001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Let's call this meeting to order. Miss Schultz. Here. Dr. Kirk. Yeah. Miss Grant. Here. Dr. Daniel. Present. And the chair is here. Let's have a moment of silence. Okay, Olivia, you want to come up and help us with the flag salute? Give us some encouragement, Olivia. Tell us about yourself and who's here with you. No, is that a no? You don't have to. >> You should help her with that, Jean. Yeah, you should help. You don't want to tell us about yourself? What's your favorite subject? Math. I hear that you're bright and energetic, a third grader at Del City Elementary. Who's your teacher? Miss Burgess. Is she here? Okay. That you enjoy spending time with your family, playing games with your little brother, Anderson, and your parents that you're creative. Anything
002else? You like arts? Okay, we'll quit punishing you. Speak into that stand. Tell us to stand. Stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Look what we got for you for helping us. Some free chicken. Good job, Olivia. Good job, Olivia. Thank you. I never had one that shy before. I think she handled it well. Okay, tonight our first official business, item two, and my last one as president is to reorganize the board, and I'd like to make a motion to vote in I'll make the motion, Madam President. >> Okay, make it. Madam President, if you don't mind, I would like to make a motion to appoint Dr. Sue Via Kirk
003as president, Michelle E. Schultz as vice president, and Ms. Jana Grant as clerk, and Candy Perkins as deputy clerk. Second. Okay, let's vote. Ms. Schultz? I. Dr. Kirk? I. Dr. Daniel? I. Ms. Grant? I. And the chair votes I. >> Thank you so so so so much. And now Mrs. Stamps, you will officially be known as the immediate past president of the Mid-Del School Board. Job well done. Thank you. Consent agenda, I'll entertain a motion that we're going to approve that we're we're going to need a motion to approve items A through H on the consent agenda unless someone would like to pull some items out for discussion. Move to approve. Second. And move to approve the second. Any discussion? No. Okay, let's vote. Mrs. Schultz? I. Mrs. Stanwich? I. Mrs. Daniels? >> I. Mrs.
004Grant? >> I. And the chair votes I. Recognitions, which is my favorite part of the all about meetings. I waited for that. And we have Let me pull it back, guys. I don't have the right agenda in front of me. The administration. We have administration first. Dr. Cobb. Are you doing that? I am. Sorry, I had to restart my computer so I can't get the agenda up. All right. So, uh first one I'd like to call Tim Tim Higgins who is our Tinker liaison up to the podium and he can talk about Tinker Elementary School receiving the Purple Star designation from the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Go ahead, Mr. Higgins. So, thank you, members of the board. Thank you, Dr. Cobb. Uh first let me say it is an honor to be here wearing
005two hats. One hat, I'm here as a member of the Purple Star Committee that meets twice annually at the State Department of Ed. The other hat, I'm here as your Tinker School Liaison, your employee. And if I believe I've met you all because you're my boss. So, and I tell you all the time, if you ever need anything, I work for you, so please call me. Um wearing the Purple Star Committee member, I'm here um for two moments. First is to talk about what a fantastic ceremony Mid-Del put on at Tinker Elementary for their being uh your first Mid-Del individual school getting a Purple Star. Um as I mentioned to my boss, Mid-Del can throw a party. That was a phenomenal celebration. The The other hat um The other part I'm here for is Mid-Del
006is re-upping their Purple Star, they're renewing their Purple Star from the State Department of Ed. You're one of the very first districts to receive this honor that says you go above and beyond to help military families. And so now let me put on my Tinker School Liaison hat and absolutely echo that same comment. Tinker uh Air Force Base has millions of dollars of assets, but nothing more priceless than our children. And over the decades, you have taken care of thousands of our children, kept them safe, and educated them. And so on on behalf of Tinker and the Purple Star Committee, thank you so much. Thank you. Excellent. Excellent. Oh, this is fabulous. You want a picture? Y'all stand up for a picture. You can just smile again. That was the top one. Take this. Do
007you want to come I'll be giving this to you, okay? What do you want me? Down here. Okay. Try my one doctor. Perfect. Sorry. Just one more. One two three four. That's right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you, sir. We're going to be watching the weather tonight, too. Is that dicey? I know they're supposed to come in tonight. This is what he gave me in case you did not hear. It says certificate from the state department of education, office of the superintendent, commending Medel schools for earning the purpose star distinction. So, kudos, Medel. Okay. Next with our leadership development academy, Mrs. Gilkey and Mrs. Pope. Hi, good evening, President Kurt, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb. Tonight, Ms. Pope and I are honored to recognize the seventh cohort
008of our teacher leader development academy. This marks the seventh year of a program that continues to grow strong teacher leaders across our district. Each spring, teachers would apply for this opportunity and were selected based on their desire to grow as leaders within their schools. This year, we partnered with our principals who recommended teachers they see standing out as leaders in their building. While not all participants aspire to become administrators, every teacher in this program is committed to expanding their impact and taking on meaningful leadership roles throughout their careers in education. Throughout the year, we meet quarterly to engage in a variety of professional learning experiences. These include work with five voices framework led by Alan Spees, sessions with our teaching and learning team focused on instructional strategies and opportunities to integrate technology into their practice.
009As part of the program, each teacher developed their own educational philosophy and designed a leadership initiative to implement or have implemented at their school. They then presented their work and I can confidently say the level of thought, innovation, and commitment was outstanding. There are truly great things happening across all of our sites because of these educators. Ms. Pope and I have thoroughly enjoyed working with this group and we are excited to see how their leadership continues to grow and positively be impact our district. At this time, as I call your name, please come forward to receive your certificate in recognition of your participation in this program. Candace Morris, Carl Albert Middle School. Lori Young, Carl Albert High School. Breanna Braverman, Del City Middle School. Alexa Abbott, Del City High School. Marissa McCarty, Midwest City High
010School. >> Mia Schubert Barnes Christian Walker Cleveland Bailey Susan Samuelwitz Country Estates Madison James Del City Elementary Nicole Hughendorn Epperly Jasmine Noel Midwest City Elementary Emily Walker Parkview >> Krishav Holloway, Pleasant Hill. Mamie Maccabee, Ridgecrest. Emily Caruso, Soldier Creek. Caitlin Stamps, Shorts. And Ms. Alicia Underwood from Millbrook Middle School, she was unable to attend tonight. She got ill today before she could come. So, we just wanted to make sure we honored her. Yeah. Good job, guys. Let's give them another hand. Excellent. >> And now we're ready to recognize our schools that really did exceptional things this last term. So, I'm going to call Mrs. Goggins to the mic from Carl Albert High School. President Kirk, Dr. Cobb, members of the board, it's my privilege to introduce to you our head swim coach, Coach Josh Norman.
011Coach Norman is a proud alum of Carl Albert High School and has served as a coach for Carl Albert swim for 8 years. As an assistant coach, Norman successfully helped lead the team to three state championships. And now, as the head coach for the past five seasons, Coach Norman has led both the boys and girls programs to four more state titles, including the two from this past season. Coach Norman has recently been named the 2025 NFHS State Coach of the Year, the 2026 OCA All-State Coach of the Year, and the OCA Region 8 Coach of the Year. All right. Great job. >> President Kirk, Dr. Cobb, members of the board, it's my privilege to bring Coach Norman to the stand to talk more about our state championship swim teams. Good job. I'm not as tall.
012Good evening, President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb. It has now been 1,155 days since the OSSAA men's swimming trophy was presented to a non-Mid Del school. The Titans before you are three-peat state champions dating back to the 2023-2024 season. En route to their three-peat championship, these gentlemen won the East Regional Championship by well over 100 points. During state prelims, this team held a meager one-point lead over rival Altus High School, which they thankfully thankfully expanded to a 30-point lead on finals day to secure the crown. It was It was nerve-racking, but they got it done. In the classroom, they also earned distinguished academic achievement honors having posted the second highest team GPA in our state. This is Yes. This historic roster also boasts three of the nine West All-State selections for 2026, Mr.
013Reese Rushing, Mr. T.J. Townson, and Mr. Ridge Thornton. throughout the season, these boys have grown into young men as you see before you. This season, they overcame many circumstances, setbacks, and even schemes within the 5A realm, and they did so with an unyielding character in the face of all those adversities. These uncommon men are scholars are the future scholars, business owners, soldiers, and fathers of the future. Therefore, I'm happy to report that our future is in excellent hands. Thank you. I appreciate they dressed up for the occasion. Yes. Very nice. Did we want to get their names, coach? Do you want to recognize them by name or would you rather >> That's fine. Um down at the end, we have Mr. Braxton Davis, Mr. Liam Odit, Mr. Kistler Twelves, Mr. Connor Schwartz, Mr. Cole Croissant,
014Mr. Who's next? Who's next? Corbin Williams, Mr. Ridge Thornton, Mr. Tyler Braun, Mr. Max Emmons, Mr. T.J. Townson, and Mr. Reese Rushing. Our uh assistant coach this year was Miss Aubrey Braun and uh Coach Kurt Norman. She wants was Any family represented here? If you are a family member of this team, would you please stand? I'm proud to hear it. Two rows. Two rows. They look distinguished. Looking so distinguished. Tall in the back. They're all tall. We're three rows. Good job, guys. I'm back. Good evening again, President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb. For the first time since the women's three-peat spanning from 2019 to 2021, our queens are back on the throne in 2026. These women were distinguished academic honorees as well as East Regional champions en route to their 45-point victory at
015the OSSAA state finals. This year's championship cemented a 7-year dynasty and provided the capstone for an undefeated season for our women's team. Furthermore, this roster boasts the 2026 championship 200 medley relay with Miss Denise Shaw, Miss Breanna Lamb, Miss Haley Hunt, and Miss Charlotte Peters. They defeated the runner-up Shawnee relay by well over 3 seconds. Nice. This women's senior class accounts for two of the nine 2026 West All-State selections, Miss Haley Hunt and Miss Charlotte Peters, which brings our program total to five All-Staters for the 2026 cycle. Excellent. Excellent. This women's team Excellent. This women's team is tough beyond measure. The last women's championship came before these young ladies were on campus. Therefore, they had to relearn how to win and how to manage the privilege of expectation. The championship lifestyle can be daunting for
016first-timers, but they are first-timers no longer. They are reigning and defending once again, and I could not be more proud. Your 2026 state champion women's team. Nice job, ladies. Some of the ones that were not mentioned in the relay, we have uh let's see. Uh Miss Brynlee Lamb Miss Casey Johnson Denise Shaw Journey Joseph Berkeley Wilkins Breanna Lamb Charlotte Peters Haley Hunt Emily Crawford Donna Antonelli Gabby Buck Pratt Journey LaValley Katie Howard and Blake Meadows. Wow. As you may have Well, do you want a picture? All right. Now, there's a leader right there. Yeah, she's She's looking tremendous in that >> she is. She is. Okay. >> Just one more. >> have any uh parents of the women's swim team parents? Excellent. I guess it's great to get them all together. Put him in the
017front. He's got the plaque. Long as we can see your face. Yeah, they're good. >> There we go. I'm finding a window. As you may have already heard, the Titans dual crown championship marks the first time in Oklahoma state history that a single school has won the men's and women's title in the same season. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I present to you exiting the room mathematically and unequivocally the greatest 5A swim team to ever exist in the state of Oklahoma. Good job. Excellent. Thank you. As in as in previous seasons, there is not a club swimmer among them. I don't say this to diminish club athletics. I say it to give credit where credit is due to those kids. That's right. They are the greatest to ever do it and they are
018a purely Mid-Del product of this district by this district. President Kirk, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb, we bring this monumental achievement before you because you have great ownership in the success of this team. You kept this team in water when certain facilities failed and you funded every one of the 6,137 miles we drove daily to practices this year. We are proud to represent you and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making this dream possible. Thank you. >> Excellent. >> Thank you, coach. You're welcome. Thank you again, President Kirk, Dr. Kirk Dr. Cobb, members of the board. It's my privilege at this time to introduce to you our girls basketball coach, coach Kyle Richie. Coach Richie is also a proud alum of Carl Albert E. High School from the graduating
019class of 1991. He just completed his 10th year as our girls basketball head coach and helped bring home the first state championship since 2000. In his 10 years as the head coach, coach Richie has posted 188 wins and has led the team to six straight state tournament appearances. This post season, coach Richie was recently named the OGBC West Coach of the Year, the OCA Region 8 Coach of the Year, and was a winner of the Charles K K Hilty Award. President Kirk, Dr. Cobb, members of the board, it is my privilege to bring coach Kyle Richie to the stand to talk more about our state championship basketball team. Good job. Good job. President Kirk, Dr. Cobb, members of the board, thank you for allowing us to come here tonight to celebrate for the first time
