001Good evening and welcome to tonight's board meeting. Today is Monday, January 12th, 2026. Um I call this meeting to order and um our first item is the consent agenda. Uh the consent agenda is um a grouping of documents um including our agenda for tonight, our past minutes, accounts payable, open enrollment, our human resource report, and uh early graduation requests. I would take a motion to approve those. >> So moved >> and a second. >> Second. >> And any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I >> I oppose the same. Motion carried >> um this evening. We will go then into communications. Good evening everyone. It's been a little bit since I've been here to give a communications update. So, as I was trying to put all the information together, um I could
002have been here for quite a while. So, I decided to try to winnow it down a little bit to the big highlights from the past couple months. So, we're going to um first of all talk about preschool registration. So, this is for um next school year 26 27 registration. Preschool will open on Friday, January 30th at noon. Um it's a very um uh popular program for us. And just to remember, we have preschool in all seven of our elementary buildings. So, those parents that will have preschoolers for next fall possibly, we encourage you to get onto the website. um definitely before that 30th. That link will be available. So um but it won't be live until noon on the 30th of January. Any questions, you can just reach out to our admin building as far
003as um eligibility for your child or any other questions like that. I also wanted to mention uh thanks to a group of CAPS associates. This is something that's kind of been again one of those things that's on the to-do list for a while and some CAPS associates chose this as their uh project for this past fall. We've been able to announce a new staff incentives program called Tiger Perks. So these source CAPS associates, it was Gage Martin, Tatum Tentinger, Tyler Hermanson, and Max Oliver. They went out into the community and primarily went to locally owned businesses asking if they'd be willing to give a discount or something like that for all of our staff uh in Cedar Falls schools. So this is a list of all those businesses that are taking part in it right
004now. So really wanted to give them a big thanks as well. This is something that will continue to change and evolve and if anyone has a business and would like to be part of it, they can reach out to me, Janelle Darst, with the district and we'll get you added to that list. But this was something we're really excited we were able to announce um as a start of 2026. And special thanks to those CAPS associates. Speaking of CAPS, also wanted to mention this past fall we had exploring caps program launched for our seventh grade students at Pete and Holmes. And these junior associates, as they're called, worked with um the Holmes group worked with the Cedar Falls Historical Society. And then the Pete group worked with Mr. Enrew on Maker Challenge series. And they
005had their own demo days also in December, just like our um regular CAPS associates. Um, but these were projects that were chosen um for um to work with these entities in the Cedar Valley. And it was a great experience. I think they learned a lot. Again, you're always end up being very impressed by these students even as seventh graders and their abilities to present and talk to adults and and have those real real life skills. So, this is something that's going to continue on and is really exciting for us as a district. Just wanted to mention real quick, we had our um Allstate students chosen and then they of course performed at the um All State concert. Feel like that's the wrong name of it called All State concert. >> All State. Yeah. Okay. So,
006this is a list of the choir students that were chosen and then of course the band students and then the orchestra students. We always have a really strong list of students that are chosen for all state. Congratulations to all of those students. Also wanted to mention the high school was chosen as a winner of the student food drive with the Northeast Iowa food bank. Most money was raised and um they won within that category. Also just wanted to mention it's kind of becomes a district effort because they do a lot of events outside of just the high school and really encourage the community to get involved. So congratulations to the student leadership at the high school. This goes back a little bit as well, but wanted to mention that Jaden Merrick was the 4A state
007champion in cross country and then the team was runner up state cross country that was held um might have been November 1st I think back a little bit but congratulations to the team and Jaden and then also wanted to mention there is also a JV cross country for men's and women's and Cedar Falls teams both won so congratulations to those JV teams and then we had state champions in women's swimming the 200 meter relay with Ella Gardner, Leah Mason, Karen Remmer, and Tatum Layman. So, congratulations to those those young ladies. And then Caris Finley had her thousand career points. We've got some outstanding winter sports and activities and highlights happening. And then our women's wrestling uh had a four pete at the battle of Waterlue. I really encourage everyone to follow along on Facebook. women's
008wrestling. I can't even remember how many girls we now have that have 100 plus um 150 wins I think even. So, make sure you follow along with that. You can see all those uh accomplishments for those young ladies. Our men's basketball is ranked first, still undefeated. Um our women's basketball is doing really well. And so, we really encourage everyone to follow along on the booster club in the high school for all that information. Coaches versus cancer is going to be coming up this Saturday, the 17th. We're going to have um couple of games um sophomore men, JV women, and then varsity women, varsity men to follow. Uh CF student leadership is doing a lot of activities, 50/50 raffle, t-shirt sales, some shooting games with all those proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society's coaches versus cancer.
