001Good evening and welcome to the Cedar Falls Board of Education meeting. This is uh Monday, December 8th, 2025. Thanks all for tuning in or being here in attendance. Uh this is the last board meeting of the year 2025 and it will be a relatively short uh and light agenda meeting uh because we are uh unseating the old board and seating the new board that was elected back in November. Um so we will effectively have two meetings. The first meeting will be the business of the old board which then we will adjourn. we will uh swear in the new board members and then resume the uh second half or the first meeting of the new board. So to get started, I would like to call this meeting to order with the first item uh on our
002agenda being the um consent agenda. Sorry, the first item will be approval of agenda. Uh so do I have a motion to approve set agenda tonight? >> So moved. >> And is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. And then we'll move on to the consent agenda which has uh a few items to note in it. uh approval of uh last board meetings minutes as well as the special board work session which was the IASB work uh board con conference in De Moine uh that the board was at uh accounts payable open enrollment and HR reports and a cooperative sharing agreement with uh Cedar Ridge Christian. Is there a motion to approve consent agenda tonight? >> So moved. And is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Uh any
003motions to amend or comment on said consent agenda? >> Uh l I asked Andy if he would talk a little bit about item six which is the cooperative sharing agreement with Cedar Ridge Christian Church and just explain to us what that is. >> Sure. Yeah. So typically each May that is when we approve as a board cooperative sharing agreements um with some of the new technology. It's a little bit of a convoluted process now where there's a document that it has to be board approved but everything goes into bound then which is the format that the state uses for all the scheduling and and where families and and students go to register for activities. Um because May Cedar Ridge was not in our district at that time uh with when the school year started and
004when they moved into the the old high school um they did not have any sharing needs in the first part of the fall semester with any of the activities that were ongoing. So it came up as we approached the winter season that this had not been done or approved. So, um they are asking and by Iowa code we uh have to approve since they're in our district uh six different uh uh activities and those would be men's bowling, men's swimming, men's wrestling, uh baseball, men's soccer, and men's tennis are the uh six uh activities that they wish to share. the sharing agreement is pretty standard as far as um costs that are show associated with that that we bill out and and are billable um and the students have to meet all eligibility requirements and
005things like that. So um right now I think we have sharing agreements with 19 different districts I believe uh that come in for various programs and activities. Uh there are quite a few rules and regulations that govern those. Um but that's it in a snapshot. >> And so next year then this will come up again when all the other agreements >> in May. Correct. So instead of 19, we'll have 20. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Andy, can you kind of u the document that's in our packet has some blanks for numbers of students and things like how does that work with this type of agreement? Should someone come look at this at a later date? >> Yeah, it all goes into bound and it didn't print off or we didn't print off
006of bound. So, it's just now through the bound process. So, um this this agreement was kind of the sample agreement that we send out to all districts and they just fill in what they fill in. Um and we right now that one is in the mail. So, we're still waiting on that that one with little numbers on it. Okay. Any further questions? Hearing none, I'll move to a vote. All in favor say I. >> I. >> And consent agenda is passed. And the other thing we did have student board representative. And I'm looking at Raphael. [laughter] He's the only person who might be here in his place, but I don't think he is based on your expression. So, I'm going to assume that there is no surrogate for uh Mr. James Pang here tonight. So,
007then we will move past that. Janelle is also not here for uh um district uh communications update either. So, with that, that is all the business that we had for the old board. So I will request a motion to adjurnn. >> So move. >> Second. >> And there's a second. And all in favor say I. >> I. >> Meeting adjourned. I'll turn it over to Danell. She will uh >> yeah. >> Begin the process of swearing in the new board. >> Absolutely. We're going to take a a 5m minute break to prepare for that next session to allow us to uh get all of the documents on order and uh we will return at that point then. So thank you. Heat. Not >> that transparent. >> We are going to move into the organizational meeting.