020in 26 years bringing the gold ball back home. That's right. That's right. Um You don't do it without a great staff and I want to start that off with coach O'Hara and coach Banks. And I want to give coach Banks a little bit of a shout-out. You only get to do it one time in your entire coaching career. And that's coach the All-State game. He was selected to coach the All-State game this year. So, well deserved our coach. >> Good job. And what makes this even a tad more special, he's going to get to coach two of our girls in this All-State game. Audrey and Korie made this game. And I thought this was They didn't even know it. And so this this is an announcement I thought it was a perfect time to announce
021that tonight. That'll be July 28th at OCU at 6:00. These girls are not just great basketball players. They had a 3.91 GPA. So, you know, we preach student athletes and I think that that is a testament to it as well. And I will just now go down the line. We have Jakorie Brown. Audrey Compton. Takayla Brown. Hayden Harrell. Leah Hatchett. Kinley Sutton. Hope Wilson. Reagan Christiansen. Isis Haynes. Annabelle Crawford. Laisia Curry. Amelia Lowe. Siyani Patton. Vanessa Campbell. Zoe Johnson. Brinley. And I have already announced my two coaching staffs. Oh. Want to do it again? No. No. No, you're good. You're good. Okay, I'm sorry. >> You're good. This is not my forte. Um so, just basically thank you for your support. Everybody in here as well, parents, thank you. And for everybody that's come to
022the games and supported us all year, we couldn't have done it without you. So, thank you for supporting supporting us. Thank you. >> Good job. Good job. The what? Parents. >> Oh, parent Parents stand up. I'm Like I said, this is Thank you. All right, group photo. Coach Banks, can I get you? Okay. I got you. Thank you again. Good job. Good job. Congratulations, coaches. Great job. And great game, also. Thanks. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Well, for those who are leaving, we'll continue with the agenda. Those who are leaving. Okay, Dr. Cobb, since we have no public participation. We're going to go with the superintendent's report. All right. You can see we you can you can see we've tried to incorporate the purple into this. All right. Okay. So, April is the
023month of the military child as you have seen and those are that's a picture from the purple up ceremony or the the purple star ceremony at Tinker Elementary. Tinker Elementary as you heard earlier has been named a purple star elementary school and we had a lot of dignitaries on hand for that celebration and again that is an honor that a school can apply for and receive uh and it's actually awarded by the Oklahoma State Department of Education uh with support from the military community of from the military community as well. Um so, we were already a purple star district and this is our first school to get the designation but probably not our last. Uh you just saw the Carl Albert girls basketball um team. That game came down to the last seconds and I
024was standing right under the basket when the winning bucket was scored and that was exciting. And I was also standing under the basket at the end of this game and it was a tough loss but great tournament for them as well. Mid-Del winter guard teams um excelled. That is all three high schools and Del City, no, Carl Albert Middle School. Sorry, someone's doing sign language in the back which I'm always going to misinterpret. We had two wrestling all-staters, Chloe Daniels uh uh from Del City High School and Demitri Keyser, also from Del City High School. And Demitri was a state champion, correct? Um in basketball, in girls basketball, we had three all-staters. Sasha Hunt from Del City, Jakari Brown from Carl Albert, and Audrey Plunkett from Carl Albert. And as you just saw that, you
025know, um we will have the um all-state coach as well. Boys basketball, we had three all-staters. Brandon Rogers from Carl Albert, Kamau Shaw from Del City, and Deshawn Denson from Midwest City. So, all three high schools will be represented there. And we had several all-staters in swim, as well. And I think you I think they were all here tonight. Haley Hunt, Charlotte Peters, Tyler Townson, Ridge Thornton, and Reese Rushing. And we had two FC uh FCA all-staters, as well. Lolia Bryant and Chandler Chandler Cordray. The Carl Albert girls golf team won the El Reno tournament. The girls Carl Albert girls tennis team won the Carl Albert Invitational and the Mustang Doubles tournament. Del City High School received a superior rating for mixed chorus at state contest. Epperly Heights Mustangs had the opportunity to create snack
026bags for the Toby Keith Foundation's Oklahoma Kids Corral. Thank you to Del City High School leadership for lending a hand. Del City High School Eagles Soar Travel Club traveled to Spain and Portugal over spring break. And these are just some of the pictures. I saw more on social media, and it looked like an amazing trip. Students from all three high schools received scholarships from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation. You see several represented there. Elementary Botball teams from Schwartz Elementary, Epperly Heights, and Del City participated in the state junior Botball challenge. Carl Albert High School FFA recently attended the Oklahoma FFA Foundation Legislative and VIP Banquet in Oklahoma City. These are pictures from This is a picture from the Schwartz Elementary Vocabulary Parade. I was not able to go this year, but it was a really
027fun event last year. Thunder Field Day at Pleasant Hill. Recently, we had Rumble and um some other Thunder dignitaries that came out to Pleasant Hill for the day and just let the kids out. They were It was amazing for them. You can see the kids enjoyed it most of all. It wasn't the adults. Not my worst day. Midgell's STEM Night was held last week. The picture of the girl on the left there, that is just a picture of a kid's face at STEM Night. Just any kid. It just happened to be captured at the right time. That's their the amazement. Um I know several of us and I were um you know, keeping our safe distance from all the large bugs that were in attendance. Um I can I There are some parts of science
028I can get up close to and some that I don't mind watching from a ways back. Uh couple weeks ago, we also had the 70th Annual Elementary Music Festival and District Art Show. This is the second year that we've had the District Art Show that show alongside it and of course the narrator was our own Dr. Kirk and she did a fantastic job. And let me introduce the video coming up. So, last week was Assistant National Assistant Principals Week and we put together a video. We miked up a couple of Assistant Principals from Midgell City Elementary actually and they're both here tonight. Michelle Clark and Tamara Moore. So, you get to see them in action and hear some just just kind of typical stuff from Elementary Assistant Principals. Good morning, sweet girls. Good morning. We
029don't want you tripping today. I'm going to double knot it so it doesn't come undone, okay? Let's see this one. Good morning, guys. What is this? Okay, when you going to use that? Girl, have at it. Good morning. So sweet. Have a great one. She'll be here before you know it, huh? Mhm. Okay. But you know what? Here's what you can do. Here's what you can do on Monday nights. You already know you're going to stand on Tuesdays and that you have to collaborate in there. Get your mind ready and say I'm going to go ahead and get focused now cuz I know every Tuesday that because in life you going to have to collaborate with people. You going to need people. Here buddy, come on. Hey, are you going to race your brother again
030today? No. No? Hold on. Let's make sure that the Oh, yeah. Let's not pick that up, okay? I'm not sure what it is. You ready? Ready, set, go. Who can be first? I like you trying to I'm trying to nudge his brother out of the way there, too. Good morning, boys. Way to go. You all started announcements without me. Good job. Good morning. Have a great day. You're welcome. Have the best day, Wyatt. We'll see you in a little bit, okay? Coutique. Uh-huh, looks just like it, just like it's spelled. Boutique. When you pick up the phone you push page and then you'll hear the beep. Okay, you ready? Talk loud and proud. Today's lunch choices are beef A, beef and cheese nachos, or B, barbecue pork sandwich. Make it a great day or not
031yet. The choice is yours. Have a wonderful day. Nice. I've got to admit like the the part that was most real to me is don't pick that up. I don't know what that is. I don't Yeah. I want to get a school bear now. Yeah. Can I go back to elementary school, please? Um anyway, that was I think we're doing we're trying to do a really good job of spotlighting um just more people in different ways and different roles, but catching them just in those real moments with kids I think is is where we shine the best and um I'm glad it was a sunny day for all of that because it would have been different audio for sure, but um but I love that. That's I mean of of all the different kind of
032media posts that we've had over the last few years, this is this may be up there as my favorite. It was it was something I just really enjoyed watching over and over. I even showed my wife and she gets sick of me showing her work stuff and she wanted to watch it again, so. And I'm sure that this is probably typical in most of our schools. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um the Mentored Roots program, which is uh raising our own teachers successfully. It is a partnership, and Pam, if I forget any of the partners, let me know. Western Governors University, um Grand Canyon University? No. Oops. No, no, not them. Um Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, and is there a third partner? EdWell. Thank you. That's the one I always keep forgetting. Um
033anyway, we are This is uh allowing us to work with our adjunct instructors, and we have a cohort of 10 to start with to help them get credit and get on their way to certification. And we just figure if they're going to be in the classroom with our students, and they want to stick around, then we want to help them get fully certified. That's the best for our kids. People who stick around are what's best for our kids, period. Right. However they get their start. Mhm. So, this is a really good pilot. Glad to excited to see where it goes. Um I think it I think this is going to be a really good thing. And these are all accredited teachers. >> Yes. But they're genuinely excited about the program and engaged. >> Yeah, they
034chose to they chose to join. We didn't you know, we didn't dangle their contract in front of them and say, "Or else." You know. We just said They're excited. These are But these are people who've In fact, I've been in the building with some of these people not realize they were adjunct. I just Their principals don't treat them like they're adjunct. Their coworkers don't treat them like they're adjunct. They're They're in the classroom teaching our kids, and so we're trying to get them better at doing that, and we're trying to get them certified. Now, I just want to just harp on this a minute. I know we talk about this a lot with teacher shortage and what are we doing adjuncts, but to see a program like this is great. It's a great bridge program
035cuz a lot of times you can feel alone, and oh, I got to go study on my own and figure this thing out, but you guys are giving them a helping hand, and so, I love the program. Good. Thank you for doing I'm excited. Uh we recognized elementary English language arts rookie teachers who are already making big moves in literacy instruction, and seasoned veterans who have dedicated years to building strong readers and writers across our district. So, we went around our instructional facilitators and and presented people with some uh certificates for their for the progress they're making with kids. When you can see those tangible gains, it's really exciting. Uh Mid-Del counselors attended the 2025 for counselors only conference. Megan Bryant, Mid-Del's executive director of family and student services, also presented sharing how Mid-Del is
036preparing for upcoming changes to graduation requirements beginning with the class of 2030. And uh but Megan and and again the class of '31 and '32 and '30 They're just going to keep changing stuff every year. >> Every year. Don't want us to actually lock in on a target, do they? Several members of our Mid-Del leadership team were uh recently attended the COSA Women in School Leadership Conference. My invitation again was lost in the mail. Uh in addition, Dr. Broiles was featured on a panel discussion during the conference, and I heard from several people in other districts about what a great job she did, which I just said um duh. Of course, she did. Um I was then I did get an invitation to this, Project Empower Her uh periods and policy panel, and I got
037to talk with UC Senator Nikki Nice um and and Erin Engel Clee from Re-Merge Oklahoma, which is a nonprofit, just talking about the work that we did with our foundation a few years ago on um ending period poverty, and it was kind of I was surprised I was asked to speak on this panel. I assumed it was that my invitation was for Lindsay Barks and not for me, but uh they wanted me to come, and and it was a really good uh audience. We had a great conversation. Uh Principal for a Day, the Mid-Del uh the Mid-Del City Chamber of Com- Commerce's Leadership Mid-Del City Program, uh they sent this year's cohort around to shadow some of our principals. And uh we did a mic'd up video with them also, didn't we? That it was
038probably out on social media. Um and I think that's the week that I was sick and I missed that one, but anyway, that's always a really good event. Um principals always come back with great stories of I didn't know they did that in school because a lot of the people who go through the Leadership Midwest City program haven't really been in school on a daily basis since they were in school, so it's always good to have that community engagement. Maybe we can get some legislators to do that. That's great. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. Poker face, poker face. Um we had for our um Purple Star school, um she's you're just coming with jokes tonight, Ms. Sandy. Um but um we had really good media coverage from all the TV stations and local uh as well.
