001[Music] Good evening and welcome to the Cedar Falls Board Board of Education meeting this April 28th. I hope everyone is safe out there and the weather avoids us for the most part. We'll go ahead and get started tonight. Uh I'd like to call this meeting to order. The first uh item on our agenda tonight is a public hearing for the 2025 2026 school year budget. I have in my possession an affidavit of publication showing that the notice of time and place of hearing for the proposed school budget summary notice for fiscal year 2025 to 2026. This notice was published in the Waterl Cedar Falls Courier on April 15, 2025. The board will now hold a hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak regarding next year's budget? Hearing none. Uh this hearing is
002closed. Moving on to the next item. Uh so this is another uh public hearing regarding our current uh fiscal school year budget amendment. I have in my possession an affidavit of publication showing that the notice of time and place of hearing for the proposed school budget amendment notice for fiscal year 2024 through 2025. This notice was published in the Waterl Cedar Falls Courier on April 15, 2025. The board will now hold a hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak on this matter? Hearing none, uh, this hearing is closed. We'll move on now to the consent agenda, uh, which is fairly standard tonight. uh approval of tonight's agenda and last board meeting minutes, approval of uh accounts payable from the last month, our open enrollment and HR reports, and one uh special item
003tonight uh regarding a 28E agreement with Orchard Hill Church Preschool. Is there any comments or amendments requested from the board on the consent agenda? Hearing none. I'll ask for a motion to approve. So move. Director Meyer and I'll ask for a second. Second. Second. Director Peterson. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say nay. Hearing none. Consent agenda is approved. And we'll move on now to public comment. Uh so just a reminder for those watching or in the audience uh every board meeting we offer uh a space for public comment. Um anyone in the district uh can comment and have a threeminut uh window of time to comment on any uh district business items that they wish to. Uh we don't have any tonight. Uh so we'll move on past the public comment into
004our communications. So, first up on our communications is our student board representative, James Pang. Welcome, James. Welcome back. Hi. How are you guys doing today? Um uh uh President Natalie is uh out. Uh so I'm filling in for her. And uh so some quick updates from uh Cedar Falls High School, specifically uh the student senate. So uh we had our first uh 3v3 basketball tournament that went uh really well. We had um team I want to make sure I get their name right, but it was um yeah the the name is uh dream team and it was uh Mr. TG, Mr. Wgamuth, Jaden Kimbro, and Liam O'Neal who were our champions. Uh over the course of our tournament, we uh collected uh $1 per uh viewer at the inside our gym during Tiger time and
005uh we raised uh $1,78 and uh yeah, we rounded that up to 1,500 from our own student senate funds so that we can uh give that to the Do Better Be Better Foundation. And uh for those of you who aren't aware, the Do Better Be Better Foundation is just a a foundation that that helps uh support uh cancer treatment in the Cedar Valley for certain families. Um with that in mind, uh other things we have for a student senate coming up is the lunch staff appreciation breakfast uh this Friday, I am pretty sure, where we uh can we're going to help host a breakfast just to thank the teachers uh as we always do every year. And uh finally, we just had our uh homes junior high and pe junior high orientation at the high
006school. So, we just introduced them to um some of our student senate activities as well as the building in a general uh different opportunities and uh how it's structured and laid out. And uh that's about it so far. Any questions for James? Well, thanks for filling in this week and thanks for the update at the high school. Thanks so much. Good luck at the appreciation lunch. Okay. And we have uh Josh Balk here from Dryrun Creek Watershed Conservation Project. Welcome. And you have an update for us uh regarding this project and I think you have a lot of good things to share with us. Yeah. So, welcome. Well, good evening everyone. Appreciate the opportunity to be here with you tonight. Um I'd really just wanted to take a few minutes of time to highlight wonderful
007partnership activities going on here in the Cedar Valley and thought it very opportune uh because we have just got done celebrating Earth week. This week we're kicking off stewardship week and the theme this year is home is where the habitat is and seems very apt um for both of those coming together. So just wanted to maybe start off with a little bit of background. Um, so for the last 10 years I've had the pleasure of working here in the Cedar Valley on the Dryrun Creek wershed improvement project. Um, although my position or the the who I fall under has changed. I was originally a county position and now do the same position with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. But for the last 20 years, we've had a targeted effort to improve water quality here