009Uh great partnership with our athletics and that organization as well. Make sure to follow along. Lots happening. There's all the bound information and the district social media channels. Any questions? Did I get it all right? [laughter] >> Very good job. Thank you so much. Any questions? Okay, this looks like then we're moving into our financials for November. >> Yeah, we're uh if we can pull up the PowerPoint this evening. Uh this first slide, it may be a little bit difficult to read, but just wanted to start the presentation this evening. Um for the community and for the board, just a review of of what our revenue sources and allowable expenditures are for each of our funds. Um this is a good depiction. It's by ISPs. um it's kind of uh octopusy, you know, with all
010the different tentacles that are going in different ways, but it does depict our revenue sources and and um in our revenue sources for when I speak of our general fund. Um those revenue sources are common as our state aid. It's our federal funding that we receive. Um it's also our income sir tax and then our property tax associated to that. And that encompasses also our ISL and preschool. We then have our PPE and our PPE um revenue sources are our um property tax as well as our income sax. Um and then we have our management fund and our management fund does fall fall through for those revenue sources as well of as our property tax. We do then have our debt service uh common theme um that would pay for our principal and interest uh
011payments for our debt service. Again, that would be our property tax. Our pearl pearl is not something that the district has. Uh there's actually only uh a few I think maybe one district remaining that uh is allowed to have a pearl uh property tax associated to that. That's not something that we can even look at in the future. Um those changes were made with the legislation uh a couple years ago. We have our save our save revenue sources would be then um that sales tax revenue that occurs within the state. And then you have your student activities fund um which is your um activities your e extracurricular um gates revenues associated to that. And then we have our food service our nutrition fund which is a proprietary fund uh which is itself standing which is
012uh parent paid uh as well as federal funding associated to um our free and reduced students. and then those expenditures associated to that and how they flow within um those particular uh funds as well. Our general fund as I always indicate is usually our overall operations of the district. It includes um utilities, it includes salaries and benefits associated to that. Our curriculum, any textbooks, different things like that you may need um to have that overall operations. Our ISL is our preschool is the same. Our PEP would be then just your buildings and grounds improvements. Um it includes our fleet um our roof uh often currently we're utilizing those funds right now uh with the um uh TPC as well as then the natiatorum. We have our management fund. Our management fund expenditures for those um
013would be uh any property and liability insurance um as well as work comp would have uh uh acceptable expenditures um for this particular fund. Our debt service, as I mentioned earlier, is our principal and interest and our bond payments. Uh those bonds would be associated to uh the new high school as well as Aldrich Elementary um and North Cedar and um Orchard Hill. It's been a few years ago already. Um again, Pearl we don't have uh but that is associated to playgrounds. Uh SAVE, again, it's very similar to Pebble. Uh we utilize that in different ways. Um but it is for buildings and grounds replacement, repairs. um as well as fleet and uh vehicle fleet. And then our student activities fund uh that's utilized for supporting our athletics clubs and our activities associated to those
014programs. And then our food food and uh nutrition which would be the food and supplies uh associated to that program with the exception is um our food service staff are also paid. So salaries of benefits are paid through the nutrition fund as well. So it gives a nice little uh depiction of what those approved expenditures are um as you move forward with um as we move forward with the expenditures for November. So we'll go ahead and move forward to the next screen. I won't give an overview of each one. Uh but you'll see the funds associated to November. We will uh review December um here in the next month or so. Uh but you'll see for revenues for our general fund, we had a little bit over $5.4 million with expenditure of of 6.6 6
015million for total cash investments of $18,731,772. You'll see some activity within our management fund. The management fund primarily is at the beginning of our fiscal year, which is July through June. Uh so July of 2025. uh you'll know that uh the majority of that uh expenditure associated to the management fund was the property insurance for um our community nitorium as we went off of um builder risk onto the property insurance for that. So you'll see the um total cash investments of $833,23. We have our save. Again, that's our sales tax revenue of $65,000 with then our expenditures of a little over $1,355. You'll see that transfer out. That transfer out is into our debt service on a monthly basis. And again, that is to pay for those principles and interest on a um on twice
016a year basis. We had balance of $16,145,969. We have our PBLE. Uh, our Pebble was at 561,000 with expenditures of a little over $1.7 million for total cash investments for November of 10,211,371. And then you'll see our debt service and the activity associated to that. We'll move on to the next screen, which then does just to pick those remaining um funds that we had uh spoken about earlier. our student activity. We had activity of $116,000 with expenditures of approximately $130,000 for total cash investments of $847,647. You'll see our agency funds and our entrepreneur, our enterprise fund, which is our nutrition fund revenues of 391,000 expenditures of 313,000 for total cash investments of $3.8 million. student activi or student uh coffee shop. We do still have that student coffee shop um at the high school with
