guy up front to give you a quick report. So, if you have any questions, go to them. No, we're um before we get into our report, we have a lot of great things to share with you guys today. We on behalf of the foundation just wanted to say a great big thank you uh to the board of education for serving in this capacity. You guys do a lot of work uh for the kids and for the families around here. So, thank you all for serving in the way that you do. and to the administration for running what we believe is the finest school
039district around. So, congratulations for a great back to school and for all the wonderful work that you guys do. We wouldn't be here without you and we're happy to be here uh reporting of some of the things that uh the foundation is pleased to offer. So, we've got some showand tell on the slides that we'll click through as we go. Uh the first one is many people don't know exactly what we do. So, I wanted to give you a quick uh little reminder of what what our uh our mission is. Um that's to enhance educational opportunities for students that would not otherwise be possible. This district is very generous. The taxpayers are very generous and uh provide a wonderful tax base uh through their property tax and such. Uh but there are things that our
040district wants to provide to kids and they often lean on the foundation uh for financial support in that way. So we provide opportunities that would not otherwise be possible through uh through taxf funded programs. So our vision is where our our students and families are in circumstances that are vastly improved. We want this to be the greatest place for a kid to grow up and and we're proud to offer some ways for that to happen. We were established in 1986 by a group of community volunteers. Uh we are a separate charitable 501c3 organization. Our staff is separate. We do not report to the school district or we are not employees of the school district I should say. Um we are governed by an elected board of directors and uh Skip is uh representing you all
041on that board and we thank you Skip for your service on the board for many years. Uh and we are we like to clarify that we are separate from the school district but we are supportive of the school district. We would not be here without you. Our largest program that was founded in 1986 was our before and after school care program which we call kids club and our director Terry Dods is here and she will tell you about kids club give you an update on how that's going Terry. So step on over. >> Good evening everyone. Thanks for having me. Um well I those numbers have already changed but we are now at 12:45 um every day keeps going up um for the current school year and um that's ever changing as you were talking
042also about yours. Yes. Um we had 790 children for summer which was amazing. Um especially given some changes in in uh construction. So that was truly an amazing it was crazy. Very good. And we had oh about a hundred kids working for us for this the summer that were papista schools high school students and or graduates. So very busy summer and things are going really well for the new school year. So, any questions about kids club? >> Are you looking forward to having a new elementary school? >> Oh, then there's that. Yeah. Yes, we're already gearing up for that and and looking at we already have a director in mind and everything. So, yep. >> Terry, what's the nature of of weight lists? Is that something that's pretty common in different buildings? Can you talk
043a little bit about which buildings, if any, currently have weight list and typically how long somebody would on be on a wait list? >> Yes. Uh, Prairie Queen and Ashberry are our weight list friends. Um, they have been running anywhere from 15 to 20 families waiting. Um, you did some busing this year which has helped which brought that down to they're now about five families each. So, that did help that. Um, but the others are close but we're not there. So, we're keeping it low. Anything else? Thank you everybody. for sorry I took too long to come up with a question. I apologize. Uh for the 790 over the summer, I mean we had so much construction as you said going on this summer. Next summer we should have uh less construction going on. Did
044you have to limit that or were you able to service all the kids this summer that wanted to sign up or did you kind of have to cap it? >> We did have to cap it. >> Okay. >> Um the only school that was not full was Golden Hills. Um, and last year as a comparison, we have had about 850 children. So, it did a little bit, but I was surprised that that people were willing to even go down to Golden Hills. >> Got it. >> So, yeah. >> Yeah. Hopefully next year you have less people in in schools in the summer. It gives you more opportunity to open up for those families that that, you know, uh, use the service that the foundation provides. So, >> yes. Thanks. >> Right, Brett? Yeah, I know.
