001Good evening and welcome to tonight's Cedar Falls School Board meeting. Today is Monday, May 11th. The board leads and supports the district's mission which is educating each and every student to be a lifelong learner and a caring responsible citizen. Our board of education goals are listed on the agenda as well as available on the website. Um we will head into our meeting for this evening um with our first item of the consent agenda. Uh the agenda the consent agenda has of course the approval of tonight's agenda. uh past meeting minutes, accounts payable, the HR report, open enrollment, and the waste disposal bid. I'll take a motion for approval. >> So moved. >> Thank you. And a second. >> Second. >> And any um questions or comments? Hearing none. Um all those in favor would say
002I. >> I. >> Oppose. The same. That motion carried. Um, tonight we will go into the student board representative communication report as this will be his last report of the academic year. James Pang, >> how you guys doing? Uh, got the blazer on. Figure I should get a little dressed up for my last one. >> But, uh, yeah, I got some updates for you for my last update. Um, first off, uh, just uh I mentioned this last time, but we had our staff appreciation breakfast and that was a great success. We were really happy with that. Um, we had Casey's pizza, fruits, uh, all you know, all sorts of good stuff for the, uh, you know, our high school staff, which we really appreciate and that was just nice to have. And then, uh, again
003to recap from last time, we also, uh, raised $1,000 for Do Better, Be Better. Um, so that'll be going to a family in need in the Cedar Valley. Really happy with that. And then for other updates, our sophomore leadership group has started a food pantry at the high school. So, um, that's really nice. You know, um, going to have some good donations and, uh, you know, uh, a resource for families at our school if necessary. So, you know, I think it's pretty cool initiative that we have. And then um her volunteer club we held a clothing drive um and we got uh were 300 clothing donations and other um there resources donated to like toilet paper and toothbrushes and toothpaste. So we made a donation to the Salvation Army and that was fantastic there. Um
004also I'd like to just say uh thank you as well you know being here for the last about year and a half you know uh it's always look always looked forward to being able to present to you guys and uh yeah fantastic experience can't thank you guys enough it's been an honor >> well thank you James it honor to have you um we have a little token of appreciation a little certificate for you um for um recognizing you for your um input these past year and a half and um we wish you very well. Um we were talking about the honors convocation which will happen tomorrow night at the high school. Um and we expect to hear your name several times. >> You guys are too kind. I'll uh hang this above the the bed.
005>> Thank you. >> Thanks a lot, James. >> Thank you. So, now we will move into the district update from our communication director, Janelle Hurst. >> Good evening, everyone. Uh, we'll have the presentation pull up real quick. We're going to stop on this slide to start out. As James mentioned, last week was teacher appreciation week and um you've heard the term of Mayber. Like May is like December with everything happening and that's kind of how it has been with appreciation days. And I just wanted to give a quick shout out to this is Carrie Clausman. She's a school nurse for us and this um she's pictured with some of our I think it's Orchard Hill kiddos there. But it was also school nurse day last week. Um so we wanted to recognize our school nurses
006are fabulous across the district and also our health assistants that do so much work kind of behind the scenes and aren't recognized as much. And then we also had school lunch hero day which was um I think the Friday before and uh that was just really great to recognize all of our food service staff across the district. They do some really fun things and the social media posts show they had an 80s day earlier in the semester and they dressed up in um I guess you would call it costumes now 80s outfits and then the um meal that day was 80s themed and uh I would really encourage everyone to go to all of our district social media pages especially Facebook. All those buildings did an exceptional job um recognizing everyone in their buildings and
007especially Holmes did some really fun things where they had students pick out um like give this to the teacher that could be confused as a to be a student. So that was given to their youngest staff member who's a new new teacher this year, their first year and given them to teachers that um have been there for them when they've had a challenge that's helped them in different ways. And the high school did that too. Jana Green, who's an instructional coach up there, has done a fabulous job recognizing. So, I would really encourage everyone to go online and check those out. It was a a great week. And not only at the high school, like James mentioned, but across all of our buildings, we had amazing donations from local businesses to help celebrate all those
008all those teachers. So, thank thanks everyone for all of that support and recognition for all the important work that everyone in our buildings do all the time. Um, and we are coming up on our last day really fast. That's going to be Wednesday, June 3rd. And we just announced last week students are going to be dismissed early and just wanted to get that information out there. Um, elementary at noon, junior high at 1, and then the high school at 12:55. So, make sure to mark your calendars for that, all the parents. And then this was other great big news we had last week. This is the Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards. And this is the first time Cedar Falls has ever submitted for this award. And look at that laundry list. They were recognized