017some great activity associated to that with uh revenues and expenditures. And then our River Hills Consortium uh for the month of November, we had zero revenues. We did have expenditures of $70,000 which then did um zero out that particular uh balance associated to that. and our River Hills Consortium are multiple districts um throughout the state that have students attending uh our district as a flow through those dollars. So each year you'll see uh revenues and expenditures associated to that program as we contract through with the Central Rivers Aea. The next two slides briefly just take a look at and that's just year-to- date as we are to our certified budget um back in March of 200 25 uh um as we're preparing to have conversations about our upcoming budget where those stand based on revenues
018and uh expenditures at that period of time. um as we look towards this year too, if there's going to be any type of budget adjustments needed based on those expenditures and those anticipated expenditures or unexpected expenditures that occurred. Um and then that last page as well with those remaining funds. So any questions on November? Moving on um to the Dr. White 2627 dropout at risk modified supplemental amount application. Hey, hi everybody. Um it's great to be back to talk about our at risk services. Um actually those of you who have heard this presentation on a yearly basis, it's different this year. the DE put in some new requirements um to have us setting goals and explaining a little bit more about how we identify at risk students. So um so it'll be just a little
019bit different this year. Um, so again, kind of going through the purpose of this application, the beginning is that we're really planning of how we're going to meet all students where they are, get them to be attending school regularly and get as many students um graduated as possible and engaged in school um and coming every day and being active members of our school community. And we always go through this um kind of overview glossery that of terms that we have to use for the state each year. So um again, this is the definition of our atrisisk students. So, it's pretty wide and it includes any student who um needs some additional supports because they're not meeting the goals of the of the school or the district when it comes to academic, social, emotional, career, vocational
020things. And so, it includes students who are homeless or who are considered dropouts or returning dropouts. Um, but there's also a lot of the like subgroups that fall in between there. And I'll actually get to explain that a little bit more this year. Um, and then returning and dropouts and potential. Again, that just kind of includes all those students who have left or who really are on our radar as being at risk of leaving. So, um kind of those students with a high rate of absenteeism, maybe they're failing classes, maybe they have a lot of behavior infractions. Um we're trying to keep a very close eye on on all those students. So, this is a new piece this year just sort of explaining how we identify at risk at risk students. So, we have um
021some great software in our district called Decision Ed that pulls a lot of different things together. So, there's actually 20 plus risk factors that we look at and this data is pulled and updated every day based on day-to-day um behavior infractions, attendance, um attendance codes, so if you're if you're absent for a medical reason versus an unexcused, things like that. And then we assign um a risk level based on that. Um so anybody who is considered low risk to this warning is included in our like overall number of atrisisk students which is right around a thousand. Now I didn't include there is a catery called no risk and so that's students who have fewer than four risk factors. So um these are this is sort of a fluctuating list. Students can move in and off
022depending on if they join an activity, if they get more involved, if they um improve their academics. So, it's not um just that if you're identified as at risk once you are forever, students can um move back and forth and hopefully we want to get them off of that list by getting them engaged in some school. Um this is sort of we kind of categorize all of our services into three overall categories. Um there's a a lot of different things that we do for at risk and there are things we do that aren't included in our funds. Um, and so I won't talk about things like our special education funding and our ELLL um, services because those don't fall kind of in this triangle of dropout, prevention, and at risk. Um, but everything will sort
023of be categorized into these three sections. So at the top is our um, sorry, at the top is more of our emotional and physical safety for students and staff because we know that that's the primary thing we need our students to feel safe in school in order to do their best learning. And then we'll talk about kind of all the different skill building things we do and the things we do to get kids engaged or re-engaged in school. So if you've kind of fallen out, we're trying to pull you back and get you um back active with the school community. So another new thing from our um department this year is setting specific goals for our atrisisk program. So in the past I would just tell you what we did in the past and what
024we're aiming to do and now we actually have some measurable goals that we'll look at from year to year. um which is great because we're always looking at our data and so it's nice to have it kind of outlined to towards um something specific. So we have three goals and they go with those three areas that we talked about. So the first one is making sure that we continue to um put forward as many efforts as we can to make sure that all of our students and staff feel safe at school. Not just physically safe, but also um emotionally safe to make mistakes and learn and grow and all those great things. Um and then we have some objectives underneath of data that we will be looking at every year to see if we are
025meeting our goals and progressing towards them. Our second goal is providing highquality instruction and interventions for both academic and life skills. So we have pretty robust MTSS programs. I know um we've had some presentations already this year about the work we're doing with um durable skills and all of our academic interventions. So we're wanting to make sure that we are especially targeting our atrisisk students and making sure that they are connected um with those in with those interventions um specifically. So making sure that we're reaching everybody and no one's falling through the cracks. And then our last goal is just increasing the opportunities for school engagement. So, we know that having students involved in a club, an extracurricular, um any kind of um sports or um student um government things really is what helps students
