001[Music] good evening and welcome to the Cedar Falls Board of Education meeting on this Monday February 24th thanks to all of you in attendance and for tuning in tonight and we've made it through a bitterly cold week so congratulations to everyone I would like to call this meeting to order first item on our agenda being our consent agenda which is uh a standard consent agenda for tonight just approval of agenda and last board meeting's minutes approval of accounts payable and open enrollment report there is no HR report tonight so um that is not part of the consent agenda do I have a mo motion to approve the consent agenda tonight so moved is there a second second okay all in favor say I I all opposed hearing none we will move on um we also
002did not have uh any public comment entries tonight so we will move on to item D of our agenda which is uh an appointment of board member to an open seat um so we've uh briefly talked about this over the past several board meetings um but we did have a board member uh resign or step down um because she was moving outside of the district so there's uh two options basically the board can appoint someone to fill the open seat which will then be up for reelection at the next uh regular or or um School Board election um or the community can petition to hold a special election so there was a 14-day window uh where a petition could have been made uh that closed last Monday February 17 um so now the board will
003move to appoint a board member um and so the board has consensus uh that we would like to appoint Joyce Coyle to fill the open seat um she is someone that is well respected in the community has uh a lot of of history and service on our board um she served on our board uh multiple terms and has been appointed uh multiple times um she still is heavily involved in our school district and still serves tirelessly and um she was one of two that had uh come to us um offering to serve so with that uh we would like to uh move to a point Joyce Coyle um do we do the motion first and then okay so I would like to request a motion uh for the special appointment I move this this I
004move the S Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education per Iowa Code 2796 approve Joyce Coyle to fill the open director's seat of Megan wit until the next special or regular election okay is there a second second okay all in favor say I I I all opposed hearing none motion carries so I will now let uh Miss gonnerman uh do the swearing in yeah for the administration of the oath 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 in the Cedar Falls Community School District Cedar Falls Iowa as now and Hereafter required by law thank you [Applause] Joyce well congratulations
005and welcome back Joyce all right we will now move on to Communications uh so first up will be our student board representative Natalie shataki welcome hi everyone um So lately we've been working on we had our pedals for purpose where we sold um flowers we sold I think 120 roses to everybody in the school and we also had someone come to us and offer to make some sock monkeys like handmade for everybody so we also sold those along with the flowers and then we also had a bake sale last Friday for I think it was dance marathon is where the proceeds went so we had a great time with that and then this week this Friday we're having our blood drive where everybody can come and donate blood we've been having open where everybody can
006sign up to donate and then we have a couple papers that they have to sign but it's pretty much really easy and it's a great way to donate um moving on we're starting our read Across America next week where people can sign up and go read to all of the classrooms in the elementary schools and then for May we're pretty much at our slow Point getting to the end of the year where the only really scheduled event that we have is our appreciation breakfast for this um teachers in the school and then just brainstorming more ideas for the end of the year have you planned the appreciation breakfast yet or no we have not okay so it's in May so we're kind of waiting okay any questions for Natalie well good work um on all
007these uh volunteer activities so thank you thanks for coming thank you okay now Janelle we'll have our district update yeah good evening we'll start out with some highlights and accomplishments across the district here and then um talk about some upcoming events and things to be on the lookout for first of all just kind of go back a little at the last board meeting we talked about all of the um State qualifiers for men swimming and just wanted to congratulate I think the team finished overall as fifth and then this was the state runner up and the 200 medley was um this relay of young men so congratulations to them and then also this is a photo of all of our Deca students from the high school and if I would have thought ahead I would
008have tried to remember what Deca stands for um it's focused on business um within um business competitions they can pitch different ideas um focus on tour ISM or different things they can choose um they qualified 13 events for Nationals which will be held later this spring and they could this is from their state competition so congratulations to all of those students and then also this last weekend was the Iowa science bow and the high school won third place um it was led by Erin swinsky a teacher at the high school there she's a third from the left and the students um you can see all of them there and all their names are also on social media if you would like to know all who all those students individually are congratulations to them and then
009also math counts the regional math counts was held locally Holmes team got first place for the Northeast Iowa chapter Pete can um competed as well and you can see on the left is the Pete students on the right is the home students so they had first second from Pete fourth from homes fifth from homes and sixth from homes overall there were about 100 students competing and 13 schools represented and now they will go on to compete in the state math C competition and then also wanted to mention men's wrestling they had three that they sent to State Chase Miller Evans Simpson and Ben bakis all competed last weekend at State wrestling and Evan finished six so congratulations to all those that competed at State wrestling and then just this past weekend this is one I