008I'd like to call this meeting to order. Uh next on the agenda is the official notification of the election results for the Blackhawk County Auditor. I have in my possession the certified abstracts of votes for the district at large and there were five individuals running. They are as follows. Grace Rogers with 3,113 votes. LOL Stman with 3340 votes. Brian Wingert with 2558 votes. Kim Cross with 3,810 votes. James McCulla with 1,963 votes. and we had scattering of 57 votes for a total of 14,841 votes. The board of supervisors did declare Grace Rogers, LOL Stman, and Kim Cross dy elected for the off office of Cedar Falls School District at large for the term of four years. In addition, I have in my possession the certified abstract of votes for the district at large to fill
009a vacancy. There was one individual running, Susie Hines, with 4,640 votes and again scattering of 82 votes for a total of 4,722 votes. The board of supervisors did declare Susie Hines duly elected for the office of Cedar Falls School District director at large to fill a vacancy for the term of two years. If directors Stzzman, Rogers, Cross, and Hines could please stand. I will now administrate the oath of office. Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that you will faithfully and impartially, to the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office of director, and the Cedar Falls Community School District, Cedar Falls, Iowa, as now or hereafter required by law? >> Answer: I will. >> I will.
010>> Thank you. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> I also have a certificate of election for each of you that at the end of the meeting I'll provide to each of you. So congratulations. We'll now move into the election uh for the president. [clears throat] Excuse me. We'll actually um determine a quorum. I apologize. So with directors stzman, Gruber, Peterson, Orvis, Rogers, Cross, and Hines, a quorum has been determined and uh the board may now pro uh proceed to perfect the permanent organization. So now we'll move on to the election of the board president. Um as a reminder, the board policy 2011.3 states that the election shall be conducted by first obtaining written nominations. The two members whose name appear most frequently will be considered nominees for candidates. The election of the office shall be written ballot.
011At each station, I provided a blue 2025 president nomination form and a pink 2025 ballot form. I ask that you please complete the blue nomination form by checking one box nominating one individual and please sign the document. And once completed, you can pass those documents to me. Thank you. Perfect. The two candidates receiving the most votes per for president are Director Hines and Director Stzman. At this time, you will now ca cast one vote between the two candidates I just named using the 2025 pink voting ballot for president. If you could please write the one candidate name you are voting for president and then sign that document and return that document to me as well. Thank you. After reviewing all the votes, Director Hines has been elected as a Cedar Falls Community Schools Board President.
012Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> If you can [applause] uh if you could stand a moment, I will uh administrator the oath of office as well. As president, do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that you will faithfully and impartially, to the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office of board president in the Cedar Falls Community School District, Cedar Falls, Iowa, as now and hereafter required by law. >> I will. Thank you. Okay. Okay. We will now move in to the election of the vice president. Again, I've provided each of the stations the 2025 green vice president nomination form and 2025 yellow vice president ballot form. As with the election of the president, please complete the green
013nomination form by checking one box and nominating the one individual for vice president. In addition, sign the document and return that to me, please. Thank you. >> Thank you. The two candidates receiving the most votes are Director Stzman and Director Gruber. Please proceed to cast one vote for the candidate placed in nomination using the 2025 yellow voting ballot. Please sign the document and return to my attention. >> Thank you. After reviewing all the votes, Director Guber has been elected as a Cedar Falls Community School District Vice President. Congratulations. [applause] If you could stand and I'll administrate the oath of office, please. As vice president of the board, do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States in the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that you will faithfully and
014impartially, to the best of your ability, discharge the duties of the office of board vice president in the Cedar Falls Community School District, Cedar Falls, Iowa, as now and hereafter required by law. >> I will. >> Thank you. We'll just take a brief moment to relocate um and then I will turn the meeting over to the board president. >> I tried to talk Nate into that. There we go. Thank you. Turn it over to President Hines. Welcome to tonight's board meeting of the new seated board. Um, today is Monday, December 8th, 2025. In 1853, Cedar Falls organized its first community school district with three board members, SA Bishop, Edoms, and JM Overman. no names that we know. Now, 172 years later, with an incredible history and appreciation of all the past volunteers, we have seated