039The Beacon did a really good job covering it. And again, I just think that that they really hit the the mark of showing why um you know, we really pride ourselves as the district that takes care of military families and takes care of uh families on base who have students and even though they can choose any other school around us, uh we want them to feel good about choosing us. Ms. Grant asked me this afternoon how many of the students at Tinker Elementary uh are military kids and what you said 209 out of 344? A lot. So, yeah, it's a lot. So, I mean it's it's you know, that's it's that's just part of our culture. That's who we are and I think it's one of the most compelling reasons for families to choose Mid-Del.
040And they matriculate up through our other schools as well, right? Yeah. And so, you being a having been a pro-military family and I was telling I think you don't have to copy my kiddos, went to nine different schools in the military, nine different schools. Yes. Yeah. And you know, it's it's it's um it's a lot. I mean, having gotten to know um through SAB and other ways, you know, some of our families that have you know, that move every couple of years, just getting getting to hear their stories and how hard that adjustment can be. I'm glad that we do everything we can to support them. Excellent. Be on the lookout this week for uh the Mid-Del podcast that Stacy and I will be co-hosting. And uh we decided to title it Off the Record.
041What can I get to talk about? Well, you know, your turn's coming. Your turn's coming. That must help with the whole situation. Or, you know, we're going to try to get a few episodes out before the end of the school year. We have what, 6 weeks left? So, not a lot, but we want to We're going to start with our district Teacher of the Year and go from there. And um anyway, we'll send it out. So, like and subscribe. What? I told you I was going to say that. Good job. All right. Good job, Dr. Cobb. Excellent job. Excellent job. Can we get the lights back on? I liked it like that. Okay, we're ready for item C. D. Legislative update, Dr. Cobb. You just Item C. Hm? Yes. Yeah. Um I do want to
042mention one more thing real quick before I go into the legislative update. Uh the foundation launched a fundraising campaign today called Mid-Del students can do it all featuring Chloe Daniels, who was the She's the Del City All-State wrestler in the picture, but um interviews with her coach uh Jamie Schauer Schauver. Yeah. Okay. I'll say it right one of these days. Schauver. And then um Guy Mitchell, who's our uh drama teacher at Del City High School, and talking about how we have students at every school who um a a number of students who are active in fine arts and athletics. And so, we're going to be putting out a video featuring students from each of the three high schools over the course of the week. Just having them talk about those experiences, but also their teachers
043and coaches talking about those experiences as well and how they play off of each other because we want to be a a district where students can choose multiple ways, you know, of shining, whether it's academics, leadership, athletics, fine arts, two or three or or all four of those things, you know, don't you don't just have to be one thing to be a great student in Mid-Del. Excellent. Okay. And now for the fun part, the legislative update. Um I have for the sake of brevity, I've left quite a few bills off of here, but if there's anything you want to ask about any of the topics, I'll give you my take on them and let you know what I think I know about where these are headed. Um I've pulled a lot of my notes from
044this from the COSA and OSSBA legislative updates. Uh Becky Foster sends me every week the the career tech legislative update. So, we always have um just a variety of uh groups that are watching bills that progress through. Um I will say that this is the first time in my memory that we have had a budget agreement from the House, Senate, and Governor's office by uh by April 1st. By law, they're supposed to have a budget adopted and signed by April 1st, but it that's never happened in ever. Um but um a little bit about this budget, it's $232 million in new common ed funding, which is a 5% increase overall. If you don't count the flexible benefit allowance, which they have to fund in full, it's really about a 3 and 1/2% increase. It includes
045a $2,000 teacher pay raise. Unlike other pay raises that the legislature has approved in the in the past, they have attempted to put funding in the formula for all certified employees. Um this one they specifically excluded anybody who's an administrator. My understanding of the the way the bill was written is that it still does include raises for instructional coaches, counselors, librarians, but there was some talk about not including them as well. It just it it's always amazing to me how that works. The way the bill is written any district that is already $2,000 above the state minimum wouldn't have to do the pay raise, but we're going to find a way to do the pay raise. So, I mean it's just I mean it it'd be kind of wild not to do that. But, there
046are a lot of people normal normally when the legislature has done a pay raise, it has been for every certified employee except for the superintendent. So, now they didn't even fund principals, uh assistant principals, uh other district administrators, but again we'll we'll work our way through that through the budget process. And there are a lot of other initiatives that are in this this bill. I think overall there are a lot of good things in it. Um but, the $2,000 pay raise is is um in my mind as a good thing. And it's a start. Um I wish they didn't wouldn't go three or four years between pay raises for teachers and funding them because it's you know, it's um about a 4% raise to the starting salary. Um but, I think buying power over the
047last 3 years has has decreased by more than 4%. So. So, they have the math coaches and curriculum. Are they recognizing that math is a area that needs a needs attention? I think they are. They're they're um there's a bill and I don't have this one in here that would require a certain time block for math instruction in every every day in elementary school. Um you know, we have spent millions and millions over the years on reading instruction, intervention, remediation, all of that. And I do wish that over that same period of time that we had had the same urgency about math. We just as a state we just haven't. I'm glad to see that coming in here, but when when you look at all the training we've been trying to do uh the the
048teacher reading training um that the state is putting out. Again again, we're trying to cycle people through this, but you always have to you always get we always get new people. And then when we're onboarding you know, our teachers are already drinking through a firehose just learning how to be a Medill employee, much less get all the new PD. So, it's it's good There are a lot of good things in here. I do want to mention ad valorem reimbursement because this is one of my pet peeves. I'm happy that it's part of the funding package, but ad valorem reimbursement pays schools back for the property taxes they don't collect because of of um a TIF in their school district. So, a tax increment finance district. For example, the the TIF on 15th Street where sooner
049Rose used to be, all of that redevelopment. So, until that's paid off, we're not collecting property taxes on all of those businesses. Um so, we get some ad valorem reimbursement there. It's not necessarily one-to-one, but it's just a reminder that every district that does a TIF, every if a TIF happens in Norman or Broken Arrow or Woodward, that is depleting the state formula. Right. And so, every time a municipality decides anywhere in the state to do a TIF, that actually has an impact on every other school district in the state of Oklahoma. So, I just think it's always worth mentioning. I'm glad we get the reimbursement, but it's also the fact that it has to be a thing is kind of a pet peeve of mine. And there is some opposition out there to that.
050Mhm. There is. Because Dr. Kirk and I found several of them, you know, and they don't Yeah. There are some people that want that done. >> Mhm. That we're not going to get that anymore. >> valorem reimbursement? Yeah. Oh, yeah. >> saying that, you know, Yeah. just why everybody's vote is so important because how many times Dr. Clark and I have heard educators don't vote. Yeah. They're not afraid of us. We have to vote. That's right. So, some other noteworthy legislation, and again, I'm going to miss quite a few bills because I didn't want this to go on forever. I think I have about eight more slides, maybe. Uh House Bill 3151 increases the minimum number of instructional days to 173. We currently have 171 days in our contract. So, let me go back in
051time. In 2007, I think the legislature passed a law allowing school districts to take the 10 the 180 minimum school days and reallocate that as 1080 hours of instruction. Right. And then last year they raised it to 1086 days. And we can we can use those 1086 days anyway we want to. There was a time hours I'm sorry, hours. Yeah, 1086 days a year. Let's go back to the slide on math, Dr. Daniel. Um So, we can use those 1086 hours anyway we want to. I'm making math mistakes in front of Zach. I'm really embarrassed now. Um And some districts were going as far as having every Friday off. Their school calendar was only 144 academic days. Um Uh last year or the year before the legislature changed the minimum to 166, which still allowed
052them to have a lot of Fridays off, but not all the Fridays off. Um This is going to change the minimum number of days to 173. I was not working here when that bill was passed, and I probably have the date wrong, but it's 2007, 8, 9, somewhere in there that that bill was passed um allowing us to count hours for days. Um but that became part of the negotiated agreement. Um and we have the number of instructional days that we have. We have the number of contract days that we have. And um we will have a year to implement that change. That probably should have been another bullet on this on the screen is that this will go into effect for the 2027-28 school year. So, we'll have a year to work through all
053of that, but that will impact our negotiated agreement. Um, if we're adding two days to this to the calendar, I think it will affect our start and end times at school. There's There's a lot that's going to have to go into implementing this change. And it's not to the governor's desk yet, but based on the votes in both chambers so far, I'm pretty confident it'll get to the governor's desk. >> Funding also. Oh, no. No funding for it. That's Funding. That That would be But, I mean, if we're adding two days to a teacher's contract >> They should get paid. >> paid. >> Yeah, I mean, so we're talking about a $2,000 pay raise like this year and adding two days to their contract next year, but with no new funding where where is that
054going to come from is a is a real question. >> Right. Um, Senate Bill 1614, we were just talking about adjunct teachers. This uh bill would disallow, if I remember correctly, it would disallow us hiring new adjunct teachers, right? Or we would we have to get rid of the ones that we already have? We would have to get We would have to either reassign or just eliminate the ones that we already have. And that's >> And that's pre-K through through five or it's K through five. We already don't have can't adjunct for pre-K and K. We have 42 elementary adjunct instructors. I don't how know how many of them are not teaching reading and math. I would assume with those 42, there might be a couple. Um, but most of our elementary teachers uh kind
055of work all the way around with our kids. So, it's not, you know, if you're teaching second grade, you're in a self-contained classroom. But, if you're teaching fifth grade, it might be departmentalized. You might be a social studies or a science teacher. So, that uh that one has made it through committees in both chambers and all the way through, I think, the Senate without a single no vote. And so, it'll It's up for the vote I think it's up for a vote in the house this week. And so, I would expect that one to pass as well and we'll need to start preparing accordingly accordingly because that's going to be rough. We don't have certified applicants for those 42 positions. >> Right. Poor Pam. Um House Bill 3705 increases the parental choice tax credit by
05610%. Ridiculous. Note that you know that's that's more than the increase that we're getting. So just um and there's still no accountability in how that money is spent or on student performance in the schools where those vouchers are used. And most of those people getting this make $250,000 a year. Yeah. I don't know the data on that but I just know that I I I know this line at the bottom is my biggest problem is we have to account for every dollar that we spend and we test our students and we provide that data and it's not always flattering. Um but it's public data and I just feel like that should be true for any any state funds that are and they can call it a tax credit it's still state funds being spent on
057education. Uh 1778 is the Strong Readers Act. This is um a um basically another third grade retention bill. This happened about 10 years ago when we were what two three state superintendents ago I forget I lose track. And um and then eventually parents got upset about it and got the law changed. Um I personally believe that third grade is too late if we're going to be retaining students. I see some nods from principals. And um you know I think we're going to have to start having conversations earlier with families about you know what about what's best. Um but ultimately um I I think this is going to get signed into law as well whether it's good policy or not. Senate Bill 1630 if you remember last year, the legislature limited our virtual days to two
058per year and they have to um they can only be approved if there's a public um like a declaration of an emergency by the governor. And on the morning that we wake up with a half a foot of snow on the ground, we don't know if the governor's going to declare an emergency. Probably not, it's just snow. But we know people aren't coming to school. So it really will starting next year pretty much kills the idea of virtual days. But um I think they got enough the legislature got enough pushback from districts about how high you know the state changed our high school accountability test to the ACT or SAT. Districts get to choose, most have chosen the ACT. Um and and when when you're trying to give the ACT to an entire junior class
059at your school, you're using most of the classrooms because of the testing requirements and you're using most of your staff and you certainly can't have people moving around between classes. So we've been using a virtual day for that for the last several years and we will be allowed to keep doing that as long as that gets to the governor's desk and he signs it. Uh school safety funds the last three years, the state has allocated roughly 92,000 per school district regardless of size. So we with our 12,000 students get 92,000, a district with 1,000 students gets 92,000, Oklahoma City and Tulsa get 92,000. I wish they scaled differently. On the other hand, we we use this funds to pay for most of one of our SRO positions. So it's still a nice it's still a