008in the Cedar Valley and the Dry Run Creek WHED. This started in 2005 where we were able to pull together local, state, and federal partners. We're able to secure some grant funding and have had this project going now trying to look at cleaning up water with a targeted effort there. And so, like I said, with it started kicking off in 2005, been going 20 years. We're feeling pretty proud about what we've been able to accomplish in that time. And just some of the highlights there, we're close to 300 conservation practices throughout our community, both in our urban and rural areas, helping clean up our water, protect our soil, and that equates to um yeah, 124 million gallons of storm water being treated that would normally be running off through the storm drain system, as well
009as almost 30 3,700 tons of sediment that we're keeping on our and and out of our waterways. So, quite a bit of accomplishment there. And I think those are like big numbers to throw out. So, because we're at our school board meeting, thought I'd just try and give some visualizations for that cuz I can't really visualize what 124 million milk jugs look like. So, if we think about an averagesiz bathtub holding 40 gallons, that's still over 3 million bathtubs, which is also difficult. So one of the best visualizations I can think of is if we have our standard football field and we dig it 100 feet deep that's and we have three of those footballs fields side by side that's close to 124 million gallons. So that's what we're protecting each year which is pretty
010awesome. And then thinking about 3,700 tons of sediment uh that's close to 247 triple axle vehicles uh trucks each and every year. So, but I didn't come here to talk about just our accomplishments. I wanted to highlight the wonderful partnerships we've built here um with the Cedar Falls School District and how we're helping clean up water in the Cedar Valley. One of our first partnered projects was at the Cedar Heights Elementary School. Uh there was an enthusiastic group of students that were involved in the first Lego League and the theme in 2018 was focusing on hydraology and ways of utilizing water more efficiently and so I got connected with the group there gave a presentation and they really got excited about rain gardens. So together we helped uh design a rain garden with the student
011input there. We got some wonderful college students from the University of Northern Iowa involved with the conservation corps program. Dug out a rain garden, put some wonderful plants in, and just this small 160 ft rain garden is helping to treat uh close to 19,000 gallons of storm water each and every year. And like I said, this was a wonderful partnership, small, we got students involved. It was very wonderful. Uh that same year, Aldrich Elementary was coming online in the design phase and we were invited uh to the table to talk about conservation opportunities there. Having a blank slate, we really dove in and tried to think of ways we could handle storm water. And with that, we designed three bio retention cells that treat uh all the runoff coming from the parking lots in that
012building. So they're scattered throughout. Um you can see some photos up there. We went with some grass vegetation there. Um it wonderfully complemented the area and just think uh that's like close to 700,000 gallons uh that's getting treated through there. So it was a really big project and and like I said went really well and so I think that's why we were invited to the table uh to talk about the Cedar Falls High School. Similarly getting a blank slate and thinking about how we could get conservation incorporated to the design. We came up with a lot of different ideas and then settled with some parking lot bio retention cells again but then also recognized the wonderful opportunities of incorporating native prairie. Um so we involved the uni tall grass prairie center as well to help
013us come up with a diverse mi several mixes of prairie seed that we implemented throughout the campus. And like I said I know how wonderful the the new high school is. I've had the pleasure of walking around a few times and just seeing how conservation and sustainably minded it is. But just not just thinking about the building itself, but what's going on outside is just astounding there. And just to kind of highlight um where it is, I mean, we really did get it implemented throughout the entire campus. Um and I guess it also opened the doors for many wonderful partnership opportunities as well. So, we wanted to help raise awareness for these conservation components. And so, with that, we partnered with the Cedar Falls CAPS program and got connected with I didn't want to butcher
014a name here. So, Miss Schwarz Schwarzener with the Southdale Elementary and we worked with her sixth grade students to design educational signage throughout the the school. And so, you can go there. uh we have that wonderful QR code that connects to not just these five uh signs but all the signs the students designed there and was just a wonderful partnership of bringing conservation and education and service learning together. So thinking about what the the school district has done in the name of conservation over these years, we think about those conservation practices and cumulatively we're treating close to 72 acres of land and over 15 million gallons of storm water. So like I said, that's very astounding and we really appreciate these partnership opportunities we've have to help keep our our water clean here. But those