045Thank you. >> Thanks, Terry. >> Well, thank you, Terry, and congratulations to you and your team on a great program. We're really proud of it. It does provide a a real service to our working parents around here who are able to have safe care within the school building. So, we're we're we're happy to offer that excellent program. Um, some other ways that the district uh is supported through the foundation are listed here. Um what the picture that you're going to see on this slide is a really special one because in the very middle there is Ann Danner uh the teacher who retired again from from the district and her capacity of running outdoor education. Um that's a big historical priority for the families around here and certainly for the foundation as well. So that is
046our largest uh investment in the district. We I believe we pay for if not all most of the expenses of outdoor ed so that all sixth graders can go to outdoor education for for no cost. And this picture was taken I think last year or the year before when we were out there at Camp Carroll Joy Hauling. Uh of course they're always kids are treated real well out there. But some of the other things you're going to see here are we we try and make sure that the the district comes to us with requests that span all grade levels, you know, from kindergarten all the way up through graduation. and and I think this is a pretty pretty nice little list of things that uh we're we're happy to support. Teacher grants is something that
047a lot of folks around the district recognize the foundation for. Uh we do budget a significant amount of money for teacher grants that help to encourage innovative ideas that enhance the educational opportunities for students. Our grant recipients are chosen by a committee. Uh they're they all apply. It's I believe it's February of every year that the applications are due uh and then a committee reviews them and then applicants are are chosen uh based on the budget that we have. I think last year we budgeted $120,000 worth of teacher grants and we had about $15 to $170,000 worth of requests. So while we could get pretty close to honoring all requests, we couldn't get quite there. that uh through some creative financing, we're able to encourage certain things and get most of them at least partially
048covered, if not completely covered. Uh and again, funding impacts students at all grade levels uh through all all school buildings. Another one that we're really excited about is our senior scholarships. We want to help our brightest students uh continue on with their education. And thanks to donors who support us uh support students through the foundation. We're able to offer more than 70 scholarships last year to the class of 2024. And we honor those students by bringing donors and students together at two different receptions in the spring right around graduation time. You can see a picture from each of the Titan and Monarch scholarship breakfasts that we hold. Another another uh item that we have seen a lot more attention given to is supporting the basic needs of our students and our staff. Over the past
049few years, that has really grown in importance. Um these are some of the fund examples of how we support students. One of them is the Anders food fund. If you were at our suare on Saturday, uh you had a chance to learn about Bill and Sherry Anders who do support the the food needs of our kids through a fund at the foundation, the student emergency fund, the PLCS family fund, which supports staff members of the district, and then of course the community closet, which is such a wonderful, wonderful uh opportunity for kids and families to get the clothing that they need at no cost. Here's some of our bigger events. We just wrapped up event season uh and Some of you were at the golf outing which was held in June and then I think
050all of you were at the uh suare which was held on Saturday. This is hot off the press this uh I guess it was a week ago Saturday but uh still hot off the press and to to fill in the gaps that you left Dr. Rickley. We're we're on a three-year uh trend of of seeing a nice income level uh coming from our suare. So, we had about 375 people in attendance and we we generated about $165,000 in in support for for students, which is wonderful news. And we thank our community and sponsors for participating in that. What we did at the Suare is what I'm going to pivot to next. We made a pretty big announcement at the Suare um that the foundation has been working for a few years on a strategic plan
051of our own. It was nice to hear Dr. She s Siri talked about the district strategic plan. Our foundation also engages in strategic planning and we uh started this specific plan about three years ago where we started of course we look at the district strategic plan first and how we can support that. Um but what what grew out of that was a clear uh indicator that we as a foundation need to take a larger role in trying to engage our community in supporting our students. And so we were happy to announce on Saturday of the suare the launch of a fundraising campaign called growing up greater which is going to support uh the construction of a community engagement center which will help address a lot of challenges that we identified in the midst of our
052strategic planning process which was we see that this community is expanding rapidly. Enrollment is cons consistently rising across the district. We just heard those numbers a little bit ago. Kids Club, which started in 1986 with no sites, is now in 16 and next year at 17 sites. Um, we're seeing more students and families experience poverty around here. Uh, our staff numbers have grown to accommodate that growing student uh number. Uh, public funds are just stretched thin. You know, there's always a there's always a risk of public funding uh being at risk as I mentioned. and our historically strong community support which many of many of you who grew up around here like I did we we know that growing up around here was supported by the folks who live around here and community strength or
053community support is one of our strengths here at the district the fact that everybody's in for helping kids to grow up really great as we get large and we start having a bigger footprint uh throughout Sarpie County that's a risk so what can we do to help this we think an innovative solution will show what's possible when members of our community uh come together for kids and families. That is where the idea for the PLCS community engagement came from. It'll be conveniently conveniently located, I'll show you some pictures here in just a second, within our central office campus, which means it'll be right here in the heart of downtown where our school district started more than a hundred years ago. What's going to go into a community engagement center? We're going to have four primary