026to feel connected and to be a part of our community. And so, we're doing lots of things to make sure that we're getting kids to school every day. And sometimes they don't come for the academics, they come for the fun stuff. So, we got to make sure we get them here so we can teach them. So, wanting to make sure that we're just um that we're just getting as many kids involved as possible. Um and then sort of this is a broad category of the the services that we have in place with these dollars specifically towards those three categories. Um so I'll go through and just talk a little bit about how much we're allocating towards um towards each of these services and um feel free to ask questions as I go. So for the
027emotional and physical safety side, we again are really thrilled to have a partnership with Blackhawk Grandundy Mental Health. We have five school-based therapists in our buildings. Every building has at least one full day where a therapist is there and they're working with students um particularly who do not have access otherwise to um therapy or counseling outside of school. So we're really trying to target those um students who would not be able to access those with if it weren't for our school setting. Um we're really thrilled with the work that um our school-based therapists do and we had 193 students served by them last year and nearly 3,000 therapy sessions in a single school year. So that's really great. [snorts] We also have a number of different behavior interventions and supports. So we have student success
028coaches in our district this year. We have five at the elementary and two at junior high. And um our at risk dollars just go towards a portion of those individuals. we kind of pull from a number of different funds, but they do a lot of work with um responding to behaviors, doing individual one-on-one time with students to help build up their skills. Um they help with our attendance meetings. Um they just do a variety of things and it's all very much targeted to our atrisisk students. So 100% of their day is spent with kiddos who need a little extra something um to be successful at school. And then our high school at risk program is sort of a similar but more comprehensive program um through our success center. And we have a teacher who um
029meets with quite a few students. Um I think I heard 70 in a school year last year. Um and so she does things from um one-on-one skill building to credit recovery of kids who need to make up credits that they've lost in a fast way to um small groups and getting kids um more back engaged and back in class. So lots of great things we have going on in our buildings there. Um and then the last sort of behavior intervention piece is that we have our intervention center and we have our school resource officer. So our intervention center is at our educational support center building. And that is um pretty unique of that students at the secondary level if they need a day out of school, if they need a a little break to do
030some learning and get back engaged because of maybe a behavior issue, we have a full-time teacher who actually works with students and make sure that they're doing work during that time. they do some restorative work with them to talk about what are you going to do differently when you're back at school. Um and so um so our students who need a day of suspension aren't always just sitting at home and maybe sleeping, whatever. So we do, um a lot of really great work there. Um and then we also have our two school resource officers who serve all buildings. They do so much to connect with our students and staff. They're present and visible in our buildings every day. Um our elementary students love it when they come. They come and read in the classrooms, but
031they also just maintain safety in our building. So, everyone feels good knowing that um we have people to call if we have questions or or need a little something extra. Um that next category of skill building, we also spend a good portion of our dropout prevention and at risk funds to make sure that our kids have all the academic and life skills that they need to be successful um not just in school, but in life in general and when they leave us. So, we have um that money pays for our online curriculum that we use at our alternative program and again in some of those credit recovery and summer programs. We have our reading teachers at our summer reading program. And then we also offer a summer credit recovery for our secondary students where they
032can come and make up um classes they missed, maybe they didn't do so well the first time, and so they kind of get a chance to redo if they're willing to come in and and work hard in the summer. Um, we also have been doing a lot of work with our durable skills this year. And so that's really more of those life skills. Um, they're those skills that we learn about from our business communities and employers that um are things that they're looking for in kind of this next generation of employees. So we um worked with a lot of research from America Succeeds and then found a way to really personalize it to Cedar Falls. So that's why we call them the Tiger 10. Uh if you have a student in elementary, you had your
033first experience of um a little classroom report at conferences this year. We talked about how kiddos are doing on their skills and um it was really fun to see our elementary students really digging in and um assessing themselves and using these these big words like fortitude and um mindfulness and um our teachers have been doing a great job. We did a full roll out at elementary this year and kind of a sprinkle at secondary. And so then um we'll be continuing on with our junior highs and high school next year. And then school engagement. This is sort of our third category on that triangle. And that's really how we get kids engaged or re-engaged in school. So we have this great afterchool program in our junior highs called echoes. And so we cover lots of
034things. Um they have homework time where they get to do their work done and then they get to come and do something fun and um get the snacks and transportation. and all those good things we do to get them to stay. And then we also have been doing attendance meetings the last um few years and our success coaches help with that and our building principles and that's been really beneficial for our parents to see um that we want to work with you. We want we want your kids here. We want to do anything we can to help you get kids to school. And so that's been a really nice connection. And I think um that was a new thing for us a few years ago and we were nervous about how it would go, but