015are just big numbers. where you think about the the long-term impacts that these are going to have. And what's hard to to put numbers on is thinking about the habitat benefit. 23 and a half acres of native prairie is astounding. And that will create many wonderful homes and food opportunities for our pollinators, our bees, butterflies, and birds that are in much in need. But then also the components that we're partnering with education. And so we are creating outdoor learning areas for these students for generations to come. And that's just wonderfully astounding. And so my role, I've had the wonderful opportunity of not only being the paperwork pusher, um, but focusing on these conservation components and building these partnerships. And so I really I've had the pleasure of working with many of the staff and teachers
016throughout the Cedar Falls School District and really appreciate the the opportunity, but would just like to highlight that uh the that we have many partners in our community that are coming together that are doing their parts um both in conservation on the land as well as raising awareness. Um, so just wanted to thank you all for your service and commitment um to sustainability and what you're doing here in the Cedar Valley and the longl lasting impact it'll have on our community. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Josh. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Any questions for Josh? Not a question, but a just a a comment. Um Josh said he thinks the Aldrich project went pretty well and that's why he was invited back for the high school project. uh that went extremely well
017and and again we see this partnership as invaluable for what we do as a community for sustainability but also for education. So again you are tremendous to work with and thanks for all that you do for our community and our region. Thank you. I also want to say thank you and thankful for people like you because I think sometimes we take take it for granted what all goes into um maintaining our natural resources. So appreciate you coming tonight. Thank you. And we look forward to continued partnerships. Agreed. Thanks. Thank you, Josh. Okay, our communications director, Janelle Darst, now will give our overall district update. Welcome, Janelle. Yeah, thank you. We'll have our presentation come up real quick and then we'll um run through some highlights. We've had lots of great things happening. this past weekend
018was the Drake Relays, of course, in De Moine and was an outstanding weekend. We're going to highlight um this young lady right here, Charlie Gaul. Uh she was a twice a Drake Relays champion in the 30,000 meter and the 1500 meters, set school records on both of those, and I believe it was breaking her mom's well her own record that she broke this year, her mom's record that was previous for both those races. So, um fabulous young lady. She's so fun to watch and they're um now postseason will um will be starting and looking forward to state. So really just wanted to give a big shout out to Charlie and um those two championships. And then also wanted to highlight we had a runner up from the men's team on the 4x8 team to Gro
019Martin Hoyer and Meyers all ran and that was also a school record when they ran on Saturday at the Drake Relay. So congratulations to them as well. We had a lot of other student athletes compete um over the days of the Drake Relays. So definitely go on and follow the booster club Facebook and Twitter and you can see where they all placed and they definitely had some great great outcomes throughout the whole weekend. So it'll be fun to watch them as they continue their season. I also want to congratulate these students right here were delegates to the Iowa High School Model UN conference which was held at UNI last week and three members um were awarded for outstanding performances. Abby Peters for outstanding position paper and outstanding delegate. Max Brighten, outstanding delegate. And Israel Kodiaga,
020outstanding delegate. And Israel was here before, if you recall. He's the president of the um student senate. I believe it's called student senate at Holmes junior high. So, congratulations to all of those students and um the experience they were able to have at the model UN. um knowing that Josh was coming and in the spirit of um great partnerships. And then as I was putting together my presentation, I realized this is kind of a a partnership parade, maybe you could almost say over these next slides because we have lots of great things that we'll be mentioning um about partnerships. This first one, this was our third career connections day and it's for all sixth graders in Cedar Falls. And they go to you and I and they're able to then um do some hands-on learning
021and they get a tour of campus. they explore some career pathways um working with TJ Warren who is um part of our uh CAPS program also but then works on these career experiences for not only our sixth graders but then also um our fall program that we do as well. Um so we just wanted to highlight this. This was done last week at uni for the sixth grade students and they were there all so all seven elementaryaries all sixth graders came and spent a morning on campus last week. And then also wanted to highlight another partnership here with the city. Uh the sixth graders as part of Earth Week, they went around and um cleaned up the school and then the North Cedar neighborhood. And this is that um sculpture that is in the North