060nice thing to have in the budget. Um I wish it was scaled based on school size or at least tiered. You know, this group of schools gets this amount, this group the next highest group gets another amount. Um just because we're not all we're not all one you know, districts with one campus. Um I think sometimes the legislators are being responsive to the fact that the majority of districts in Oklahoma have under 500 students. And that makes sense in a district such as that. Um but it but $92,000 you know, per campus or per feeder pattern would make a huge difference for us if you know, if we got that increment times two or three or or more. Uh 40 House Bill 4359 would move the testing window to the last four weeks of the
061school year. Um we had some concerns about this because of the AP testing window in May. But this is only going to affect third through eighth grade testing. So it's not going to really be a problem with our high schools. And then there are several bills that could impact ad valorem collections. Um Senate Bill 20 or 227, it makes some changes to the way certain equipment counts for gross production tax. The The way the funding formula works in Oklahoma districts that receive more in local revenue and and think about Western Oklahoma, Northern Oklahoma, there are a lot of districts that get a lot of gross production tax from oil and gas production. So much in fact that several districts are off the formula. They don't get state aid really to speak of. So the more
062things you exempt from being taxable under gross production the more school districts that will have to come back onto the formula. Which then dilutes what is distributed in the formula for the rest of us. So that's a concern that I have with that. Um HJR 1087 which would become a state question and would alter the way counties can collect taxes for manufacturing facilities. I'm not going to pretend that I'm completely versed in all of that, but um they haven't in my I mean that I have seen, they have not put together a good um cost estimate for how that is going to impact not just school districts, but other entities that collect taxes. Um and then it how the replacement for that would look. Uh HJR 1081 which would increase the eligibility for the senior
063property tax freeze. Uh again, I think that we all understand the intent behind it. But I haven't seen a fiscal impact statement that that gives me any clarity at all. Um House Bill 4145 increases the homestead exemption from $1,000 dollars. If you file on your property tax for the homestead exemption now, it's $1,000. Uh Representative Manger has filed um legislation that would actually change that to 7,000. And uh there's been talk about lowering it to 5,000 or even to another amount. But when I looked at the bill last night, it still said 7,000. Um the last three bullets are supposed to be indented. Uh but the impact to us if it was a $5,000 in if it was increased to $5,000, we would lose about 3.4 million in revenue um from the county. Or if
064it if they increase it to 7,000, 4.8 million. And then the tax center, you can see 560 or 750,000. And those are figures provided by the Oklahoma County Assessor's office. Again, that's uh you know, imagine us losing basically $5 million in ad valorem revenue. What what I I don't even I don't even have a have a dry erase board to cover all the things we would have to brainstorm cutting, but it's a lot. Um the County Assessor's office also added one caveat with these figures, that they're based on the number of people in Oklahoma County who currently file for the homestead exemption. And a lot of people don't file, it's just $1,000, they don't mess with it. I'm also like it's $1,000, I'm I'm to mess with it. But if it's $7,000, a lot more
065people are going to file for that. So, I don't think there's really any way to capture what that would do. It would also impact our ability to pay back our bonds. Um and we are heavily obligated for the next several years based on figures that we believe to be true in 2023. So, it's a lot to think about. Um my thought is um I know that, especially in an election year, anytime you want to talk about lowering people's property taxes, um that's low-hanging fruit. It sits well with people. But, if you're not talking about the consequences on the other side of that, then it's it's not responsible. So, I just think it's important for us to stay engaged with all of the bills going through the legislature. Um they can do whatever they're going to
066do on policy, and I can think that they're making good decisions or bad decisions. But, this is our ability to pay our bills, to pay our people, to educate kids, and and that's a real problem. I don't I don't love the idea of mandatory third-grade retention. But, I really don't like the idea of what this is going to do um to our staffing if any or several of these measures go into law. So, I just thought I I thought those were worth noting. >> Who's the author of that bill? Is that Menger? Menger is the author of the um of the um of H House Bill 4145. And I've talked to him about that um at a YMCA event actually a couple weeks ago, but um he knows my feelings on it. Okay. I'll make
067him aware of mine as well. Okay. And that's all I have. There are still a lot of bills out there covering a variety of topics, including mandatory uses of instructional time for this, that, and the other. Um there are bills out there on screen time still. Um I don't know what's going to make it to the finish line. I keep hearing that the legislature is going to try to to adjourn earlier in the session earlier this year than they normally do. And um that's you know, I don't know why necessarily. It's It's an election year, but so it was an election year 2 years ago and 4 years ago and 6 years ago and 8 years ago, so I don't know why the urge to end early other than maybe I don't know, they just
068want They can. So. Anyway, it's going to be an interesting next few weeks as the legislative session wraps up. And I'll probably not have another legislative update until June because in May if the legislative session has ended, the governor may not have signed everything or vetoed everything yet. So, I want to wait until June when we know what actually has become law. When they always behave at the capital. Right. So, we will certainly go over all of our concerns. Item E. Anything else on the comment I have? That's all I have. >> Okay. Item E, overview of mental health specialist and the reset program. This is Bryant. Bonds. Do you need to go over our bonds first? >> sorry. Bond update. Bonds next. Bond update. I'm not rushing you. I'm not rushing you, dear. Okay.
069President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb. Um Rick Watts, our director of operations, who typically is here to give you an update, um was unavailable tonight, so I brought some of our project team members that are actually leading these projects just to quickly give you an update on them. So, I'd like to invite Chris and Kyle and Dennis, and they'll each speak to their projects. Hello. Hello. We'll start with uh Country Estates. Up here, we got some pictures. We um got site demolition done on the project. We got our building pad finished. We started digging footings. I think we had our first placement of concrete today. We've got utility work ongoing and we've been doing a lot of coordination with the principals at Country Estates, Ridgecrest, and Cleveland Bailey on the upcoming interior work.
070So, that's been a It's going to be a challenge, but it's going to be fun. So, hopefully you guys are going to like it after it's all finished up. So, Um this one's Eppley Heights. Uh we've got paint ongoing. Millwork's going to be coming in the coming weeks. We've got site work that's going going in. Our site work grading, sod, and then we've got our storm shrouds in place, our floor tile, wall tile, everything is ongoing there. This one's Tinker. We actually had a punch walk with the owners last week and we're currently working on the punch list there right now. So, this picture up here that you see on the left is a little outdated. We got grade work done. We got sod down. We got a few other things on the outside finished
071up. So, um that's what we've got going on there. Okay, Kenny McMullen is leading uh the new Townson High School. He was unavailable tonight, but here we can just we're showing you that the storm shelter walls are up. So, that is in place and they're just continuing with the rest of the building uh with the with the structural steels going up. Okay. Hi. This is the Colbert Middle School classroom addition. Um also a picture a little bit about um we almost finished with the exterior of the building. Um Currently, the we're shooting for Friday to have all the brick veneer completed and then next we're moving on to the coping and stuff like that. We're inside working currently on painting, furring down over the millwork area, so that way we can get the millwork team
072in for measurement and start fabricating all our millwork. Um and while we move forward try to get the building acclimated with getting the utility gas to the building and turning on the rooftop unit. Now, is this just one classroom? It's a two-story building. >> Okay. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Okay, so that's classroom. So, that's all looking good. Yeah. Okay. Oh, sorry. That's okay. I have only one. This is a bridge that connect the existing building and currently what we're doing right now we're installing where those plywood you're seeing there there's FRP panel that goes in there and waiting on for inspection on the the ceiling area so we can get the ceiling grid completed and start dropping our ceiling tile. Stuff like that. So, moving forward pretty fast. Okay. Oh, you go. Okay. Uh this is
073a Del City Middle School Classroom Addition. We have two buildings there. Building area B is where we've started our brick veneer exterior finish on that. Interior we have it's sheetrocked out. We're doing our tape and bed in there, tiling. So, we're making good good progress there. Area A we are sheetrocking interior on that and here in a few weeks going to start installing kitchen equipment in there and start the exterior finish on that in a few weeks on that. And at Midwest City um the interior finishes are ongoing, coming along well. Kitchen equipment installed. Working on that. I think the flooring uh terrazzo flooring is fixing to start there soon. And then s- in April now the um exterior improvements paving blocks will begin on that. This is the Carl Albert Athletics. Currently we're working
074on the exterior improvement with the paving. So they're getting the final grade elevation and then we'll start in the next couple of weeks with the paving. Beyond the interior we are getting ready for tile and LVT and stuff like that carpeting. The ceiling grid already installed. They're just waiting for some MEP which is the mechanical electrical to do some final touch up so we can get our inspection for overhead ceiling and from there we're just dropping tile and moving along. And what's Carl Albert Athletics? So this has been running concurrently with Cams. We bid it as one project just because it was right across the um the alley from each other but it is there at the stadium. It's an end zone facility. The end zone facility. Okay. Thank you. This is the Midwest City
075Fine Arts project just right north of here. Um our brick veneer finished up this week. Our wall tile, floor tile, things are going in. We've got paint going on the storm shelter. Our sheet rock is about 90% complete on the interior. Um so we've got our ceilings will be starting pretty soon in the storm shelter as well. Is that it? What's the picture on the left? So the picture on the left is one of the bathrooms. Um if you see it's kind of got like a piano look at the top where that black accent tile is. And so that's that's what that is. It's one of the bathrooms. Okay. One of the Yep. The fixtures ready to go in. Yes. Um also as well we do have the commemorative memorial bricks over there and I
076do know that that's something that's very important to you guys, so we want to make sure that when we get closer to a point, probably on May, June, get with everybody and schedule a time for everybody to kind of see what we need to do over there to get them placed. >> that. I don't know how to reach out to all of the people who paid for whose families are represented in those bricks. I just know that there have been a couple of Facebook groups and just individuals that have also reached out by email about that. So, I appreciate that and we'll do our best to contact people so that when those bricks are reinstalled, we can have I don't know, maybe a special ribbon cutting just for the bricks because I think it it
077just means a lot to the people who who helped us have those. >> Yep. That's it. This is the Calvert High School storm shelter and classroom addition as well, two-story building. This initially was targeted to complete in August, but the team did such an extraordinary job on this project, we are pushing for June turnover. And so, currently, as you can tell, we are just in the final touches right now, just getting ready for punch with the architect. We just meet with him today and trying to get him scheduled in the next week or two to come out there. Millwork is completed, flooring is wrapping up as we speak. I just came from over there, they're just grouting the the first floor right now and things like that, so it's getting close. It's good. You meant
078the the timeline. I mean, you just mentioned June for this. Do you have the timeline for the others? I know Townson is called the 27th, 28th, but what about the others? For the athletics, uh we're shooting for June, July turnover on that one. That is accelerating as well. Classroom addition for the middle school >> will go through August cuz we have some summer work that we need to get done and we can't get the India right now until the school is out during the session. Okay. And then the safe rooms, I think there's safe rooms also. Yeah. Yeah. >> You have the safe rooms. Okay. Eberly, um, Tinker, Barnes, uh, we're turning over. So, those will all be ready this summer. They'll be ready for the start of school. Uh, and then all three middle
079schools, I know Dennis spoke to Cams, um, but Del City Middle, Midwest City Middle, they should be finishing up and being ready for the start of the school year, too. Excellent. >> Along with the high schools. So, um, tea What you saw tonight, Townson's the only one that will go into '27, and then we'll have There's still a few more that we're bidding. Cleveland Bailey, Country Estates. Right. Cleveland Bailey and Country Estates, because you guys just awarded that. Um, they are kicking off. They won't be ready until '27. Okay. And then the multi-purpose are still to be bid and designed, so. Thank you, ma'am. >> that covers all of them. Good job, ma'am. We appreciate you. Thank you for the update. Appreciate everybody. Now we're ready for Miss Megan, the mental health specialist and reset
080program. All right. Um, President Kirk, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb, I am excited to come and just give you a little bit of a snapshot and an update about the amazing work that our mental health specialists are doing across the district, um, within our sites, but also within our reset program. So, instead of giving you, because we're not done with the full school year, um, trying to give you just a snapshot of We kind of took the month of February and said, "Hey, what's the work that was done? And now let's reflect back, um, knowing." Um, one thing I would have to say is we are in the middle, so I want to apologize. We are in the middle of planning for '26, '27 so much that on this slide I put that.