015a new board of directors, all volunteers, all dedicated, all engaged parents and community members stepping forward to serve. Thank you to each of you. We'll start with a reminder of the district's mission. educating each student to be a lifelong learner and a caring responsible citizen. And I want to have us to remember our goals and we have three goals not in full but focus of student on student achievement and undertake a culture of learning. Our second goal is to model reflective learning, tolerance, shared understanding and collaboration in support of a positive climate and culture across our district and community. And our third uh goal is to support district initiatives seeking intentional opportunities for engagement, interaction, transparency, and communications. So, we will jump right into letter >> um letter I. >> Yes. >> And I believe
016we have a um motion for letter I, which is adopt written policies, rules, regulations, and procedures part of the Iowa code. I move that the Cedar Falls Board of Education adopt the written policies, rules, regulations, and procedures that govern the organization under Iowa Code 279.8. >> I'll look for a second. >> Second. >> And any discussion? All in favor will say I. >> I. >> And oppose the same. Motion carried. Item J, we have no public comment. And then we move to letter K, uh, which, uh, Denell will give us a highlight of. >> Yeah, absolutely. If we could Oh, it's already up there. So, that's fantastic. This is an annual request that uh the district does and all districts across the state uh do in regards to the school budget review committee uh for
017open enrollment out not on prior year as well as ELLL uh beyond five years. And just as a reminder what this is for and why why we uh do have the request for approval each year. Um it is specifically statewide officials that review across the state asking for the authority. uh different than cash. It's the authority. Uh this is an ears and a review or year in a uh rears. And so then we're able to generate those future property tax uh with cash reserves if and when the district would um need it. Uh spending authority, as we've said previously, is extremely important. Uh we are requesting that spending authority based on this request. Um it is the minimum uh limit. I like to call it a credit card limit. We utilize that a lot. um
018you may have that limit um but you may not have the cash to get to that limit or to to pay that limit. Um that spending authority is a calculation and any unused spending authority does carry over from year to year. So what does that look like for this year? Uh for the application for the open and rolled out for prior year on headcount we had a final eligible uh FTE of uh 46.6 six at last year's cost per pupil of $7,988. That modified supple amount of $372,241. Uh just as a reminder, uh teacher, leadership, compensation, professional development, and EIC does follow those students. Uh those additional costs or those additional dollars um and authority. So there's an additional $25,51 for that total modified supplemental amount of $397,742. In addition on this application then we
019have our English language learners or ELLL commonly notated beyond five years. That's cost of providing instructional services to the English language service uh students beyond five years and that waiting. You'll note the two different waitings associated to that for the intermediate and the um uh uh intensive. Uh you'll note this the number of students associated to that and the dollars associated to that equating to the modified supplemental amount of $37,33. So, the authority that we are requesting for the 2526 school year budget um year, uh that open enrollment out of $397,742, the ELLL of $37,3 that total request uh for that uh SBRC application of uh budget authority of $435,45. >> Any questions? Moving forward, we'll go ahead and take a motion on that. I move that the board of directors of the Cedar Falls
020Community School District approve the application to the school budget review committee in the amount of $397,000742 due to open enrollment out not on prior year and $37,33 for limited English proficient instruction for students in the program beyond five years. for a second. >> Second >> and [cough] hearing none. I'll ask for all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed same and motion carries. And I think to the superintendent. >> Yeah. Just a couple different items. Uh the next uh board meeting is January 12th. So, that's going to be after uh our break. We hope everybody has a great holidays uh and a safe holidays. Um we do have a board goal that's focused on board learning and and training. Uh we're working with Iowa Association of School Boards on when that can
021occur. We're looking at corresponding board dates to have kind of a work session tied with a board meeting as we look at dates uh far out. And again, it's probably going to be like a two-hour training. Um, but we're looking at a board meeting date, probably early spring that will be somewhat of a traditionally shorter meeting. That way, we can follow that up with maybe a 6 to 8:00 p.m. uh work session. Uh, unless anybody has any opposition to that or saying, "Oh, no." Uh, we'll probably bring in some snacks and things like that because I anticipate that being about a 2 and a half hour long meeting roughly. Um, inclement weather is always this time of year. We've been uh a little bit uh fortunate the last several years that we've not had significant