022Cedar neighborhood as well. So a great photo of those students and the great partnership with the city and and helping out on Earthw Week. And then also wanted to mention Orchard Hill Elementary has started a high- five Friday and every Friday they invite um someone from the community or teachers or parents and they have these awesome large hands that they give um high fives to students as they're walking in and they had soldiers from the um first 133rd Infantry and Gatekeepers from the Department of Defense. So, I thought that was really cool that they invited them to come and do their high- five Friday. And then this is um Hansen fifth graders, another great partnership with the Cedar Falls Public Library and also the Friends of the Public Library. They um are able to invite
023all of the students in fifth grade that are here in author and this year it was Jana Marks there and um I believe it's called like an author festival. So they read a book by the author and then they do some activities and then are actually able to meet the author and that's and thanks to the friends of the public library. And then last week was also the introduce a girl to engineering day. So the society of women engineers um they partner with Pete and Holmes and then other junior highs in the area and invite girls from both those junior highs to come and experience introduce a girl to engineering day. They do lots of activities, hear speakers, get to do some hands-on things. So, just wanted to give a shout out to that partnership
024as well. Oh, and there's more. And then also at Pete last week, they had an assembly and you can see all of the partners from across the area they had that came and talked about and you can see our own um Mr. Beavers there in that one photo. He was welcomed back. He retired last year as principal from Pete. And this is one of the programs they do where um they do schoolwide assemblies. And this one they focused on ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. So then they had these speakers and it's kind of a question answer of a panel. Also highlighting Pete, if you hadn't seen, Mr. Meister was actually on the roof last week for a day. One of the important things for our ISAs training or testing is attendance uh in our
025building. So, one of the motivators that they did was if uh Pete had some had great attendance numbers, he would spend the day on the top of the high school working. So, he enjoyed that. Was able to peek into the library. Um had some students bring him coffee, played catch a little. So, he really enjoyed I think that day on the roof that he worked. And then also wanted to highlight our women's golf team. They donated to the future Shields Tiger Performance Center. So, it was really great to see these student athletes take on such a great um activity to fund raise and then donate those monies to the Tiger Performance Center, which is of course phase one currently under construction. And then we have um some new parent university episodes. This is on the
026Cedar Falls on the CF CAPS program. It was highlighted on our social media and in our last e newswsletter and we'll continue to keep um pushing that out so everyone can learn more about the CAPS program. And then the next one that we'll be um sharing is on authentic learning across the district. Also want to remind everyone the student art show still open at the Hurst Center through May 18th. Oh, we announced last day of school. Everyone was very excited to know that'll be Tuesday, June 3rd. Um parents should have gotten an email last week about kind of the details and what the schedule for early outs will be on Tuesday, June 3rd for our last day of school. Make sure to follow along all the athletics on the bound app, especially if things are
027going to get cancelled. This is the best place to know if that's going to happen. And then, of course, all the district social media. Thank you. So, I always wonder when the principal works on the roof and students get sent to the principal's office, where do they go? I think they probably go to the assistant principal that day, maybe. But if it's an principal, I'm not sure what I'm not sure what they do. Well, thank you, Janelle. Uh, lots going on in the district and lots to celebrate. So, thanks for bringing all of that to our awareness. We will m now move on to item G of the agenda, uh, which is approval of next fiscal year's budget. Um, Denell, you will review this with us. Absolutely. This really is just a brief overview of
028a last presentation at our April meeting. Um, as as we move forward again, um, you'll know that as we discussed last last last meeting in April, um, we have our combined district cost, which is our $18 million, our program adjustment of 47,000. We do have our dropout prevention and and you'll note that that dropout prevention uh is utilized for our dropout prevention program which is our SRO's um our Excel program different things like that throughout of a little over a million. We have our cash reserves of that $400,000 for a total of $19,712,557 or a tax levy of $821. In addition, then we do have our instructional support and we've discussed that that we utilize that for our kindergarten teachers. We also utilize that for um staff associated to our counselors. Uh we do use
029that for um our um uh computers and and equipment associated to our instructional uh of a little over $2.6 million within our management fund. Our management fund again is associated to uh the the district's liability work comp uh property insurance and as notated um last meeting uh we are seeing an increase associated to that again this year um anywhere from 13 to u 18% dependent upon uh final numbers that are provided to us. Again, that's not not district associated, but it unfortunately is nationwide um of the hardening of the market of a little over $1.9 million. And again, as a reminder, we do have that uh 1% wind and hail uh deductible associated to our management fund. So, therefore, the request for the $ 1.9 million. We do have then our voted PPE levy of