081So, earlier I was back there panicking, texting my mental health specialist. I was like, "What year did you guys start?" I am so And then it hit me. I put the wrong dates. So, just keep in mind, um this is our current team for the 25-26 school year. Um so, if you kind of just to reflect back, um back in the fall of was our first year Middle had ever had mental health specialists working within the schools. And so, um thankfully for you as the board, you voted for us to have two mental health specialists. And so, that first um couple of years we were able to really figure out what was this program supposed to look like. What were these supports? What were What did our schools need? And um and really get in
082and talk to principals and teachers and counselors. Um they went out into the community a lot to get partnerships. But then this last summer, you guys were able to help us expand this program to support our schools and our new reset program. And so, this is our current um team of five mental health specialists that work for me and work and serve within our schools. Um and so, you know, the district has invested financially, um but also with the credentials that they all have, these are all licensed professionals. They're either LPC, a licensed professional counselor, an LMFT, a licensed marriage and family therapist, or an LCSW, a licensed social worker. And so, they all have credentials outside um that they bring to us as Middle employees. Um two of them are federally funded through our
083um supports that we get from that. And then you guys have helped us prioritize three of those that are coming from those general funds. So, um that's the investment for again this school year since I am a little bit in the chaos of this spring of planning for next year. So, that's our amazing team. They do a phenomenal job. Um and as you can see we have um two of them that primarily are only in our elementaries, one that is a mix between elementary and middle. Um she's spending a lot more time lately in middle. Um, but and then one that is more with our high schools and then we have one that uh one of our mental health specialist, Abigail, that focuses in our reset program and family learning academy. So, I don't want
084to go into way too much and take up too much time. Um, but just wanted to give you kind of a day in the life for each one of my mental health specialist that serve in our schools. Their days look so drastically different depending on what the needs of the kids are. Um, that's where they focus in and so these are kind of a snapshot. They could be in a classroom doing an observation cuz the principal and counselor said, "Hey, we're struggling with resources for these kids. Can you just do an observation and and kind of help us plan this out and staff it out or or figure out what resources they need?" Um, they could be doing one-on-one counseling therapy. Um, and so that is something that you'll notice in the data that they
085do a lot of um because a lot of our families we're trying to get them into counseling services, but we have counseling waitlists that are years long. And so um sometimes they're doing more of that um intermittent crisis response um of our counseling services. Um, and they could be doing small groups. We have a lot especially in our um elementary schools doing that. Um, family supports, de-escalation. Sometimes it's a kiddo that as the new term of eloper that my elementary principals taught me. Um, and so it could be a kiddo that's trying to elope the building and so the mental health specialist happens to be there and they're able to support the principal and the counselor in trying to um help that kiddo co-regulate and get them back into the classroom. And then sometimes partnering
086with our special education um department with IEP meetings and consultations and that. Um, so here's just a snapshot of again the data for just one month. I tried to make this based on students. And so you know, you can kind of I I won't read every single one, but um our highest clearly has been in the spring individual counseling sessions. Sometimes a kiddo might be seen for a counseling session once a week. Sometimes it's every other week. It just kind of depends on the needs of the kids and so they're fitting in a lot of those counseling sessions throughout a kiddo's day. You can kind of see the next one is those family meetings and calls. They're meeting with the families. They're trying to empower the families to maybe go out and get the resources
087that maybe their insurance can help them get or wrap around services, but they're helping partner and bridge that gap. And student check-ins I guess technically and behavior consultations. I just went out of order, but those are kind of our top four. When I say behavior consultation, sometimes it's just talking through with a principal of a kiddo that is exhibiting behaviors that we just have never seen and we're trying to figure out what resources do these kiddos need. And so that's a lot of times what they're doing. So you can kind of see the the data points based on students. This is just a snapshot of two of their calendars that I stole. So you can kind of see how they try and break their day. Sometimes they're at a school for a full day. So
088my counselor one, she's at Tinker all day on Monday, Soldier Creek all day Tuesday. She splits between maybe a smaller school where sometimes she's spot checking, sometimes she's going to half a day or every other Wednesday, kind of varies. Thursday, Midwest City Elementary, and then Friday, Barnes and Ridgecrest again kind of going back and forth between what their needs are. That doesn't always happen cuz sometimes it'll be, you know, Midwest City Elementary on a Monday they there's a meeting that kiddo that she's helping support, so she schedules it then. So but this just kind of gives you a a snapshot into that. Yeah, for sure. I was looking at the the observations, the classroom observations. >> Mhm. So 21, is that the norm or There is there are seasons where they're doing a lot. Um,
089right now a lot of our classroom observations we're starting to do more of for our reset program. So, our mental health specialist goes in and they actually observe the kiddo that's being recommended to try and figure out is this the perfect placement for them? Do we need are they more of a tier three kid? Do we need to look at more services? Sometimes it is a teacher is struggling and just needs that extra help and so that mental specialist can go in and have a little bit more time where maybe the school counselor and the principal are just swamped and so they can go in and do that. So, I think we're seeing more of those classroom observations to help the teacher of just strategizing. Could you break down the previous this slide right here
090with the data? Could you break that down per mental health specialist per week and just pick a month and do that? I do that's how they sent it to me is by that. I just tried to put it together so it wouldn't drag it out. I do have that data based on mental health specialist. Mhm, I can definitely get that to you. For sure. Yeah. And then um these are just some success stories. I won't read every one to you, but um an eighth grade student struggling with that low self-esteem and based on therapy is what this student was really needing. Um we started to see a lot of academic performance growth. Um so this was a success story of a kiddo from this school year. Um another one third grader struggling with listening, following
091directions, impulsive behavior and um his ability to regulate those behaviors in the classroom started to improve. Um they were getting feedback from those teachers and seeing gains within the academic class room in the academic side of their school. Um So Megan, these behaviors are more common with our littles than we've ever dealt with before, correct? >> Yes, we are seeing more than if there's a lot of elementary principals in the room and and they could probably nod their head and agree. We're seeing a lot of just behaviors that we've never seen before and extreme behaviors that we've never seen before that we're just trying to figure out how to support them. >> now they can't even tie their shoes, they can't you know, and they used to be able to say their ABCs, hold a
092pencil, those kinds of things. Okay. Yeah. And there's a lot of research. One of my mental specialist actually today is at a training that is completely shifting the way she's even looking at things and trying to see what that research is. And so, I'm excited to hear her come back and see what that looked like. So, or professional >> occupational therapist as well. Uh we don't have any within our mental health specialist, but trust his team. Um and this is a senior um struggling with self-worth. And then um we started to see more growth within having goals for what comes after high school. And so, um that's another success story. So, now we're kind of shifting into our reset program. Um I didn't do theirs based on a month. I did it based on a
0936-week session because that's kind of how in reset we have um structured the program. The kids are in there for a session. Um we have been through a lot of ups and downs. We've learned a lot of things. Every session I feel like we're fine-tuning and the team is just phenomenal. Um and so, for example, session three, uh we had 12 students consistently. Started with more and then had a few friends that um transitioned either back to their classroom or possibly to other programs. Um but for the most part, 12 students, um which meant 12 student 12 classrooms were impacted when those kiddos graduated recently. And something that we have kind of taken into kind of the heart of this program is yes, it might be 12 students, but it's impacting potentially 300 students because
094that kiddo is going back into their classroom and now he's impacting their whole class. And so, we took that based on um an average classroom that we have. Um a Broken Arrow has a program very similar to this and that's kind of how they started to look at it. And it was when we went up to observe, we were like, "Wow, that's eye-opening to think about it in that way. And then uh 48 individual check-ins just within those 12 students. So that counselor is doing a lot more of one-on-ones on her own um check-ins. So again >> How does it affect the teachers as well? Oh, very much so. Very much so. Impacts the teachers drastically. Um this data point though is based on hours, not students, because again this is what the mental health
095specialist potentially is doing. Her day looks very different than what my mental health specialists in the schools are. So they're doing a lot of um community engagement. They're actually going into the classrooms of their previous kids that graduated from session one and two during, you know, either before or after times or the off weeks. Um a lot of de-escalation support to a lot of kiddos that just aren't quite sure how to regulate their emotions, and that is what she spends a lot of time co-regulating with them and trying to teach them those skills. Um and then Halo time, Halo groups, is the small group curriculum that they do every single morning while they're in reset, where they're learning those um skills to be able to go back and take to their classroom. So you can
096kind of see what her snapshot of a six-week about how many hours throughout that six weeks she's been spending doing those things, those topics. Um and then it's kind of fun to put faces to names, even though we we're very protective of our kiddos in the reset program just because we don't want their faces to be out there. It's a It's a unique program, so you'll see a lot of hearts. But um some of our students have returned home from reset and gotten student of the month, which is amazing um to see. I promise probably early in the school year we might not have thought a few of those friends would have gotten student of the month because they were just struggling. And to see their growth and their teachers recognize that is huge and
097their and their principals. Um these are just some highlights of you seeing what's going on in the classroom. Um we some text messages from principals that have sent back and, you know, said, "Wow, he had a stellar day." And look at the growth that this kiddo has now shifted um leaving us So some collaboration a few of our a picture of our friends up there that are gluing. I don't know if week one we thought that they would ever sit by each other without you know not being able to safely use their hands and they were collaborating and doing a art project you know doing a classroom project together. So these are some highlights. Um we have tried to really expand the celebrations the reset team has done an amazing job of doing their graduations.