035it's really been um a great connection piece for our families and students. And then our alternative program. So um our alternative program offers an alternate path to graduation for our students who need just a little bit different of a setting, a different high school experience. We have um a program coordinator at that building who serves all of our programs there. We have a full-time school counselor who serves our ALT program, but also um our behavior program and our intervention center. And um and then we have alternative program teachers who are working with our kiddos every day one-on-one. They do some skill building and as well as some group work. And so we had 46 students at our ALT program last year and we graduated 18 students from the program last year, which is always um
036a really special day and exciting. those are students who um maybe would not have um graduated on the path that they were on. So that's always um a special day when we have a graduation program at the ALT program. So another new piece this year is that they um want us to talk a little bit about how staff are trained and how we utilize all of these programs. So we have a number of training opportunities throughout the year for that are specific to at risk. Um, we spend time with our brand new teachers every fall, which is fun because they're new to us in the district and we get to I get to spend a little time with them talking about all the things we do for at risk. Um, so that they know kind
037of what resources we have to draw from. We also have weekly collaborative team time in all of our buildings. And so, um, a portion of every building's time is talking about who's at risk and who needs a little extra help. And then we have six days of professional development throughout the year. And so those all look different, but many of them include components of how we're how we're um honing in on our students who maybe need a little something extra. And then the utilization of programs kind of these are all the different people who have a direct link to all these pieces we're talking about. So our success coaches, our school counselors, um our student services people and our building administrators uh really work together and we're all accessing these at risk services and making
038sure that they are divied out appropriately and that we're identifying the right kids. um every day. Um and then we have this added program evaluation piece this year. And so we um we do a lot of different diving into the data of on this decision ed. So our admin council, which is all of our principles and administrators in the district. We meet and go through um at risk data on a regular basis as well as our building leadership teams and smaller pockets at each building. And um as the student services director, I'm also annually going through that data and making sure that we're hitting the right kids and making progress in those pieces. And then um the DE also asks for qualifications of personnel. So all of our atrisisk interventions and instruction are provided by
039licensed teachers and administrators and school counselors. And then when we do have guests or volunteers that come in, um, which we sometimes do for our Echo program, our after school, um, we have you and I students sometimes or even professors, um, we're just making sure that anyone coming into our building [cough] with our students, um, they have some forms to fill out and check and make sure everybody is is safe to be in our buildings. So, kind of this overall summary. Oh, I I know I went through a lot of things. um just kind of goes through the total budget that we have um and how we allocate that from within. So we have this total amount of 1.6 million and then we have to take out sort of our district allotted at risk funds
040and our 25 cent from our general fund. And so that breaks it down to our request for this application is that 1,77,41. And for people who um love numbers and trends, I always include um this from year to year, which looks like a lot of it's a lot of big numbers, but if you um are curious to follow the pattern of how our funds have um changed and grown from year to year, as well as how our tax rate changes from year to year based on that, uh I always include sort of a five-year overview in case some people love numbers and like to look at that. So, that was a lot of information in a short amount of time. Does anyone have questions about our at risk or dropout services? >> Just uh excuse
041[clears throat] me, a comment about uh activity involvement and how that relates to durable skills. I've had the opportunity to talk to several graduates from another school and they talked about how impactful some of these activity involvement, what that did to help them build some of their durable skills. And I also know firsthand of a number of students who said, "I need to get on track here so I can stay involved in cross country or some of these other activities." Um, so we have performance. So you're talking about music, theater, those sorts of things. >> Um, obviously athletics, but then there's others included in there as well. Is that right, Dr. White? >> For sure. Yeah. for students who um aren't sporty like mine. Lots of things like robotics and um rocket club and drama
042and speech. Um so yeah, lot there's kind of a little something for everyone. >> And they talked about how that helped them develop their collaboration and communication skills. >> Absolutely. >> Helping them in their employment. >> Yes. Working together as a team. That's something we hear from our employers too is being able to collaborate with people even if you maybe don't like them or have different backgrounds. And I feel like um that's a really great first taste of that when they're with us in any kind of a high school sport or team or club um is working on those collaboration skills. For sure. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So I one thing that uh stuck out to me was the goals and you mentioned that at the beginning um that I was going to comment
043on and so I was curious what the goal was last year. So I went back and didn't find the goals. So, I see that that's something new. And so, I'm just curious. I know it sounds like it's a new requirement. I'm assuming it's a state requirement. >> Um, is that something that you will report on yeartoear on how we uh well, there's there's a couple questions. One is how were those goals set? >> Um, is that something that you set uh through collaboration? And then will we do you perceive that we would change the goals based on how we performed this year? Maybe elaborate on that a little. >> Yeah, for sure. It's a great question. Yeah, that is brand new for us this year. We've never had um to set goals for at risk