030a little over $3.5 million or $134 of that levy. um as well as our regular PEP levy of $863,912. Uh just to remind the board and those reviewing uh the slide with me, we utilize that for equipment uh as well as um construction um uh our fleet, our vans, our transportation department, uh utilizing that as we needed for the district. And then we do have our debt service. And our debt service uh is the that principal and interest associated to our geo bonds uh for both the high school as well as then the construction of Aldrich Elementary and the remodeling of Orchard Hill and North Cedar of a little over $7.3 million for a total of $36,78,960 or a tax rate of $14.53. So as we move forward then you'll note uh this just depicts
031the property tax rate and the history of the property tax over the last several years. Um it is with and without debt service. Uh you'll note the red is without debt service and with the uh the black is then with debt service with the exception of fiscal 23. uh we have had a decrease within our property tax over the last several years and the reason for that fiscal 23 was that's when uh we had our first principal and interest payment for um for our go bond associated to the high school. So again you'll note from uh fiscal 25 to fiscal 23 there is approximately about 22 cents uh decrease in our tax levy associated to uh our property tax. As we move forward then this just gives a little bit of a breakdown of that
032property tax breakdown and where it falls, how it's controlled. Uh you'll see that combined district cost associates to approximately 51%. We do have our debt services at that 20% and then so forth so on with those associated to each of those levies as identified. Overall, uh the board uh really has um discretion about 10% 10 to 12% of the levy to make those decisions associated to that um and each year associated to that property tax breakdown. As we move forward then again this is just the overall budget of the 2526 and the expenditures associated to that. Obviously you'll note the difference between the expenditures and the property taxation. There's other resources that obviously account for those additional expenditures associated to that. That would be local dollars as well as uh state dollars as well as
033federal dollars as well as uh donations. All sorts of different things uh account for uh those uh those uh expenditures associated to that. General over operations as I've explained before that is just salaries of benefits and then obviously uh keeping those buildings going and and open throughout the year. We have our student activity fund which obviously has no property taxation. Our management fund and those estimated expenditures associated to that. Uh we then do have our uh capital projects as well as then our physical plant and levy and our debt service and then our nutrition for a total expenditures of 111 million with property taxation of $35,971,762. And I have a real quick question that management fund. I know you've covered this a ton. Yeah, that is for is that for insurance premiums and also some
034is set aside for the deductible the 1% correct? Yes. So I guess my question is what happens next year when hopefully knock on wood we don't have to use that 1%. Does that just carry over or Yeah. So we man we monitor that management fund to determine where those levels should be based on our building values. And so as that as there's a potential increase in insurance as we've seen each year, we monitor that fund balance to see where we need to ensure we have those funds available if there is a uh an occurrence within the district and we balance that out occurrenly within that. Okay. But it does carry over within our fund balance each year. Yes. Y great question. Um, as we move forward then, uh, as as I had indicated on on
035April 14th, you'll see the projected residential property tax for, uh, the 2425 and the 2526. Again, um, as we had discussed, that property value assessed at $100,000. Um, with that roll back, the roll back did change for fiscal 26. It did increase and that's, uh, determined by the Department of Revenue. uh you'll see that that taxable value prior to credits equates to $47,432. Uh again, we're indicating that homestead credit uh associated to that of $4,850. So a total taxable value of $42,582 for a tax rate for as we are anticipating for fiscal 26 of $1453. So that estimated net tax of $619 compared to the prior year of $614. Again, uh though the tax rate uh did decrease at that 222 cents uh because of the roll back associated to fiscal 25 versus fiscal 26,
036that taxable valuation did increase. Therefore, the tax uh the tax changes associated to that for fiscal 26. any questions that you may have before we move into the amendment uh for 2425. So we had based this on some early assumptions. Are most of those assumptions holding true? They are which is fantastic. So as we know uh when we originally had these uh conversations um we had based it on a 2% SSA uh based on what I've understood uh that did pass the house and senate. I have not seen that uh signed by the governor yet, but that is based on that. The assumptions were based on our management fund based on that 13 to 18%. Um so yes, I feel very confident that uh that $14.53 uh tax levy will will be pretty darn close.