009for outstanding musical production, outstanding achievement for ensemble, outstanding student orchestra, four students for outstanding achievement a principal role, three students for special recognition in a principal role. They also had um triple threat nominees with Marisol Blanco, Henry Castle, Ethan Jacobson, and Avery Rogers. And then open medley performers with Anna Broadall and Kaden Conrad. And I did want to just kind of highlight here as well. So, they're going to be part of the showcase, which not everybody that does a musical and submits gets to perform as part of the showcase, but they're going to perform as part of the showcase on Thursday, May 28th at the De Moines Civic Center. And then, so a certain ensemble will perform an excerpt from the Layiz production. And then that's actually going to be uh the words showcase is
010going to be live streamed that evening, but it's also going to be on Iowa PBS at a special time um later this summer. You'll be able to watch that. And then those four triple threat award program students are actually going to get to do um some work with someone that will be coming in from Broadway and they'll get to audition for camps camp scholarships and then the opportunity to represent Iowa at the Jimmy Awards or the National High School Musical Theater Awards in New York City which is a lot considering that is the first time um we've ever submitted for um outstanding musical. So that is the um it's the program's highest honor that they achieved. So, congratulations to um Michelle Rathy and um oh man, >> Molly McGill. >> Molly McIll, thank you. Uh
011Susie and all of the um Mr. Ramsay for the orchestra and then all the students and all the work. It's an amazing accomplishment that they have achieved. So, congratulations. Continuing on to our music, congratulations. This last weekend they had large muse large group music festival and um uh no shocker there. Look at all those fabulous division one ratings. Symphonic band, wind symphony, symphony orchestra, string orchestra, concert choir, treble cleft choir, bass cleft choir, and mixed chorus. So, congratulations to all those students and of course the uh instructors as well. And then this is actually uh I missed the uh I had the band when we mentioned this last time and I missed the the orchestra and the choir. So, I really wanted to make sure and mention them tonight. This was from the state solo
012and ensemble festival. orchestra had 16 events, 13 division ones. Aaliyah Flint and Rashika Chhatiger did a violin duet and had the outstanding performance in center 7 and then 70 events in choir. Um 36 division 1 ones, 26 division twos and then Ellie Smith, Marisol Blanco, Landon Clue, Carter Hand received outstanding performance for one of the centers and Ellie Smith received outstanding performance in a center as well. So, I'm um I should have added up our band, orchestra, and choir across this. Um big numbers there. Uh congratulations to all those students, especially those for the outstanding performances. And then our fishing team is on to their season. They actually this last weekend got second place in the Iowa High School Bass Team Championships after going to a third tiebreaker. And you must may ask what a
013tiebreaker is in a fishing competition. And I'm honestly not exactly sure, but they had to go back out and fish again. So, three different times they had to go back out, fish again for a certain amount of time and then um Prairie actually um took first place, but that is a big congratulations to the fishing team. They actually had two teams in the top nine and three in the top 15 and there were 57 boat teams that competed um this last weekend. So, congratulations to the fishing team. And that is actually an elementary through high school, third grade through 12th grade program that we have offered for students. And that was started not that long ago either, but has really grown maybe, yeah, five years ago maybe it started. Has grown into a really awesome
014program and great numbers and opportunities for our students. I wanted to mention the district um received the community partnership award last week at the business and community awards lunchon. It was held at the Diamond Event Center. This is an award that's given by the city of Cedar Falls and CFU and it was presented um to the high school for the high school project as a big project. So it includes a building, the stadium, the community auditorium and the Tiger Performance Center. And you'll see a few faces you might know there that were recognized. We had our jumping committee, some city staff, as well as um district reps and a few board members. So thanks to everyone for showing up to represent the district and congratulations to us. And also just wanted to mention our gold
015star teacher award ceremony is going to be not ours sorry our gold star teachers will be recognized at the mroy trust goldst star teacher award ceremony next week on the 21st 7 p.m. the Gallagher Blue Dorm. It's free event, open to the public. Uh it's a really fun, pretty quick thing to come out for and support and then they have treats after. So, it's a great night to come out and support those teachers and they encourage signs and noise makers to make sure they know who you're cheering for. >> And it is uh that time of year again. We've got some amazing retirees and service recognition recipients that are going to be recognized. Oh, the 20th 19th. Is that Oh, it's the same night as the gold star. Could be a busy night for everybody.