098And so I would love to send you guys an invite for our session four graduation in May. Um we have a some kiddos in the program right now. This session's a smaller a little bit smaller than normal just because end of the year is a little bit more hectic. But um we had grandparents aunts uncles teachers counselors principals come over and celebrate their graduation um which has been really exciting to see. Um one of our big the biggest impact I feel like outside of everything is these kiddos have felt connected to their own schools the whole time that they're there. And so our principals our counselors have been phenomenal about coming over or sending the kiddo an email and just saying hey I was thinking about you today I hear you're doing awesome. Um and
099and then the principal being able to work for the teacher to get to come and see them and maybe eat lunch with them or um and so that's been a huge huge impact on these kids. Um and then we're bridging those gaps of community partnerships. Um the middle picture is some donations we got from some community partners to help boost um our reset room where when kiddos need to just have some free space to cool down and use some of those regulation skills. So these are just some snippets of highlights and then that is kind of at least just a very quick snapshot so I had time to if you have any questions about mental specialist reset whatever. So I have a couple maybe comments Yes comments are great. I always got a question. I
100like it. But you know two things I really want to highlight the fact that thank you for doing this program. >> Yeah. You know, usually we treat mental illness or things in the past when we didn't have as much data or information, you know, it was behavior problems. So, we punished them accordingly. ISR, timeout, what have you, but now we're attacking the root cause, which I think is phenomenal. The second thing is you know, counselors versus Now we have mental health specialists. This is all loaded up on counselors before and we have don't have enough counselors. Mhm. You know, I've walked through some schools and before this program and we've had some counselors that were happy to do the job, very great at it, but totally overwhelmed. Very much so. >> glad to see that
101we're, you know, using this as a a vehicle to sort of relieve our counselors so they can do counseling and then have this mental health. So, that's my two my two com- my two statements that I make. I appreciate it. Question is >> Yeah. I know we've gone from zero to five in just a few years. >> So, the program is really just kicking off. Mhm. You know, you're hitting your strides. Now you have data. What is your feeling for this the workload? Is it I saw 217 individuals along with, you know, classroom interventions and all the pro- >> mean, are you getting a sense that, you know, are we right-sized for this now? We are a big district or >> Mhm. is it something that we're going to have to grow? I mean, do
102you see that immediately or I mean, I definitely think long-term, yes. I mean, that that would be the dream world is to have a mental health specialist in every building and you're supporting because, you know, us as school counselors we don't go I mean, when I went through my school counseling degree, it was crisis response and then get them to those resources. That's not something I was ever trained to do. And so, yes, but we know financially that's a massive investment. So, what my mental health specialists are being very intentional about is creating those partnerships, knowing yes, I would love to slowly add one here and another you know, and things like that, especially our elementary. I feel like we're that's where we need we our needs are the most and then middle, but uh
103but what they're doing is trying to be very intentional about the work that they do that a large part of their job is building those relationships. We call them gold star partners. So, going out into an agency for example that we're not paying them and contracting them, but they'll prioritize our kids. So, when we send a referral from for a counseling session, they will prioritize our kid over a kid from a different district. And so, we're trying to do that knowing it's not financially feasible every year to keep adding three, four, five every year. That's not financially feasible. Um but to be able to utilize their expertise and their partnerships. So, part of my reason for asking that question was for us the board and Dr. Cobb to really be sort of have our pulse
104on the on the situation because if the need truly is greater than what we have capacity to do, what we don't want is burnout. >> Mhm. We don't people leaving because they're overwhelmed. And yes, you can go out and get partners, but it allows us to at least plan for it and have an idea of kind of sort of what's going on and we can sort of govern accordingly. Like you said, look for other programs and the fact that we might have to grow the program if if need be or even just you know, maybe we streamline and and maybe we can't do everything, but we have to sort of target that sort of >> Yeah. It'd be good to I know you're probably collecting data and keeping the stats, but just to keep that
105in the forefront because this is a great thing. I just would hate for it to sort of fall by the wayside because we're just overwhelming. 100%. As a short term thing, you have to come up So, I appreciate all the data and do know me, I'm data first, people second. Um So, just a couple of clarification questions. One is you'll send me like your slides and all of that. I love to take a better >> I will fix the dates first and then I will send it to you. Yes. And then just for the reset program, we've had 12 total students. There's There's been in that session. So, how many total students have gone through reset? I will have to give it to you that number to make sure. I don't want to say the
106wrong number. Um session one and two we had larger numbers. Um but and then this session um we actually one of our one of our reset teachers because our numbers were a little bit lower, um he's actually being resourced out helping within the classrooms knowing we we had lower amounts this session. So, I'll I can get you all that. And then did we have a sixth mental health professional? We've only We've only had five. Mhm. Yes, we had um uh we had a uh mental health specialist resign early in the school year and so we were able to fill that position, but we had uh we started with two. We had two during the '23 '24 year, two during '24 '25, and then five for this school year. So, we added three this summer. Okay.
107I must have been mistaken. Um and so I'm still going to ask you um as we evaluate this. Um this is something that is near and dear to my heart. Um so, please don't shoot me about this. Um I'm popular opinion. Is this what public schools should be doing? Is this statutorily what our public school system is supposed to be providing mental health services and all of that? Because sometimes I think I've I said this in a legislative meeting. Uh the schools have effectively enabled the legislature not to fully fund them, right? You got principals are out here in the public and I just you know, I'll go on record and say it again. If the legislature doesn't fully fund you, what do you do? You go out and find the funding, which I applaud
108you for, but that also enables the state legislature not to fully fund you, which they are required to do. So, when I start looking out at all of the services that we provide, yes, it's necessary. I don't discount that at all, but from my vantage point as an elected member, I want to go back to teaching our students, right? What are we required to do statutorily? Because I want to give my teachers a raise. I believe in the school district so much. I have two children who are products of this district and I have so much great things to say about it that I want to give our teachers a raise cuz if we get there, we're going to get the best of the best. And so we have I just I and again, I
109hope you hear my passion and my love. It's it's not anything against mental health, but I'm I'm struggling up here trying to um just reconcile how do I pay my teachers, but then I'm paying these mental health specialists too and I'm not even sure that that's something we should be providing at the school. Um I'm not against it, but if I can give a teacher a raise, do I do I want to add another mental health specialist, right? So, that's kind of my struggle. So, I appreciate the data because the data helps me and it helps me also when I get inquiries from my constituents, which I have about the reset program and I have about the mental health professionals. So, please know that my heart um I love every kiddo in this district. That's
110why I ran for this position. Um and I just I want to get back to providing the best education that we can and I know there's a fine line balance there. So thank you for the presentation. I look forward to all the data. So that helps me out. So Shelly, not to rebut what you said. >> fine. That's why we're here, right? >> rebut what you said, but I'll give you a perspective maybe. Just my perspective. Megan is a expert. She has the data, but I can give you some of my perspective. So it's like if we don't do it, then what? Right. So we can wait on the legislator. That's a whole another thing. But when she showed the stat of 300 kids affected, when 12 were in the program, it's like that's how
111we get back to educating the teachers by having an environment where they can learn and teach and and you know, I can give you an example of when my kids when they were in elementary school, you know, my daughter had a she had a pretty hard time with getting punished when she didn't do anything wrong. It's our class was a little rambunctious, you know, kids were. So they would get you know, they would get punished for or not punished, but they would maybe not get to to have a pizza party or whatever and she would say, "Daddy, what I didn't do anything wrong. Why do I have to get, you know, with everyone else?" And so this is it's kind of like that situation where if you can help a child it could actually help
112the learning environment as well. And you know, working with >> with that at all. I'm just my question is should that service be provided by the school district because we have counselors. There are um there are counselors out there that work with the kids that have all of these I mean, you've got something like >> willing and able to take on In effect, the district is one of the few districts that actually offered at no additional charge. So if you have a kid that's hungry, that teacher is working 10 times harder because all that kid can think about is food. Same situation when it comes to their mental status. If you're not helping their mental, they're not hearing, therefore they're acting out, they're doing all the things when if that can be helped at the
113beginning and especially in elementary, you said the elementary principals, then that helps it further. Frederick Douglas said if you can train a child when they're younger, you don't have to retrain a grown adult. So, if we can get in there when they're kids and help them mentally learn how to adjust their behavior, learn what to do when they're frustrated because the teacher punished them when it wasn't them that was talking, it was someone else and they don't retaliate and go crazy in the classroom or walk in with a gun, God forbid. So, all these things we start helping their mental at a young age through the schools because parent may not have a car to get them somewhere. Parent may not have all the the things that you may have or that we may have
114to be able to help the kids. So, to me, just my opinion as well. Thank you because this is needed. I thank your staff. Awesome dialogue. Awesome dialogue. Awesome dialogue. And we'll have you can get that information to we're going to continue with the agenda. If you can get that that information to Mrs. Sophie, awesome. I can do that. Thank you guys so much just for the support for all this, for sure. I got to item six. Vote to approve or not approve the schools and libraries universal service rate bid for category one purchase of 2026-2027 Swite. So, Aaron is is not here tonight, so I'll be handling items uh six and seven. >> Okay. And both of these are just uh standard purchases using our federal e-rate money. The first one comes at a
11590% discount, so we're basically paying $30,000 for $300,000 uh worth of services from Cox Communication on on item six. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. I'll second. I have a question. So, are we guaranteed the 90% every year? And if we are, does that mean that our price won't change as far as that third approximately $30,000 that we're paying every year? I can't speak to the price because I think that's set by Cox, but but we qualify for 90% funding because of the percentage of students in the district who qualify for economically disadvantaged for free uh meals and all of that. So, that that sets our E-rate percentage as long as the federal government continues to fund E-rate. Um The expectation The expectation is that this all continues. It's been that way for
116over 20 years, so I feel I feel good about saying that. But, there maybe would have been another time when I felt better about it. Got you. Any more discussion? Question Ward 1? Anything? Ward 2? Nothing. Ward 3? Ward 4? Ward 5? Let's vote then. All those in favor? I. I. Well, let me call your names out. Okay. I have a computer. Mrs. Shults? I'm not getting in the middle of I. Mrs. Sandridge? I. Dr. Daniels? >> I. Mrs. Grant? I. And the chair votes I. Let's move to item two of item seven, Dr. Cobb. And this one is an 85% E-rate discount. It's just different categories, and if Aaron were here or if Charlie were here, they could explain it a lot more clearly. Charlie sent me a really long explanation that I could
117read, but please don't make me do that. Okay. Move to approve. I'll second. Do I have a second? Been moved and properly seconded. Any discussion? Let's vote. Dr. Daniels? I. Mrs. Grant? I. Mrs. Sandridge? I. Mrs. Shults? I. And the chair votes I. Let's go to item seven. Vote to approve or not approve the personnel needs for the 2026 summer feeding service program on June 8th, 2026 to July 23rd. Mrs. Mann. Uh President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb, I am requesting your approval for our summer food service program to be held at Midwest City High through the duration of the summer. Okay. Move to approve. I'll second. Second. Yeah. Any discussion? I have a question. Um will you just help me understand what child nutrition fund 22 is? Yes. So, um child nutrition
118is a little bit different than other departments just because we are sole. So, we do not We don't have any money with the general fund and the general fund doesn't have any money with us. So, basically we are self-funded through our reimbursement rates. Um so, anything that we ask for permission to purchase from fund 22 is from the reimbursement rates that we get from um breakfast and lunches. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Any more discussion? Let's vote. Mrs. Grant. Uh Mrs. Schultz. I. Mrs. Sandridge. I. Dr. Daniels and the chair votes I. Let's go to item nine. Vote to approve or not approve 14,014.62 cents in commodity distribution assessment fees from USDA. Mrs. Mann. Yes, President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb, I am asking for your approval for us to pay
119our yearly commodity distribution fees. Um and this is for our USDA donated foods um that we get from government. Need a motion. Move to approve. Second. Move to approve and a second. Any discussion? If not, let's vote. Mrs. Sandridge. I. Mrs. Schultz. I. Dr. Daniels. >> I. Mrs. Grant. >> I. And the chair votes I. Thank you so much, Mrs. Mann. Item 10. Vote to approve and not approve to declare the following surplus property to be demolished or sold by auction at a later date. Mr. Wolfe is out tonight. Okay. So, Mr. Wolfe is going to be standing in for him. Okay. Thank you much. Yes, President Kirk, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb, we're seeking your approval to surplus these portable buildings um so that way we can remove them from our property.