037Uh within within uh less than a penny is my guess, unless there's any other changes that the legislature may do um that may affect that. But yes, so and just a note for those watching, um Denell obviously went in great detail on every single one of these categories uh in the previous board meeting. So if you would like a full rundown on every line item in the budget, um that would be the place to go. I do think we need to motion uh this one before we move to the program adjustment. So, is there a motion to approve uh next fiscal year's budget? I move that the Cedar Falls Board of Education approve the proposed 2025 2026 school year budget as presented and the use of 1% income sir tax as required by Iowa code.
038Okay. Is there a second? Second. Director Coyle. Okay. All in favor say I. I. I. All post say nay. hearing none. Uh motion carries and we'll move to item H uh which is approval of this current school year's budget amendment. Yeah, again this just depicts the uh we this is the discussion that we have at this period of time. If you recall um we are always reviewing very closely uh the expenditures associated to our budget. Uh but there are times that uh items um are not anticipated or expected or changed throughout the budget. And so this is the time of year that we also then amend our budget if needed. Uh this just depicts that the Iowa code uh the section associated to that does allow that and and it is very common for districts
039to complete this. Um as I indicated there are expenditures that do occur throughout the year and um as we move forward then you'll note um we are looking at two of the four areas this year uh associated to our 2425 school budget um that is our non-instructional program which is our food service or nutritional as I indicated in our our past meeting um that is increasing from uh 3,370,000 to 300 or 3,527,000 Again, this is due to uh cost of supplies and and foods as well as then additional staff associated to the non u non-instructional program as well as then other expenditures which is um amended and a lot of that is due to the timing of construction. As we know, they're uh our construction projects have been doing extremely well, but dependent upon when
040that timing occurs for those payments and processes, they do sometimes reflect in different budget years. And so based on that timeline, we do have to make those changes. But then also, uh we have uh the the board did approve the construction of the Shields TPC center. So we do have an additional contract associated to that that payments will fall within the 2425 school year as you've noticed that they've started construction on that. So um that is a we're requesting amendment of from 32,530,000 to 39,640,000. Uh is there any other questions that you may have in regards to the budget amendment for this year? maybe clarify for those interested or watching um where the revenues come from for the additional 7 million for the Yeah, thank you. TPC. I did fail to mention that this time.
041Thank you. Um that is within original resources that we already have. It's not additional taxation. So the taxes uh will not change and associated to that. So yes, fund balances and different revenues. Thank you for that. Okay, any questions for Danell? All right. Is there a motion to approve? I move that the Cedar Falls Board of Education approve the amendment of the 202425 budget year expenditures in two of the four categories, non-instructional programs, and total other expenditures as presented. Is there a second? Second, Director Orvis. And all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed. Nay. Hearing none. Uh item is approved. And moving on now to uh agenda item I uh which is another one. Yeah. For you. Yep. There's there's no presentation. Um this really just is a procedural item. Uh this is
042a a a yearly request that just indicates that the district will levy the property taxes for the fiscal year of 2526 as allowed under IRA code. So uh just recommendation to move forward that so we can move forward with our budget process accordingly. Okay. Any questions for Denell hearing? None. Is there a motion to approve the regular program adjustment? I move that if necessary, the board of education of Cedar Falls Community School District will levy property tax for the fiscal year 202526 for the regular program budget adjustment as allowed under section 257.14 code of Iowa. Okay. Is there a second? Second, Director Kuber. All right. Uh if no questions or comments, I'll ask for um all in favor to say I. I. All opposed? Nay. Hearing none. Motion carries. And now we're on item J.