016Um, so that is a list of our retirees and service recognition recipients. Susan Armstrong, Dave Barrens, Maryly Betts, Carolyn Brown, Carrie Deberg, Jeff Hartman, Jillian Johnson, Katherine Lampman, Mr. Jason Lang sitting in the back there, Michelle Matias, Victor Ooa, Christine Phillips, Jack Soul, Cynthia Spore, Sarah Steiner, and Jareth Wit. And we're going to be um we asked all of those folks to send in little tidbits of things they've experienced and will miss. And we're going to be profiling them on our social media coming up um the next couple weeks. Congratulations to all of those folks. And then look into summer, we've got the Pat Mitchell golf outing coming up. Registration's open now. You can find that on the social media pages and the booster website as well. It's going to be um kicking off searches
017falls and there's a lot of postseason district all the things happening right now for all of the spring sports. So you can follow along and um see how everyone's doing. Um wish them well and that's if you want to get all this info in an email every other week along with some additional stuff. You can sign up with that QR code and there is our social media. I even tried to pair it down tonight folks and I feel like I ended up going quite long. Any questions? Thank you so much. >> Y thanks Chanel. >> It is it is a very very busy time and it's great to have that app the bound app which has not only activities and athletics but it also has a variety of other things like the honors convocation. >>
018Thank you for that fabulous mention of the bound app. You can download that where >> where we download it both on Google and what's the other one? >> Yes. Um um >> any Apple or Android device. >> Thank you. Apple and Android device. >> Got it down. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And available. Yes. On our social >> junior high and high school. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Okay. We go into the April financial reports. >> Absolutely. Hard to believe that we only have a couple more months in the fiscal year. Um just a reminder that these reports are always placed on file. Uh each year the districts are required to have an independent audit. Uh that independent audit is scheduled here rather quickly already. Hard to believe that we've just finished up one year and we're
019already beginning another year here shortly too. So uh we do anticipate that audit uh here in in June um as well as then in August as we finalize the end of the year. So, quickly we'll take a look at our April uh which is is really consistent with um every uh usually all the other months uh with the exception this month is is uh we did receive our payments from uh the property tax. So, you'll see that our revenues are a little bit larger than they normally are uh throughout throughout these uh different funds. Uh you'll note for our general fund, which again we utilize that for our general uh overall operations and salary and benefits associated to our general fund of a little over $14.6 million. Uh our expenditures again uh they continue to
020range in that $6.5 million on a monthly basis for a total cash investments of $22,19,436. Our management fund, again, uh management fund is utilized for our uh district liability insurance. um uh associated to workman's comp. Uh again, our revenues of a little over 779,000 with then expenditures mainly occur uh at that first fiscal year of uh July. So we have expenditures that do dwindle in throughout the year uh which you'll see of about $198 this month um for total cash investments of $1,674,28. We do have our save which is our onecent sales tax. Uh primarily we utilize this uh for construction facilities, maintenance um associated to our fleet as well as uh upcoming projects uh facility projects. We had a little over 732,000. Uh we do have expenditures of $51,48. Um each month we are
021required to transfer uh a specific dollar amount into our debt service to ensure that we can make those payments accordingly. um at that time which will occur in May. You'll see that expenditure occur in May of $357,929 for total cash investments of $17,86,289. Uh we do have our PPE, which is our physical plant and equipment levy. Uh Dr. Pati often shares uh that 10-year PPE plan. It does include our fleet. Uh it includes our roof uh that the board just uh roofing plan that uh the board just uh previously approved a couple months ago for summer roofing. Uh we had uh revenues of a little over $1.7 million with expenditures of $611,788. Again, we are utilizing these funds as well for the uh finalization of our natiatorum, which uh the board will anticipate to finalize
022here shortly as we finish that, but also then uh phase one and phase two of the Tiger Performance Center. So, Shields Tiger Performance Center. So, you'll see continuing expenses throughout the summer on this too as we move forward for total cash investments. Um and then as we move forward then we have our uh student activity. Our student activity then is our athletics and activities. As Director Hines had indicated, we had revenues of a little over 99,000 with expenditures of $107,995 for total cash investments of $88,684. Our agency fund as well as on our entrepreneur fund or our enterprise fund, excuse me, which is our food nutrition fund. Again, uh the enterprise fund uh does um equate to our salaries and benefits associated to our food service program as well as our food and supplies associated