010usually try to mention this is the waterl Warriors Hockey team we actually have CF students that compete along with watero students on the hockey teams kind of one of those it's not a state sectioned um but it's an activity that um we partner with so we actually have some CF students and they'll be competing at Nationals I believe in California next month so congratulations to all of those student athletes and then also men's bowling the men's bowling team um qualified for State Jackson sadly qualified as an individual and they will start competing um tomorrow and Wednesday and I believe it's here in water loop so you can find all that information online and then looking ahead we have some events this week the high school cookie concert will be tomorrow evening at 7:30 at the
011new high school and then the women's basketball will be competing in the substate championship tomorrow evening as well and they will be competing at Davenport north um at 700 p.m. you can find all the information on how to follow along and buy tickets through the booster club and then third time is the charm for our rocket clubs familyfriendly corporate showcase we've had some um not so so great weather the past couple Wednesdays it's going to happen this week so in 2 days you'll be able to check all that out up at the high school from 5:00 to 7:00 and then um leading into spring break this SpongeBob the musical is going to be at the high school this is um 6th 7th and 8th tickets are $10 and are now available online through the bound
012app it's a photo of all the students that are involved in that um production and they are especially very excited because it's the first full um musical they'll be doing um at the new High School with all of the new enhancements they have so they really want to encourage the community to come out and support them and and see a great show again you can follow along in all the Athletics and activities on the bound app and everything happening in the district on our social media questions for Janelle I think the boys basketball team plays too right yes RJ I literally just said to Andy this afternoon I was like oh I forgot um to look up the boys basketball and um yes the first their round starts tomorrow evening they got a buy so
013then they will play the winner of that Friday evening in Iowa City no at home just follow along on social media it'll be on the district Facebook page Twitter Instagram all the places you can find find out yes so um thank you for mentioning that yes men's basketball I hope the the rocket club event wasn't causing the bad weather it's kind of interesting isn't it it was I do hope it goes off without a hitch this wed all right thank you Janelle moving on we will now uh discuss item F on our agenda which is setting a public hearing for next school year calendar so Dr P you can yeah so just a couple items uh we've gone through uh a little bit of a feedback loop with several different groups to to provide some
014input what we shared with the board at the last meeting was a rough draft of of a potential calendar and again some of the feedback that we received that night but from other groups has helped us tweak the calendar a little bit uh a couple important dates I think that we just need to highlight August 25th would be the first day of of class with students that is the uh currently earliest date that we can start per Iowa Code um we would have our Thanksgiving break similar in the past November 26th through the 28th so that would mean no school on that Wednesday Thursday and Friday uh we've changed and the change from the last draft to this draft is our winter break you can see now what we are proposing as to the students
015last day would be December 19th U there would be no school from December 22nd Monday through Friday January 2nd um students would come back after break on January 5th um so that uh looks and feels a little bit different uh we had to do some rearranging with some of our student contact days just because of where graduation Falls and what Iowa Code says for a number of days graduating seniors can miss um you will also see that spring break we always follow and correspond with you on I spring break uh for multiple reason Seasons but that falls March 16th to the 20th um and then you can kind of see some of those other dates as they fall so we feel pretty good about this calendar how it not only Falls as far as where
016breaks fall where the start date and end dates fall um and then now we just have to cross our fingers and hope inclement weather doesn't uh creep in next year and and cause some challenges so what this does today is this allows the board to set up public hearing part of the process and re requirement for Iowa code is that we have a public hearing for a school calendar and that would then be the next meeting when uh anybody that would wish to could come forward and provide public comment okay any questions before I request a motion I do feel pretty good about the calendar I think those were good changes I think staff and family will will appreciate that and thank all our groups to provide feedback okay is there a motion to set
017the public hearing I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education approve March 10th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at the city of Cedar Falls City Hall 2:20 Clay Street Cedar Falls Iowa as the date time and place to hold a public hearing for the 2025 2026 school year calendar okay and is there a second second okay all in favor say I I I all opposed hearing none we will um that public hearing is set and we will now move on to item G which is uh approval final acceptance and completion for new high school bid packages 14-1 and 22-1 Y absolutely we're getting closer to closing out this um High School project we do have a few more bid packages after this evening but just as before these are final bid packages
018to allow uh final acceptance but also to allow uh payment according to I code um after the 30 days requirement so um if we pull up the PowerPoint you'll see again it's for as um director stman indicated 14-1 and 22-1 uh this evening uh it would be for O'Keefe elevator which would be installing of our elevators at uh both the high school as well as the stadium according accordingly uh the original contract sum was $281,300 we had a a minimal change order of $148 for a total uh expenditure of $281,500 and then that second bid package as we move forward uh you'll note that is for Young's plumbing and heating uh which did all of our plumbing um HVAC um all of those requirements within the high school you'll note uh that original contract sum