043Which is summer 2025 roofing bids. Yeah. La last presentation for me this evening. Uh we can go ahead and move forward to the next slide. This is just a reminder of our summer uh 2025 replacement projects. If you recall, we had CG CGC here um last month to review what those particular projects look like associated to our Southdale Elementary. We have AB and C as well uh sections A, B, and C identified on the screen as well. Then as our Orchard Hill end with our H is identified on the screen as well. A couple of those were alternative b beds and then there that base bid associated to that. As we move forward then uh we had our anticipated bid construction or base bid. Uh you'll note um this was the estimates associated to those
044for sections B and C and then Orchard Hill H for $197,350 within that alternative bid at SE uh Southdale for section A at $113,785 for our budget for 2025 of $311,135. Um, as we received our bids, um, as we move forward, you'll note, uh, this indicated our bid results on 417 of 2025. We had that bid opening at, um, the administration office. Uh, we received three bids associated to this particular project. Uh, you'll note those bids uh, were from Service Roofing, Blackhawk Hawk Roofing, Advanced Builders, and then no bid from Moss Roofing. Uh, bids came in extremely favorable um, for the district. Uh therefore it's uh you'll note for that base bid of $165,23 and then that alternative bid of $86,600 um from service roofing. It would be recommended to move forward then with service
045roofing out of Waterl Iowa with that base bid as well as that alternative bid as it did um come under budget approximately $50,000 than originally budgeted. So um for these summer rift projects. So, is there any questions specific to our bids? Has Service Roofing done any projects for us in the past? Yeah, they've been a great partner uh with us in the past. They've provided great service throughout. So, they're very familiar with our roofs um throughout the district um at all of our buildings. So, yes. Okay. Any questions or comments regarding summer 2025 roofing projects? If none, I will request a motion. I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the 2025 roof improvement bid of $251,83 from Service Roofing Company, Waterl, Iowa. Okay. Is there a second? Second. All
046in favor say I. I. I. All opposed? Nay. Hearing none. Motion carries. And now we'll move on to uh Miss Younglut uh our HR director for um item K of the agenda which is approval of the uh 2025 2026 CFA contract tenative agreement was reached on April 11th 2025 on a contract to cover a one-year period July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. This tenative agreement has been ratified by CFA members. The base salary schedule increase is $480 for BA step 1 base wage generator. The 202526 generator shall be $38,319. Step and lane step advancement and lane changes for employees who meet requirements. The base wage generator for the extracurricular activities and activity schedule shall be $37,95. The percentage applied to the generator for the following activities assignments shall be elementary band at 8%. Elementary
047orchestra at 8%. The department chair schedule base wage generator shall be 37,425. The base wage increase, including step and lean advancement and other increases to generators as specified, is 2.65%. We recommend acceptance of this tenative agreement. Okay, I'll request a motion and then we can uh do our uh discussion. Is there a motion to approve? I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve the 2025 20226 Cedar Falls Education Association collective bargaining contract as presented. Okay. Is there a second? Second, Director Meyer. All right. Any questions or comments for Amber or anyone regarding this contract? Well, I would just say thanks to both LOL and Jenny for being involved with with this. Uh, it's always appreciated when we have board representation there. So, maybe if you would I know there's minimum
048salaries in effect and some might look at the VA step one and say how are how are we meeting it? So could you just explain maybe how we meet the minimum uh teacher salary requirement? I'll go ahead and take that one. Um we uh obviously there's uh two funding sources that we've talked about previously. Um we have our categorical funds which is our teacher salary supplement which then um I would say backfills that associated to those minimums that are required. So we have funding associated obviously to our general our general salary schedule. Um that is our base salary schedule that we um have those conversations on. And then we have those additional funds that are associated to um for that minimum if you are aware uh for our BA or our individuals that are new
049teachers or $50,000 and then we do have that additional um for those 12 years. So there are additional funds that backfill that accordingly. And starting teachers don't start at step one, right? Start at step three. Is that correct? Correct. Yes. Anybody into our district? We start at step three. Okay. Any further questions? If not, I'll ask all in favor say I. I. I. All opposed? Nay. Hearing none. Motion carries. CFA contract agreement is approved. And that wraps up our uh main portion of the agenda items tonight that we were going through. Let's move on to item L, which is superintendent report. So, Dr. Pi, I think you have a few items to bring to the board. Yeah, just a couple different items. Uh number one, we have commencement on May 25th. Thanks for that um
050being the board representative there. So, thank you for that. Um, we have service recognition, uh, sometimes, um, misstated as our retirement reception, but it's, uh, even those that might not be retiring, that have been in the district more than 10 years for service recognition on May 14th. And we'll send an invitation for anybody that'd like to be there. Uh, it's always nice uh, neat event as we celebrate our staff members who are are moving into either a next phase or into retirement. Um legislature we are continuing to watch. I think Dell said that they are still in session. Uh the biggest bill that we're watching and kind of waiting on is the property tax uh bill uh that they have been working on. There was a version 1.0 that they took suggestions and input on
051to a 2.0 that does not seem to to have a lot of traction at this time. So we anticipate a 3.0 know version coming out of that sometime probably this week. Uh we'll just continue to monitor that and watch to see how that um either changes uh or adapts uh with future iterations. So other than that uh as we turn the page into May, the next board meeting is May 12th. Um and it's hard to believe that we'll be looking at end of year and end of year celebrations as uh this 2024 2025 school year comes to an end. Andy, is the recommendation um at 4:30? Do you do you have a time? Uh yeah, I believe that is at 4:30. And this year we are doing it in the jungle at the high school.