044programming. It's always just been supplemental. So, um I kind of looked at our three big need areas and chose goals based on where we're performing. Now, we're very lucky to be a pretty high performing district. We have a 96 97% graduation rate. our attendance is really strong, but we know we can always be better and even if um it's small numbers of students that we're increasing. Those are all important students. So, we want to be um doing as much as we can. So, um we really looked at the data of how we're performing now, where we would like to increase our supports the most. And I do anticipate that I'll report on that then every year when I come back and then um look at is it does it make sense to stick with the
045same goal or are there other pockets that we're hearing from um our administrators and our parents and our community that we need to kind of change our focus towards. So since it's the first year um I really just base it on our data that's in decision ed of where we see um little pockets that are that are missing. Y >> um but hopefully as we kind of track that it'll give us an idea of where to go if we want to change course. >> Good. >> Thanks. >> Good questions, other remarks, comments. >> Quick comment. Um, one of the things that we typically say each year and and it was brought up in a recent superintendent legislative forum that it's not uniform across the state as far as the atrisisk dollars that are allocated or
046are able to be generated by each district. Um, I know the legislators submitted a bill last year that did not come out of committee. Uh there were discussion uh last week that they believed it might come out of committee but uh 20 years ago the state capped the amount of atrisisk funds a district can generate based on the prior year's budget. Uh we were capped at 2.5% of the overall general fund that can be uh created carved out for the atrisisk programming. The average across the state or the maximum across the state is 5%. Uh so we actually get a little half of what other districts receive or can receive based on at risk funding. Uh the legislators last week talked about the the plan was potentially over 10 years to bring those that are
047at the 2.5 or less than 5% up to 5% over a 10-year period. That is something that we would certainly support, but it's something that right now some of the programming that we offer uh Dr. White does a wonderful job of of supporting all students across our district with these funds, but we also know we're not at the equal footing of other districts across the state. >> So, a little bit of advocacy. >> And why was it done like that? What >> Yeah, why was that? >> What's the the historical reason of that? >> Great question. I'm not sure why it was done that way. Um but uh it was simply [snorts] capped and I think there was a budget reduction year at the the state level. They were looking to save money and they
048said districts you're not going to be able to uh generate any more additional funds beyond what the budget was the prior year. Um I think there was a lot of discussion at that time as far as why that would not necessarily be equitable across the state for all students and in different pockets across the state. Um, but the decision was made and I'm not sure exactly the other components of that. >> And when we talk about what we can generate, what does that really mean so that our community knows? Because I remember sitting through my first meeting going, "Oh, would this make sense to do that?" And then I realized, wait a second. This means that we are >> this is property taxes. Um, so this is property tax generated. Uh, there's 25% match that
049the district creates out of their general fund. So that is where you see a little over a million dollars that uh we uh during budgeted season then goes into a levy that generates dollars for these programs. >> And is that visible on the tax bill? >> That is [snorts] a good question. I think when they updated the new tax letters and the tax form that goes out, uh I believe that there does line item and I believe at risk is one of those line items. Any other questions or comments? >> I think we have a motion for this is item F. >> I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the request to the school budget review committee for the modified supplement amount in the amount of 1,77,41 for the
0502627 at risk dropout program. And we'll take a second. >> Second. >> Bet. Um, additional discussion or questions. Hearing none. All those in favor would say I. >> I. >> And oppose the same. That motion carries. Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to the next item which is again Dr. White. Um and it's approval of the plan itself. >> So no no additional just the [clears throat] overall presentation that was provided and um it is then the approval of the actual uh supplemental district plan. >> Gotcha. Okay. So we have a motion for that. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the atrisisk dropout plan for the 2026 2027 school year as presented. Okay, >> I need a second. >> I'll second, >> Kim. Um, and any discussion or
051comments? >> So, it seems a little redundant, but that is the one we need to have so we can submit up to the state so they actually see that we've approved the plan. So, they can say check mark. Thank you. >> Clicking checking the box. >> Thank you, Andy. Here we go. Hearing nothing else. All those um in favor would say I. >> I. >> Oppose the same. Motion carried. Thank you. >> Um we are moving into um board committee assignments. >> Yes. And we've always called them assignments or not assignments. They're really uh volunteer positions. So, um, you'll see, uh, and again, we'll have to go through the next one real quick. Hard to read. I took the the most recent snapshot that I have for some of the committees and, uh, who signed
052up for those different committees. Just had a conversation earlier, uh, with, um, we have a a CAPS, uh, uh, committee that meets as the advisory board and and that has always been the president uh, per the CAPS advisory board bylaws. Uh so that will uh be Suzy. Uh but we did add as we were just talking through cabinet some other opportunities as far as what uh could be uh opportunities for board members and I added on safety probably maybe two weeks ago or three weeks ago. We have a safety committee that's a very robust committee. They typically meet quarterly. Uh they will meet with a lot of our community organizations uh be it our fire department, police department, emergency management, uh staff members. We have students on that committee that come and meet together um