054purposes within the within the center. The first one is to have a new home for the community closet which is stretched thin right now at its four or five different location locations spread around the district. It started in a classroom at Carriage Hill and that's when the district came to us and said, "Can you help us come up with a long-term solution because the need is just continuing to grow and out of that uh the community closet will have a new home that I'll describe here in just a bit. kids club. You heard from Terry. You saw the numbers. Um those numbers continue to grow. We need more headquarter space because we are lo we're located in all the schools. But in order to keep that all in line, we have a headquarters team that
055works out of a really small space right now which is just maxed maxed out. So they're they need new space as well. Uh a training and event center. What the room that we're sitting in right now is multi-purposed and it's done a great job for years and years and years. But when this is not a schoolboard room, you all know this. It's it's kind of a training space for teachers and staff and um it's set up in all kinds of neat configurations. But this this is uh we were told by the district that they could use a larger space. So we have added into the community engagement center a training and event center which when it's not being used for training purposes will be used can be used by the community for class reunions for
056graduation parties for other community events that bring people together to help uh help celebrate their their family celebrations or the school. And then finally the foundation will have a headquarters there. Uh we're going to be 40 years old next year, which is pretty pretty big deal for us. So, it's a great time to move forward with a pretty ambitious project like this. So, where will this be located? Here is a map that shows you if uh if you're looking straight above from here, we're kind of on the bottom right there where Grant Street is, those two green patches right there with a cut in, that's where this building sits. So just right above it, which would be to the north, is a half block that's ready for redevelopment. So the foundation over the past few
057months has purchased uh the properties on that half block with the exception of the PLCS print shop. Um so we do now own that house and we own the lot just to the north of that. What that half block will help the district have is a campus of sorts where the foundation has a stronger presence than we've had before. So you can see right there in the very middle of that is the PLCS district office. The new community engagement center will be just directly to the north in that build in that green building which is shown there which will be surrounded by the existing foundation building which is across the street but quite a bit smaller. uh the technology building, the how facility and also Pilion Middle School are all within a oneb block or
058two block radius. This is what the facility will look like once the property is repurposed from a a parking lot and a house and print shop to a community engagement center. Uh the architects have worked very closely with our foundation and with the district to identify what those needs are and they've designed a really attractive building to fit that space which will complement we think the uh the new uh renovations going on at Pavilion City Park. The community closet will now have a space to shop which will have front door parking right outside of it. And it will have a backside to it where the sorting of clothing, the laundering of clothing, and the storing of clothing can occur. We'll also have a section within the entrance of the community engagement center where members of
059the community can drop off their gently uh worn clothing that can then be washed and sorted and put uh put made available to our students and family when they shop through the community closet. This is this is uh what will possibly be the front entrance to the center and you'll see kids club is prominently featured there. When when kids come in to interview for their jobs, you heard Terry talk about about a lot of high school kids interview for jobs. It's their first job experience. Parents come in to get their kids signed up. Uh and our our staff, we have a pretty significant number of people who work for Kids Club. They need their space. So, this is going to be prominently located right on the first floor when you walk in the door. Then
060when you go up the steps is where the training event center will be located. Has beautiful uh windows here. A lot of visibility and natural light coming in, which will make it a very welcoming place for people to learn and have activities together. There's another view of what the uh event center could possibly look like. And there will be a ex exterior balcony on the north side overlooking the city park which will allow whatever activity is occurring there or meeting to have some indoor and outdoor space uh when they're when they're putting their activities together. You might be able to put put some context to this if you look off to the back there. You're kind of looking at what is their rendition of the Legion Club uh might be there. You know Legion right
061across the street. That's that gray building back there. So that's the that puts it in perspective for you and No tank there on that one, is there? That wasn't uh We need to work with our architects. >> Get that put in. >> The No, this is the This is the balcony from the north, looking to the south. So, we're looking south. Now, the main entrance will be where those two folks in kind of the khaki jacket and white shirt are, where it says community engagement. That'll face west. So, it'll face Adam Street. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You bet. So, how are we going to pay for this thing? This is a pretty pretty big uh undertaking, and it's the largest project that the foundation has ever done in its 40-year existence. Our timeline is