052Oh, okay. Nice. Okay. Thank you for that update. And any other items from the board that you'd like to bring to the table tonight? So, couple of things that did come out of the legislature. We have the cell phone bill. Um, I believe we're waiting for uh model policy from the Department of Education. Is that correct? Yes. Waiting and on the model policy and then we uh recently conducted surveys with our students and secondary uh staff which uh we're kind of sifting through now as well. Good. And we also had the uh the um I want to uh the uh testing and I'm sorry I'm losing my our uh I want to say civics and I know that's not right. Our oh the yeah citizenship uh civics u yes um we that's going to be
053an interesting one. We'll have to kind of review and figure out and and we will hopefully get guidance on that. A lot of times with bills that get passed or not passed depending on the timing of when we get guidance is kind of how we look at those to to be able to determine next steps. And uh we're hoping guidance will come out very quickly so we can make the right steps and and right approaches on all of these. Andy, I don't want to sound like a broken record because I think I ask this every meeting, but can you just give an update on the facilities uh specifically the pool because I think we're coming up on that being completed here. Yeah. So, uh pool uh with water in the pool is still scheduled for
054July 1st. Uh um on time and and uh on budget. Uh if any board members want to go and visit that, please let me know. We can take you out there at any time. Uh it is a construction zone, so we do need hard hats. Um, but again, it's uh uh coming along. Every time I'm out there, it seems like there's great progress that's occurring and and we appreciate that. Shields Tiger Performance Center, you will see mostly of it now just fenced off. Uh and uh there's great fencing by Peter's construction as well as the the wind breaks, so you can't see the construction zone. The majority of the construction won't happen until summer. uh now is some of the ground work, taking off some of the top soil, uh getting uh the the uh
055base structure set uh so we can move cranes in there and things like that because the vertical walls won't start taking place until students are off campus, which will be June 4th, uh when that'll start taking place. So, a lot of excitement. Again, it's a testament to our community and our partnerships, uh, which is kind of the theme of the meeting. uh but also for the Shields Tiger Performance Center, our committee that has done a wonderful amount of work to to fund raise to get the word out and and to to get this to a position where we can have this um structure uh that's going to serve not only our community, our school, and and our our region for generations to come, but our activities, our athletics, our clubs, and and so many co-curricular
056and extracurricular activities that will take place in that space. It's going to be amazing. Good. Any other comments? Uh just one quick clarification. We uh open our meetings with often with public hearings and we also have public comment. When we have public comment, we ask that people register for that in advance. But that is not the case for public hearing. Is that correct? Correct. Yeah. public hearing is whoever's here to comment. Um, public comment is you have to let either the board president or the superintendent know by 4:00 p.m. the day of the meeting, which actually isn't that difficult because that's an hour and a half before the meeting. So, um, yeah, just let us know that you'd like to speak and as long as it's gerine to, uh, district business, um, it's, yeah, you
057can share anything that you want to bring to the board during public comment. Public hearing would be germanine to the that hearing topic. Exactly. And they're just different parts of Iowa code that have differences. So, that's it's an interesting question, one I've never thought of because they are handled differently. So, thank you. Okay, I don't think I had anything else. So, thanks everyone for uh your participation and contributions. And I will now request a motion to adjurnn. So moved. There a second. Second. All in favor say I. I. I. Meeting adjourned. Have a good evening everyone. Excuse me.