023to that. We had revenues of a little over 305,000 expenditures of 355,412 with total cash investments of $3,940,794. And then we finalized with our student coffee shop as well as our River Hills consortium. And then as we move forward then these last two slides just indicate our year-to- date balances based on our certified budget at this time last year when the board had approved that. Uh one thing to note you'll see some negative numbers. What I mean by that is negative percentages. That just means that we've exceeded those uh anticipated amounts. It's definitely uh that we had budgeted for. Um so in the in the sense of our ple uh you'll note that the revenue was exceeded. So therefore it shows a negative of a 43% because and that was due to the donations as
024well as um the funding received for uh the natiatorum and the Shields Tiger Performance Center um as at that period of time last year we weren't sure if we were continuing with some of those phases. So just wanted to clarify why those negatives were uh listed on there. So it's exceeding those uh budgeted amounts uh in a positive way. So, and then that last slide just just those those last um funds that uh I had discussed a few minutes ago. So, is there any questions in regards to April? >> No. Okay. Hearing none. No questions. Again, as we've said, um these are on file and will be used for our upcoming audit. Um, we've had a lot of recognition things and May is also school board recognition. >> It is. So, I think Janelle had
025mentioned this and it's certainly a opportune time to say thank you to board uh members. There's a certificate at each of your uh locations that is from the Iowa Association of School Boards. Um, many people might not know that this is a fully volunteer role. the amount of time and effort that you put in is greatly appreciated by everyone across the community within our our school systems and and certainly uh just within the Cedar Falls boundaries. So appreciation for your leadership, what you do for our district, our students, our staff. Uh uh we can't thank you enough. So thank you. Stay tuned afterwards. There will be a picture. >> Good. Good. Um we'll move to the proposed list of 2026 graduates. >> Yeah, this is really always an exciting time. It's the culmination of 13
026years of our seniors that are going to be graduating here in the next few weeks. Uh it is required by law that we uh um go ahead and and vote for the proposed list of 2026 graduates. And it's certainly my honor to provide this list to our board members to say these are the individuals we expect to walk across the stage and receive the diploma from the Cedar Falls Community School District. >> So we will take a motion on those. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve awarding diplomas to the Cedar Falls High School class of 2026 contingent upon satisfactory completion of graduation requirements as attested to by the high school principal. >> Great. And then we will take a second. >> Second. >> A second. >> There we
027go. Second. Um any questions or comments? some years when we've had board members with a senior, we've questioned whether or not we should move those forward, but I don't think we have anybody that graduating this year from this group. U all those in fa favor of approval would say I >> opposed the same and that motion carried. >> Um we are moving to the issuance of contracts um for the time period of May 12 to June 5th. Dr. Petite. >> Yeah. So this has been an ask maybe the last four or five years uh probably right around the time of COVID. Um typically we won't uh issue contracts uh until the board votes on those and acts on those. Uh however, as we uh do not have a second meeting in May, there's a lapse
028of time and in this day and age, it's a little bit more challenging to ask somebody to just put in good faith that we're going to offer them a contract. maybe 3 or 4 weeks after we offer them uh a contract. So, this is just asking for the uh central office to be able to issue contracts from tomorrow through June 5th. However, we'll bring those contracts to the June meeting to ensure that those are voted on by the school board. But this just allows us to release those, get those individuals kind of signed in place so they can actually resign then from their uh uh current district and and we can move the process forward a little bit quicker. >> Okay, we'll take a motion for that. I move that the Cedar Falls Board of
029Education grant the superintendent or designate the authority to accept resignations for the 2025 through 2026 school year and to issue contracts of employment for the 2026 to 2027 school year to licensed teachers and licensed coaches subject to job candidates fulfilling all usual and customary post offer pre-employment requirements as required by district policy. Such authority shall be in effect in effect for the period of May 12th, 2026 to June 5th, 2026. >> Great. And a second. >> Second. >> And any additional comments or questions? Hearing none, we will take a vote on that. Uh all those in favor would say I. >> I. >> Oppose the same. And motion carried. Okay. moving into the uh 2026 27 CFA contracts. >> Um yes, we did reach a tenative agreement on April 20 to 2026 covering a one-year