062that we are going to uh as I said, we embarked on our fundraising campaign a week ago, Saturday. It's we anticipate that it will go for about three years. U we would like to begin breaking ground next fall, the fall of 2026 with a grand opening. We hope sometime in 2028. Our goal is a $10 million campaign goal to pay for this facility. We the architects designed it around that number, but you know, as construction goes and and as your as your school buildings go, that number could change. We'll we'll see. Um we think it'll be around there. I'm happy to report, however, that of our $10 million goal, the foundation has committed $5 million to the project and we have gotten received verbal commitments of an additional $2 million toward this. So, we're starting
063our $10 million campaign with $7 million committed. So, we have three more to go and we're going to be asking members of the community to help us get there. Uh, and we think we will. There's a lot of momentum for this and we're excited to uh to move it forward. So that folks is the community engagement center and uh a report about the foundation. So with that I will stop and answer any questions that you guys may have. >> Uh Lee, thanks for the report. I want to thank you and the team just for everything you guys all do and for the suare the other weekend two two Saturdays ago. I know I say it every year, but the foundation, you know, uh I got a foundation scholarship over 20 years ago when I went
064when I graduated from Monarchs and and went off to Lincoln. got the foundation scholarship and then quickly became uh involved in the foundation when I returned back from college, being on the um the planning committee or the gift planning committee. Um and then being a a full member of the foundation board before I turned off two years ago, three years ago, whenever that was. Um but uh you mentioned some of the programs that I think are what some of those programs that really uh separate our district from some of the others. You know, you talked about outdoor ed which my sixth grader will get to do in October, but uh I also and I Skip and I we always talk about it when we were both on the uh teacher grants committee. Um I I
065think that is just a great uh service that the foundation provides for our staff for them. Uh you know it incentivizes the teachers to kind of come up with some of those unique ideas things that they want to try in the classrooms which is just you know it makes it tough to uh sometimes to fund out of building budgets or other budgets. And to know that there's that pot of money from the foundation that can support those teachers with those ideas um I I think again is a great service. And I'm I think you've been around was this year four. Year four. >> And uh I think you've just done a great job with uh the foundation since you've been on and uh appreciate you leading this charge as well. I think it'll be great
066for the community and and great addition to this area of town as well. So thank to you and the team. >> Great. Thank you, Marcus. It was great having you on that board, too, for many many years. I was going to say I, you know, we were both on the hiring committee for Lee and Lee was great at being our third, you know, selection that we had. The first two said no. >> Fourth. Yeah. >> But fourth. Yeah. Thank you. >> Hey, you get what you pay for, man. >> Yeah. I have to agree with Marcus. I that's the things that I will miss the most are I was on the the the teacher grant and the scholarship and it it's just it's a blast looking at what all these teachers come up with those
067grants and then all reading trying to read trying to figure out who's going to get a scholarship. We have so many good students and so just thank you for everything that you and your staff and uh and the board of course puts together um and so much support and look forward to seeing that. That's going to be that's pretty amazing. So thank you very much. >> Yeah. Thank you. Well, I have to give my annual kids club plug. Uh as a as a kids club parent uh I mean working working families could not do uh what they do uh in the community and their roles uh without something like Kids Club. And this foundation uh runs an amazing program uh to keep costs affordable and for it to be, you know, locally in your backyard
068more or less at at each of the elementary buildings. Uh the convenience uh but let alone just the staff. Um the kids love the staff, the programs they run, especially in the summer. I'm not sure, Terry, how you guys still come up with new ideas for all the field trips and the coordination with all the busing and everything else, but um again, as I say every year, thank you. Thank you to your the office staff and as well as all the students and staff that uh keep it running uh like you said, at many of the schools at almost max capacity. So, uh again, it's greatly appreciated and uh something huge for this community. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Good work, Terry >> and team. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you very much.
069>> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. We look forward to seeing that building, huh? >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Me, too. >> Next on our agenda, we will move into close session, but let me go ahead and read the future board calendar. uh when we go into close session, we will clear the room and the members uh the board will stay and the guest speakers who are helping us with our legal matter will remain with us. Anyone who wishes to come back to the meeting may do so after we come out of close session. Um but just in case you're not here, I'm going to go ahead and read the future board calendar. September 1st, there is no school be because of Labor Day. September 2nd, no school because of staff development. September 8th, a
070board of education meeting 6 pm here at this central office. And on September 11th, the board will have its retreat at 4 pm with the location to be announced later. I need a motion now to move into close session, please. >> I'll make a motion to go into executivelo session to protect the public interest and to protect the reputation of individuals. The executive close session is to discuss an ongoing legal matter. I will second. >> Thank you. I have a motion by Mr. Lotus and a second by Mr. Bailey. Roll call, please. >> Miss Wood, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Miss Butler, >> yes. >> Mr. Madler, >> yes. >> Miss Wit, >> yes. >> Mr. Lotus, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Thank you. Okay, we will begin to transition. and
071we will reconvene at 7 o'clock.