022uh snowfalls or inclement weather, but that's something that we've already now are facing and and are challenged with. So, and we anticipate that occurring just as we look at the uh current forecasts and and the next few weeks forecast. So, just as an FYI, uh there's a lot of correspondence that surrounds that, a lot of work that surrounds that. Uh a lot of uh conversations early in the morning and late at night just trying to figure out the best path forward. Uh factoring in safety for everybody involved, but also we know that routine of getting uh students in the school as well. So, um a lot grace to kind of learn how to be on a board, which I think most which I think most of us didn't get when we got on. Um but
023most of us didn't get when we got on. Um but the topic around president and superintendent collaboration and communication to the rest of the board, I think that's one of the things that we could improve on. Um and one of the ideas that I heard from another district was to b through agenda setting meetings. So, as you may be aware, uh we we typically meet the president and vice president meet on Thursday mornings to set the agenda for Monday nights. There's no reason why either another board another board member couldn't join that or replace the the vice president if um depending on how you wanted to make that work. But it could be the president and another board member every other board meeting perhaps or you could just add a third board member to it
024which I think would probably be the better of those two options. Um the other thing was we haven't really uh re-uped our committees in a while and so I saw that Dr. Pat sent out the the sheet which was great and so I would encourage everyone to sign up on committees that interest you. Um, I believe this was director Orvis's idea, but um, have board member participation in active shooter or intruder training. And again, these are just topics to discuss at the orientation. These aren't like must haves or anything, but the idea was to allow board members to experience what staff members have to go through and kind of build some of that empathy and understanding of the staff experience. Um, and then another idea was uh approval or board approval of employee handbook. Actually,
025I think this was your idea, Director Orvis. Maybe not the prior one, but both of them were. Okay. >> Uh, and I'm kind of paraphrasing here, but I think the idea was basically that the employee handbook is an extension of board policy and therefore um approving it by the board. Uh so anyway, that could be a point of discussion. Would we want to do that or not? So those are just some ideas that I jotted down that I heard from other people. So >> great. And I'm sure that we have other people may have some things. So please compile those and get those to Dr. Pat and myself and we'll start looking at how that looks. And I had mentioned month or two ago about you know trying to set regular one-on- ons maybe with
026uh Dr. Pati for those board members who are interested in. So I would like to throw that on the list as well. So I think we should discuss that and weigh if it's um worthwhile to set up ad hoc meetings for that or just have Thursday morning meetings kind of be a substitute for that. It's just just a topic of discussion. >> Good. Good. Anyone else? >> I'd like to thank Director Gruber for organizing his u important uh participation in our current teacher organization. >> Yep. >> I do love that. >> Absolutely. >> After 100 years [laughter] >> because you used to do it. >> It was so good to go look at that. Somebody did it >> and somebody volunteered him >> and somebody >> Yeah, he wasn't here to defend himself. [laughter] >>
027Um, you know, we all have to be gracious at certain points. So, um, anything else? >> I would just like to thank the district and the city for um, allowing us to attend the state convention and, you know, providing us the resources to be able to do that. Um it was a wonderful learning experience and we appreciate the opportunity to be together as a board and the camaraderie of that and experience things with other board members as they attended um that state convention. It was a wonderful experience. So thank you to the citizens and to the district for providing us that opportunity. Um, also just a quick question, Danell. Um, the training certificate, we did receive those. Do we need to get that to you or did you get that as well? >> No, I
028did not receive those. They directly went to you. So, if you could send those over to my attention would be great. We hold those on file for um as long as you are uh a member of the district here. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else? I will say tonight um is going on or will be at 7:30 is the orchestra concert at the high school and then Thursday night is the band concert. These are all our December concerts and then next week is the coral program. So um check your bound app and if you don't have it, I'll be sending it to you later today. Anything else for the good of the order? Then we will take a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved >> and a second. >> Second. >> And all those
029in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you. We're adjourned. >> Congratulations, new board members. >> Absolutely.