030period from July 1st, 2026 through June 30th of 2027. The tenative agreement has been ratified by the Cedar Falls Education Association members and is presented here for board acceptance. Um the terms of the tenative agreement are a base salary schedule increase of $641 um to the base salary schedule BA step one base wage generator. The 2026 2027 generator shall be $38,960. Step advancement and lane changes for employees who meet requirements. a base wage generator for the extracurricular activities and athletics of $38,546 with some additions and changes to appendix B, our extracurricular activities and wage scale. We are adding a northseater opus chorus coach at 4%. We are changing our head drama production from a full academic year to a headdrama production fall and spring at 5 and a half% for each term. and an assistant
031drama production from a full academic year to a an assistant drama production fall and spring each at three and a half%. There will also be a change in the department chair base wage generator and that will be $38,66. Um, the administration does recommend acceptance of this tenative agreement because we believe it reflects a fair and fiscally responsible settlement that recognizes the contributions of the Cedar Falls Education Association bargaining unit members. >> Thank you. Um, we will take a motion to approve this. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the 2026 27 Cedar Falls Education Association collective bargaining contract as presented. Okay. >> And a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Um, additional questions or comments? So, does this put us um are we paying our staff, our our certified staff
032now according to state minimums or do we have strange little exceptions of people who are being paid essentially off of what the contract would normally say? >> Yeah, that we meet all the minimums across the board. So, yep. Uh so, this doesn't include some of those TSS dollars uh or some of the other supplemental dollars. It's just the base salary amount. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. >> Any other comments? >> Thank you to uh our two members that uh agreed to be on the negotiations committee as board members. So Susie and LOL, we appreciate your time and effort. Uh it certainly is um quite a bit of time and we appreciate that. >> Absolutely. May maybe just one comment since I did serve on the uh or I was a board representative on the committee,
033but um as you probably know with uh attendance and SSA for this year, um this settlement is significantly more than the new money that we're getting. So just just a comment. Um, it's a good it's a good uh TA and um thank you to Amber for all that you do and putting this forward. But this does draw down our our balances. >> Well, then we will go for a vote of acceptance. All those in favor would say I. >> I. Opposed the same. And that motion carried. Thank you so much. >> Okay, we're to the superintendent report. >> Yes, just a couple different items. Uh, as was said earlier, it's a really busy time with a lot of activities going on. Again, just a great opportunity to showcase the talent of our students uh in
034a lot of different ways over the course of the last two weeks. uh especially tomorrow night with the u tremendous event that's going to occur at the high school at 7:00 p.m. Uh service rec recognition is Tuesday, May 19th at 5:00 p.m. I call apologize, there's a typo there. It said 4:30. That was a carryover from last year. So it should say 5:00 p.m. at the Cedar Falls High School in the jungle right uh in the front area when you walk into the front doors. Commencement is May 24th. uh starts at 2 p.m. Thank you for our two board members that are representing us there to hand out diplomas. We greatly appreciate that. Uh then within the packet as well is the 2026 2027 board calendar. We'll go through that in a little bit more
035detail at the June meeting, but I wanted to put that in the packet. Please look over it. Doesn't have necessarily specific presentations at each of the board meetings, but it just kind of lists the dates and when they will be. Uh and then we'll fill in some of those presentations uh as we move into the future. >> Great. And then any um question, comments, and concerns from board members. Um I will say on June 8th, we will plan a work session to sort of culminate the IASB conversation that we had two months agoish, right? We'll sort of put together a um a high level agenda of the items that they brought to us, right? Um, and maybe we'll um also take a look at maybe a decision on what book to do for the I'm
036going to call the summer books study, right? Um, so >> good. >> Anything else for the good of the order? >> I should maybe add to my comments a little bit as I'm thinking about how that sounded. We I think we all want to pay our teachers as much as possible. So, I I should probably clarify. Um, it's it's there's a budget side of things and then there's the wanting to compensate our teachers as good as we can. So, just wanted to throw that comment in there. >> Thank you. Anything else? Well, hearing none, I think we can take a an adjournment. >> I so move >> and a second. >> Second. And all those in favor would say I. >> I. >> Thank you so much. And we're adjourned.