120Just like we've done the previous ones. I think I saw one going down the Move to approve. Second. Second. Yeah, then properly second any discussion? Yes. Just that I got a text from Kathy Kirk last week when the one was leaving Everly Heights and she was she was psyched about it. >> excited as I am. She was psyched. It took them forever to get down that street. The one was still there at Steed. That kind of surprised me. Yeah. Okay. A lot of things surprise me. >> Let's vote. Mrs. Shultz. I. Mrs. Grant. I. Mrs. Standridge. I. Dr. Daniels. >> I. And the chair votes I. Let's go to item 11. Vote to approve and not approve Trafera LLC to furnish and install three Newline interactive display packages as part of the Bond Fund 37.
121Yes, President Kirk, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb, this would furnish these Newline interactive display packages for the new storm shelter additions that host classrooms that have Newline displays in their classrooms. For these three sites, Barnes, I play, and Tinker. And is this I don't know if this is the same amount. Okay. >> approve. Second. I can move and properly second any discussion? None, let's vote. Dr. Daniels. I. Mrs. Grant. I. Mrs. Standridge. I. Mrs. Shultz. I. And the chair votes I. Let's go to item 12. Vote to approve and not approve Imagetnet LLC to furnish and install a new audio video conferencing system package as part of the bond fund 37 multi-classroom addition and storm shelter at Carl Albert High School. Yes, President Curt, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb, we're asking
122your approval to add this audio video system to the new storm shelter addition here in this conference room for the forum area of Carl Albert High School. Need a motion. >> Move to approve. Second. >> So, is this the first of three? No, the other ones are ready. Yes, each each site has kind of a different addition. This is Carl Each of them have a forum already at the high schools, but Carl Albert never really had a forum. So, this is this is for them to actually have a forum of just like the other two sites. So. Okay. Pardon my ignorance, but what is third display? Is that another monitor? Um so, it's kind of like a video board. There's there's a bunch of little boards that go together, and they all make one giant
123video screen. >> Just Thank you so much. And you say the other schools have this already, or are they going to have it when their storm shelter These These They don't have the exact same systems. These would be systems that we'd have to eventually put in place to make them equal to Carl Albert as far as that goes, but this is the first step in getting a forum put in. So. Okay, so we'll get this one, and then we'll work on the other ones. Yeah, that Yeah, so I mean this is a new forum. This is a new a new room at Carl Albert High School, and so we're basically building it and and outfitting it to a standard that we want the other two brought up to. I'm hoping at some point when we're
124finished with all of our bond projects and hopefully have some funds left over that we do some renovations in the forum at Del City High School and Midwest City High School as well because they're just it's time. Midwest City had kind of a glow up about six or seven years ago, but that's you know, in a high school that's those are What's the opposite of dog years? And at Del City High School it's it's desperately needed to to do a lot of reno there. So, I would like Carl Albert to kind of, you know, since this is a new facility, to set the standard that we're building the other two up to. Sort of like when we did all all the all the library work at Del City High School, now the other two high
125schools can say, "Hey, that's what we want to build up to eventually as well." Excellent. Excellent. All right, thank you very much. >> Any more discussion? Let's vote. Mrs. Grant? I. Mrs. Shultz? I. Mrs. Sandridge? >> I. Dr. Daniels? >> I. And the chair votes I. Let's go to item 13, vote to approve or not approve GMP amendment number 26 to the construction management and S Con tractor construct I can't talk construct agreement with Willbrook Inc. Yes, President Curg, members of the board, and Dr. Cobb. Um, this we are seeking your approval for this guaranteed maximum price amendment for Cleveland Bailey, the addition and renovation that will begin this summer. Uh, this will this will get our fees out to our uh, Willbrook construction management company, uh, our engineers, and our uh, architects for this
126project. Move to approve. Second. >> Second that. We have a Okay. Do we have any controls in place to because we've witnessed, and I've only been on the board for a year, all these change orders. Is there anything in place based on what they've done in previous locations that we're not going to have Yes, we do we do learn as we go along. Um, there are several of these things. Every time we encounter something we we compare that with the next project to make sure that we're not making the same or encountering the same type of situations. Um, so yes, to answer your question, yes, we are doing that. And we have so many massive projects going on. But, this is a guaranteed That's what they say, guaranteed maximum price. Yes. This project is coming
127under budget at about 277,000 under budget on this one. So, um, and that's with all the alternates accepted as well. >> is the from the bid to now we're ready to do construction. So this is like okay, this is the price. Yes. So this is not a change order saying I need That's not to say that you know, you get into a situation where you know, you dig up the concrete and there's something that's there that you didn't know about. That's kind of where we run into some things like that sometimes. So And that's what that's what I was asking about because my day job we deal with this. We absolutely try to do to the best of our Yeah. That's vote. Schultz? I. Is it Stanwich? I. Dr. Daniels? I. Mrs. Grant? I. And
128the chair votes I. Let's go to item 14. Vote to approve an out of approved Weleetka Music Center to provide specialty furniture, fixtures and equipment as part of bond seven bond fund 37. Yes, President Kirk, members of the board and Dr. Cobb, we're seeking your approval to add the specialty furniture, fixtures and equipment for the multi-classroom addition and storm shelter at Midwest City High School. Do I have a motion? Move to approve. Second. Properly second. Move and properly second. Dr. Schultz, will you ask you one thing? Yes. With the furniture, did the school site people have any decision in that process? As far as I know, Mr. Wolf was involved with that with the site staff. So I can't answer for Mr. Wolf in that particular situation. You did answer me. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.
129Thank you. Let's vote. Dr. Daniels? >> I. Mrs. Grant? Stanwich? I. Mrs. Schultz? I. And the chair votes I. Do you guys feel like you have to escape? Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Ready for human resources. Mrs. Houston? President Kirk, members of the board, Dr. Cobb, the first item we have is is our is our just our typical every month um processing of certified non-certified child nutrition and transportation employees. Okay. Move to approve. Second. Move to approve with a second. Any discussion? Westfield? Mrs. Sandridge? Aye. Dr. Daniels? >> Aye. Mrs. Schultz? Aye. >> Mrs. Grant? >> Aye. And the chair votes aye. Let's go to item 14, 15, please. No, 16. I'm sorry. Now, we just as I say, let's go to 17. Item 17. Um Vote to approve and not approve
130a contract with Concentra Care for service that will include DOT physicals for school bus drivers, pre-employment five-panel drug screening, post-accident DOT screening, random DOT screening, and suspicious screening. Mrs. Houston? Yes, ma'am. This is We just do this every year, but I We just wanted to get it out taken care of. We know we're going to have to have it. And um so, we just ask your permission to be able to partner with this organization. Yes, to approve the contract with Concentra. Move to approve. Second. Move to approve with a second. Any discussion? This is a renewal? Yes, sir. Oh, so this is not the first time you've No, we started with them last year. And the reason is they are local. They're on Southeast 29th, so we're bringing business to our neighborhood Okay. >> instead
131of going across to Meridian. Um and then they're They've been great to work with us in several They give us a portal so we can quickly see results to things. Okay. So, this is not a new requirement. This is Mhm. Okay. And you step to drive clear across town. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's It's much better. Yeah. It was over on Meridian. And this brings all of our services together. So, workers comp, all of the things that you mentioned, Dr. Kirk, it just puts it all in one location Good. with a group of people. Forgive my ignorance. No. >> But, what is K2 Spice Testing? What does that include? And I'm glad you and I are both ignorant on that, right? So, it is a synthetic drug that well hampers judgement Shall we may have
132It's synthetic. What our understanding of it is is that um it changes on a regular basis. So, it's incredibly hard to test for it and get an accurate result. But, Ms. Schultz, do you agree with that? Yes. Love that. So, times they can detect it. Yes, but They detect the things that are in it. which is probability that it is that. I'm going to agree with you. metabolite of it. It's just another um impairing substance that can be used and abused and we need to protect our students. I've never seen it terms and terms of specificity seen it spelled out that way before where we really look for that in there as well. Okay. Okay. Let's vote. Mrs. Stanridge? I. Mrs. Schultz? I. Mrs. Grant? I. Dr. Daniels? I. And the chair votes I. Okay.
133Item 18. Vote to approve and not approve the district administrator recommendations for 2026-2027. Ms. Houston? Yes, ma'am. These are just our district I must say just our pretty important but district administrators for rehiring for next year. Good job. Move to approve. Second. Second. Move and properly We approve. Any any discussion? Let's vote. Dr. Daniels? I. Mrs. Stanridge? I. Mrs. Schultz? I. Mrs. Grant? I. And the chair votes I. Item 18 Item 19. Vote to approve and not approve certified teacher recommendations for 2026-2027. Ms. Houston? Yes, ma'am. These are rehiring our certified staff into their positions. Any motion? >> Second. Move Any any discussion? Moved and properly Second. Any discussion? I got to ask uh President Hill, I noticed they have a very They have six to seven certified teachers. Is that about the right size
134for the class or do we need For their enrollment. For their enrollment, yeah. >> Most of the grade levels only have one teacher. Mhm. Yes, so we >> We do look carefully though and add a class size TA. So, we watch our pre-K and kindergarten numbers carefully and then we add class size TAs if the if a grade level is bigger than what one would one would hope. Okay. But, that is one of our smallest. I believe it is our smallest, is it not? >> Oh, yeah. By far. >> Okay, yeah. I was just looking at it compared to the others and just seeing Yeah. the end, but >> based on the student enrollment numbers. Mhm. Any more discussion questions? If not, let's vote, please. Mrs. Grant. I. Dr. Daniels. >> I. Mrs. Stanbridge. I.