053and and really uh make decisions uh and kind of project out uh all the different safety components that we have. And uh Jeff volunteered to be on that committee. So uh since this slide was created, I the the forum has been updated to to represent that. So, uh, unless there's any real big discussion or different points of, holy cow, I'd like to change or switch or do something different, uh, please let me know and, uh, then we'll we'll start moving forward. I do know that the, uh, wellness committee would like to start, uh, meeting quickly as our food service director is, uh, in charge of that and and we'll move forward with with setting that committee, uh, as soon as the board appointment is complete. >> Great. I see nobody's taken my offer [laughter] for
054the county conference board. So, I guess I'll continue serving on that. >> And we so appreciate that. >> Yes. Thank you, Lord. >> So, very, very much. >> Um, and I know we have one spot up there for SAI C. SA SI AK. >> Yes. SAK. Um, and I will go ahead and put myself on that. I was going to say I can do >> perfect. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Um yes, again these are um volunteer roles um just like us sitting here being elected is a volunteer role and so it is a greatly appreciate um when um when our community steps forward to serve on these. So thank you. Um I don't think we need to do anything on that. So, um, then we move to the superintendent report. >> Yeah, just a
055couple different items. Um, uh, the next school board meeting will be two weeks from tonight. Uh, uh, and then we'll start moving in a little bit more regular cadence with with twice a month uh, as we look at budgeting and and going into the the spring uh, semester. Legislative update session started today. We do know that property taxes and property tax reform is going to be a very significant portion uh of everything that we hear going into this this session. Um, one of the things that uh put me a little bit at ease was that the uh legislative forum that I attended last Thursday, a lot of local legislators and uh they had said that they anticipate that the property tax reform will be not necessarily centered on school districts and the funding formulas because
056they know how complicated that is that uh this would probably stop gap and wait before that is part of the discussion. obviously early on. We don't know exactly what's going to come out, but that was reassuring at least from uh prior to the start of the legislative session. Other things uh that could come up uh we don't always know, but uh we'll keep a watchful eye. We do have a small contingent going down today on the Hill uh which is two weeks from today. And that's always a good day to be able to get some information, share some of our thoughts, meet some of our legislators, and and really have, I think, a pretty engaging day. >> Excellent. Excellent. I know um from from from this group who would be attending down there that day.
057I think me. >> Grace is going to attend. Excellent. >> Then one of our school or ability administrators is going to go down as well. >> Great. And we know that there are some presentations this year um down on that day and CAPS is one of them. >> Yeah. What we're excited about is down in the Rotunda. They usually ask uh different volunteer groups to come forward. CAPS has been down there a few years. This year it's our authentic learning. So, we're going to have members of CAPS. We're going to have some of our seventh grade students as well as some of our sixth grade students down there uh presenting, talking to legislators, talking to visitors, uh which they will do a wonderful job. >> Excellent. Good. Good. Thank you. Um moving into the next
058s section, which is questions, comments, and andor concerns of board members. Um a time to bring anything up for conversation. I have a couple, but I I don't want to hog the mic. >> You go right ahead. >> Okay. Um, so first off, for the committees, um, who schedules those meetings? When when do they start? How often do they occur? Like who who kind of runs the committees >> and how do we know when to show up? Right, Kim? [laughter] >> Yes, great question. That is the work. Now, I always try to put a little synopsis of what kind of the committees are. Um, some will start with a regular cadence. Some, um, will start a little bit later. There's different people that run some of those different committees. Um, my job now is to
059be able to once now that these are finalized is take those to the people that run those and make sure that those that signed up for them are on the lists. So, you will get invited to the next meetings. Um, so to be continued because there's not necessarily >> but we don't lead them. We are >> No, you're just a member. Yeah. So unless you want to lead them, you do not uh you're not in charge of leading those. Uh but your involvement, your uh voice uh is certainly much appreciated uh as your leadership. So to be continued. >> Uh okay, that was my first one. Um, my next one just for my own information for uh I tried to look up some stuff, but I wasn't sure maybe you guys might be able to
060help me figure out what um I don't maybe want to use the word policy, but what procedures does our school district have regarding ICE with stuff happening? I just want to be aware of >> ICE, you mean immigration? >> Immigration. Yep. >> Yeah. So, we um are really fortunate to have resources here, which is one of them is our human resource uh director, Amber. and uh she went through some training early on uh this summer that we brought back to all of our administrative team to have them share with all of their buildings and and staff to to talk about uh what should be needs to be in has to be in place uh as far as potential access or lack of access to to different parts of our buildings because uh we have to
061have some uh very strict uh requirements and and legal framework. So, we've got protocols and processes in place. Um, just recently asked, in fact, today to be able to let's review those across our our district uh just because uh sometimes there's some very strong emotions that go along with that and and I think that's something that we will do um here within the next few days to make sure that that's communicated again. >> Where can we find that or the public? Uh we've not put those out in a public facing format uh just because those are just some of our internal protocols for what do we see as >> things that we should do or need to do. I'm not sure we want to put out uh information that uh maybe creates a oh well