135Mrs. Schultz. I. And the chair votes I. Let's go to item 20. Vote to approve an item for the recommendation of MDTC, the director of marketing and communication. Now, the fun part. Our recommendation for the director of marketing and communica- communications position at the Mid-Del Technology Center is Jason Adams. Jason brings over 25 years of professional experience in creative strategy, marketing, and communication with a background that includes 10 years in secondary and career tech classroom experience teaching technology, design, and video production. His career includes leadership roles in both education and ministry. He served as community relations marketing director at Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center leading brand strategy, public relations, and community engagement. He then became creative director at Choctaw Road Baptist Church overseeing technology, vision, creative content, storytelling, and production across multiple platforms. Jason is
136a passionate and engaged leader with a clear goal of enriching others' lives. He focuses on clear messaging, strong strategy, positive relationships, and building trust with the communities he serves. His proudest accomplishments are not tied to titles or projects. They are found at home. He has been married to his best friend, Christie, for nearly 29 years. Together, they have raised two incredible kids, Carson and Hattie. Outside of work, he has been known to enjoy a good Chick-fil-A iced dream cone and is the self-proclaimed iced iced dream ambassador. Jason Adams. Uh he is the self-proclaimed ice iced dream ambassador. >> have to try one of those now. >> make sure. I mean, we should all go get one. Field trip. >> Sounds awesome, do you think? Let's see. Any recommendations? I vote. I move to approve. >>
137Second. Moved and properly seconded. Let's vote, please. Dr. Daniels. I. Mrs. Grant. >> I. Mrs. Schultz. I. Mrs. Sandridge. >> I. And the chair votes I. Is he here? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, Yes. >> welcome. Welcome. What happened before? Okay. Welcome to Mid-Del. Welcome. Welcome. He used to be an AV guy at church, too, so we can talk. Yeah. He said we could talk. >> That's a job, right? Okay, item 21. Let's vote to approve or not approve the recommendation for executive of an executive director of elementary education, Mrs. Houston. Yes. The most patient children in the world are present with Ms. Hunt this evening. They're doing a great job. Our recommendation for executive director of elementary instruction is Ms. Sherita Hunt. Sherita Hunt is a Mid-Del Public Schools graduate having attended Park View Elementary,
138Kerr Junior High, and Del City High School. She holds a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from the University of Oklahoma and a master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Oklahoma. Ms. Hunt brings nearly 20 years of experience in education. She began her career at Tinker Elementary teaching first through third grades and later served as an instructional coach. She has held assistant principal roles at Jarman Middle School, Soldier Creek Elementary, and Park View Elementary. She served 3 years as principal at Barnes Elementary and has been principal at Midwest City Elementary for the past 5 years. She has also contributed to district initiatives including the negotiated agreement committee, MTSS committee, curriculum framework development, and currently serves as the principal representative for the Mid-Del Public Schools Foundation. Sherita Hunt. Do I have a motion?
139>> to approve. Second. It moved and properly seconded. Any discussion? Let's vote. Dr. Daniels. >> Aye. Mrs. Stanridge. Aye. Mrs. Grant. Aye. Mrs. Schultz. Aye. And the chair absolutely says aye. Congratulations. We have item 20 two. It's Texas. I'm I'm here ready. >> Dr. Kerr, we didn't get the families to I'm sorry. Family for Adam? You have family here? Family members, please forgive my rudeness. Please stand let us recognize you. Please, please, please. This is item 15, approved. I know this family. This is an awesome family. Thank you so much. >> Flowers, they should have brought you flowers. Mr. Adam, you have a and candy. We got THEM OVER HERE. PROBABLY NEED TO STRETCH YOUR LEGS ANYWAY. >> Congratulations on your meeting. Appreciate you. And we look forward to great things. Look forward to great
140things. I'll be waiting now, guys. Any more flower comments? Any No, no. Just go right ahead. >> Okay. Item 22. Zack, we didn't get you flowers. >> or not approve BOK Financial Securities Inc. for financial advisory services in connection with the school district's general obligation bonds. Mr. Robinson. Just the bond guy now. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. Item 22 is just a renewal for my services. There are no changes to the proposed fees in the contract from last year. Move to approve. Second. Motion properly seconded. Discussion? If not, let's vote. Mrs. Sandridge. Aye. Mrs. Grant. Aye. Mrs. Schultz. Aye. Dr. Daniels. Aye. And the chair votes aye. Item 23. Vote to approve or not approve a resolution authorizing the sale of the district's general obligation combined purpose bonds services series, rather,
14120 26. Mr. Robinson. Uh thank you very much. So, just um quickly, when they changed the tax code in 2018, there were some changes to the use of proceeds for bonds, and that impacted how we do our bond issues. And so, for the last 8 years, we've had the two series, and so that's why there's 23 and 24 separately here, just so um as a reminder there. For 23, the combined purpose bonds, that's for a total amount of 23 million 695,000. And so that will exhaust all of the bonds from 2017. Good. And we will be issuing our fourth series from 2023. And so upon the issuance of this series, we will just have the remaining bonds from the 23 election left. These bonds will be five-year GO bonds, so pretty short. We get them
142on and off the rolls as efficiently as we can to get you and your taxpayers the best outcome in terms of the interest cost. And so bids for this series will be due at 11:00 a.m. on May 11th. I'll be at your meeting that night to present those bids. This is just the required statutory item that you have to authorize the sale of the bonds. And so for 23 on the agenda, it would be the 23,695,000 is the amount to mature in five years, and bids due at 11:00 a.m. on May 11th. Do I have a motion? Move to approve. Do I have a second? I have one quick question. >> Based on the risk of inflation or we are in fact are in inflation will that impact the value of our bonds? It will
143impact the interest rate that the bidders will bid on our bonds. And we're fairly conservative in in all of our estimates. And so you know, we we monitor from year to year how how bonds like this are selling. You've got, you know, a nice group of school districts that are large, have a similar credit rating, issue bonds like this as far as the size and the term. And so we track the rates for those sales. And so when we do our planning each fall and into the winter for the coming year, we look at that and we update that because we want to be aware of how the market's moving. And so, um we have generally tried to build in a lot of protections for you and your taxpayers from the beginning of the bond
144plan all the way back to the election. And so, I think we're still in a fairly good place in terms of of our NAV growth and the rate on our bonds as we sell them annually. So, um we always want the lowest possible cost for your taxpayers and we work very hard with the rating agency um to to and then and then with all of the bidders out there to generate as much demand as we can for the bonds because the more you know, um folks who want to buy the bonds, that drives down our rate. And so, we work very hard um to generate that kind of demand. The market is the market, right? So, we're subject to the swings and changes of interest rates. Um the good news about our bonds is that
145being 5-year general obligation bonds, the the yield curve and rates can move around and they can move around quickly. Generally speaking, when you're on that shorter end of the yield curve, the first five years, you're not seeing the magnitude of of the impacts there. And so, if you go out 20, 25, 30 years, which a lot of bonds do that aren't just school bonds, those can be significant changes in the interest cost. So, we're relatively insulated here with our short-term, um but we're always subject to the market. Does that help? It does. I'm just a little jittery with the market right right now. I think you guys understand why. Do we focus on trying to get um Oklahoma um bidders? We do. Um Like is there something like a put not not so much a
146put forward, obviously, but just trying to get our own so that we are literally just spending money back into the state. We We do um as much as we can. So, the way these bonds are sold like as opposed to like a state agency when they have have their bonds are sold, usually they can sell bonds to individual investors, large institutions, and it's happening in real time. Um and you just go year by year by year of of the bond issue. And so, there you prioritize Oklahoma investors first that their orders will get filled first. >> Okay. This is a little bit different because the way that we have to sell our GO bonds is through a competitive sale where it's one bid from one firm for all the bonds. Okay. So, if you're JP
147Morgan or you're Bank of America or you know, these larger entities that are national firms because of the size of our bonds, it's it's hard for an an individual to just say I'll you know, I'll buy it, right? So, we have large, sophisticated, professional underwriting firms, and we want that because they they they understand the credit and the rating, and that helps us. But, so they may be placing these bonds with Oklahoma investors. We don't know. Our our charge our obligation is to get the lowest rate, and it's an all or none bid. And so, a a firm has to say, I will buy all the bonds at 3.114 or something like that. And so, um we want the bonds to go to to you know, Oklahomans. Um on some of the smaller issuances, you
148can see like the banks in the area will buy the bonds, and then you know that it's an Oklahoma you know, entity. And so, it's just the size of your bond issue is kind of you price out some of the smaller entities who could buy some of the bonds, but not all of the bonds. >> Okay. It's a great question. Yeah. Okay. >> Man, you guys came ready tonight. >> And you know that you have a bond guy up here, so How much time do we have? >> How much time do we have? Okay. Let's vote. Mrs. Schultz? Aye. Mrs. Sandridge? Aye. Dr. Daniels? >> Aye. Mrs. Grant? >> Aye. And the chair votes I. Let's go to 24. Vote to approve an approved resolution authorizing the sale of the district's general obligation bond building
149bonds federally taxable series 2026. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So, the tax code um provides that we issue this separate series as federally taxable. So, the investor who buys the bonds, the interest is a tax item for them. And so, we have to sell these bonds separately. And so, um we do everything that we do for the prior series, but we do it for this series. And so, it will have its own sale, its own um bids. It's It's a separate legal transcript, separate legal issuance of bonds. And so, we're just authorizing the sale of the um 5,785,000 is the size of this bond issue. We try to keep this as as um small or only what we have to issue um pursuant to the tax code because it's more expensive debt because the interest rate's
150higher on it. And so, we do the calculations each year to determine the the smallest amount of bonds that we have to sell as taxable bonds. And so, in this case, it's 5,785,000. And the bids for these bonds will be due at 11:30 a.m. on the same day, May 11th. I'll be at your meeting that night to present the bids. And so, you are just authorizing the sale of this series of bonds as presented. Okay. I need a motion. Motion to approve. >> Second. Any discussion? Let's vote. Mrs. Grant? I. Mr. Schultz? I. Mrs. Sandridge? I. >> Dr. Daniels? >> I. And the chair votes I. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you. >> Item 25, proposed executive session for the purpose of discussing employment, compensation, and or terms of employment with Dr. Rick
151Cobb. Move to go into executive I need a motion. >> Move to go into executive session. I have a second. Move and properly second going to executive session. Dr. Daniels? I. Mrs. Grant? I. Mrs. Schultz? I. Mrs. Sandridge? I. And the chair votes I. >> Mhm. >> Ready? Everyone ready? We're live. I got to let the record reflect the board returned to open session at Was it 8:35? 8:35 p.m. Those who were in attendance in executive for Dr. Rick Cobb, Shelly Shultz, Mrs. Shana Grant, Dr. Ed Daniels, and uh Jacqueline Woodard, and myself. But we don't have also Gina Stanbridge. During executive session we discussed the following: employment compensation and other terms of employment for Dr. Rick Cobb pursuant to title 25 section 307 B1. No No matters were discussed and no votes were taken
152during executive session. You want to go then? I make the motion to amend Dr. Cobb's salary and strike through line 10, automobile allowance, per discussion in executive session. Second. Move Move and proper to second. >> need to state the salary amount over there? Okay. Yeah. Uh Any more discussion? Okay. Ready to vote? Do we need We need to vote on that? Okay. Uh Dr. Daniels. I. Mrs. Standridge. >> I. Mrs. Schultz. >> I. Mrs. Grant. I. And the chair votes I. Let's hear something else. Okay. But item 27, new business. None. Item 28. Motion to adjourn. Oops. Move to adjourn. Second. >> Second. Moved and properly seconded. Let's vote quickly. Dr. Daniels. I. Mrs. Grant. I. Mrs. Schultz. I. Mrs. Standridge. Did you know we can just get up leave and that's it? >> doing
153it this way. Okay. Also