062maybe I can challenge that to see how I can get around those protocols. So we've not put those out in a public facing format. But if people have questions, they should >> Oh, just reach out either to a building principal, myself, to Amber, to to any member of cabinet as well. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. >> The third one. >> Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I did. [laughter] Sorry. Did anybody else have anything else? I'm not a >> No, this I'm sure these are relevant questions that everybody has in their head anyway. So, you're just the you're >> I just wrote them down ahead of time. Got it. Um, so I I've seen some articles, stuff circulating about this uh public school strong resolution. There's uh five school districts as of the article a week or two
063ago that have um passed these resolutions. Their school boards have for um I just I'm pulling up the website here. Um a resolution calling on the governor and legislature to fully fund our public schools at a 5% annual increase and to phase out private school vouchers. Um, so I shouldn't know if anybody had heard of that, what what our thoughts are if um I mean I think it's definitely worth discussing if other school districts are are adopting that. So what's everybody think? >> I I do know that it is one of the priorities of ISCA and that they might be actively have a little better background on >> Okay. We do know that this um right I've seen the articles as well. Um it was I think the last the last schools were Dora and
064Kiaak I think were one. Um I think when I have looked at this um and I think it's something obviously for a discussion point for the um for the board um these really align with our existing goals right I mean this is not anything that's unusual right and um and so I think we need to figure out how we maybe make it very applicable or in the language of Cedar Falls how if if if we move forward with something that that we include that right um so that it really represents us um which obviously rep represents the state and the many many districts. Um so I think um we will keep that for our next um agenda discussion and go from there but that is noted. >> Also mention that these are also aligned with
065um Iowa Association of School Board uh legislative priorities too. Absolutely. And speaking of the Iowa Association legislative things, right, I went back looking thinking, okay, I probably should know what we sort of the board previous to me getting on the board, what was sort of selected or highlighted or what we wanted to focus on. I went back in the minutes and couldn't we said we there was discussion, but we didn't identify them or at least I couldn't find them in my in the notes. Um I don't know if it's necessary to because we've already >> during board con right those were voted upon what the >> yeah like like two years ago or three or four years ago they would ask us to select priorities. What they've moved to is more of like a platform
066endorsement. >> Okay. So while we had some discussion, we weren't really choosing priorities. >> We weren't selecting like we used to. >> Yeah. Okay. We were sort of >> Gotcha. >> approving the platform, >> right? And that was approved then at boardcon. Is that correct, Nate? Because you set it on. >> That is correct. And in at least for this coming year, I will probably be sitting on the LRC with ISAB. So >> Okay. >> It will hopefully have more details about that. >> Great. At least coming the spring. >> Wonderful. we can just plan to have you maybe give us an update um after one of those meetings. So, >> okay. Anything else? >> Maybe just a comment. The PTA visits are starting and I think there's two this week. So, several board members
067will be attending some PTA PTO P meetings this week starting >> [snorts] >> And thank you so much for everybody who has stepped forward. Thank you for Nate for coordinating those um so people can step forward and visit right visit with our parents and our community members. Um >> okay, anything else? >> Sorry, I did have one more thing. Sure. Um I was looking at my calendar for the the PTA meeting stuff. Um and I remember that there are two um web webinars from ISB next week for uh condition of the state. So coming up with the legislative session um those are Tuesday and Thursday at >> noon >> and I think you do need to register for those >> um if you haven't but those are free registration. >> Yeah >> those every I'm
068sure they are recording them and >> I'm sure they are too. I just want to let everybody know they're out there. Absolutely. I think everybody has their login to that, but I think those are probably completely visible on their website. So, >> if you don't have your login, [clears throat] let me know and uh or carry a know and we can get that set up. >> Great. Okay. And IASB is Iowa Association of School Boards, which Cedar Falls is a member of. Um really almost all all 300ish districts are a member of. So >> I think all are now. >> Okay. Okay. Anything else for this section of the agenda? Okay. So tonight we are going to go into close session and we do have a um we need to have a motion to enter
069into close session. Please note that after this session we will go back to an open session. Um but we will be um leaving this space and going into another space and then coming back. So um so we'll take the motion for the close session. >> Could I could I ask just when we come back the only action will be to adjourn this meeting. Is that correct? >> No. The um we'll need to do action on the >> on the close session. >> Yes. >> And then adjourn the meeting. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> I I move that the Cedar Falls School Board of Education enter into close session to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary [clears throat] to prevent needless and irreparable injury
070to that individual's reputation. And that individual requests a close session under 2011 code of Iowa 21.5. >> Okay. Ally. >> Okay. Um, that was the motion. I need a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Lel. Um, all those um in favor would say I. >> I. >> That's okay. Actually, it's a [clears throat] roll call. >> It is a roll call. Yep. That's okay. Uh, Director Guber, >> I. >> Director Hines, >> I. >> Director Rogers, >> I. >> Director Peterson, >> I. >> Director Orvis, >> I. >> Director Cross, >> I. >> Director Stzman, >> I. >> Thank you. Now enter and clear the room. >> Okay. Thank you.