019on December 21st 2020 accepted of 16,41 19,000 uh we did have some change orders again uh some of this was due to the fact of changes associated with requirements and codes um throughout the project itself of $279,995 184 again a thing to note uh the district did build in a contingency throughout um for this project to ensure um within that budget accordingly so we had total expenditures of 16, 698,000 $7 7384 as I mentioned just a few minutes ago um I believe we have three more bid packages remaining um with the high school itself um which you can anticipate um over the next couple of months as we finalize the project and move forward so any questions on those two bid packages okay hearing none I will request request a motion to approve I move
020that the Ed Falls Community School District Board of Education accept as complete the following bid packages for the construction of the new high school 271 West 27th Street for the following contractors and bid packages 14-1 and 22-1 all claims for materials furnished labor performed and or Services provided for these contracts must be filed par Iowa Code okay is there a second second all in favor say I I all opposed and all abstained all and one abstention okay uh motion carries then so we will move on to item H which is another uh bid package approval this time for the nitorum yeah so um this is the phase one of the nitorum um just similar to our high school actually this is the last two of our bid packages so uh next board meeting on the
021uh March 10th wow um I will provide a a final summary of those bid packages and and an overall review of where uh where we ended with this particular um budget accordingly for phase one but we had bid package 22-1 and 26-1 uh as we move forward you'll note for 22-1 was Young's plumbing and heating again uh this was water of Water excuse me waterl October of 2022 again this was for the HVAC as well as all the plumbing Associated to uh f phase one of the nitorum uh was a little over 3,899 th000 for that contract sum we did have a engine uh value engineering Associated to um our change order of $ 46,7 15760 a deduction so our total uh expenditures to date is 3,852 24240 um you'll note then also on the
022next uh page for our 26-1 uh K&W electric did all of the um minimal lighting uh different safety features Associated to phase one um some of this will uh obviously occur in phase two of the natatorium as we continue um but you'll note for the contract sum of 1,122 again there were some change orders some value Engineering also some changes due to the need um during phase one to phase two so some of that will shift to phase two of a deduction of 12 for total expenditures of $81,400 [Music] is the majority of those change orders you said roll over to phase two or is it like actual cost saving no I think there there there was some value engineering Associated to the building itself um during um phase one there is some minimal changes
023in phase two uh specific to the lighting that will roll over into phase two um but we did see some cost savings Associated to that it's good yeah okay any further questions if not is there a motion to approve I move that the Cedar Falls Community School District Board of Education accept as complete the following bid packages for the construction of the natatorium at 271 West 27th Street for the following contractors and bid packages 22-1 and 26-1 all claims for materials furnished labor performed and or Services provided for these contracts must be filed per I a code okay is there a second second all in favor say I I I I and all opposed all abstain or abstain so um six four and one abstain so motion carries I'm going to put you on the
024spot I didn't prep you for this but maybe this would be a good opportunity to review where we're at on phase two and if we're still on track for I think the last we said was late spring maybe opening yeah it's probably going to be more completed around um Jun is uh one of the things that I didn't realize until we got into this project that you have to have the pool water in the pool before you can swim in it for at least 3 weeks uh to balance all the water yes you have to have pool water into the pool before you swim but you have to have the pool water in the pool for at least a minimum of 3 weeks to get all the balancing and all the Les and all the
025different things right so it might be completed prior to them but there's going to be additional timing before you can actually jump into the pool and and actually use the pool so some of that's just going to be more semantics as we look at the schedule it is and will be open by the time we have our um fall swim teams that will will'll be utilizing it and that's really exciting and what I would say too I was going to say this underneath superint intendent report but now is a good time too if any board member wants to go out to the site and and see it it's now much more interesting because it's was for a long time a hole in the dirt in the middle of the building and now there's a lot
026of defining features that you can see and visualize and it's starting to look like a really tremendous feature that we know it's going to be that's going to serve our community for generations to come good well thanks for everyone working on that project and keeping it on track I know our swim Community will be very grateful when that opens okay moving on then to superintendent report so I guess you can continue everything else that you wanted to bring up yeah I feel like I need to apologize anytime we have short meetings but I'm sorry this is kind of a shorter meeting so um my report really is March 10th is our next board meeting uh we only have one in March we'll start the budget discussions in March as we look to finalize our budget
027tentatively uh it appears everything's pointing to a decline in our Levy rate a decrease in our Levy rate which is always I think a positive impact for our community then the next board meeting April 14th is when we will hold the um the the budget hearing as well as go really really in in depth into our our budget process the other item is obviously legislative session is in in full movements um not much has been passed out of the legisl at this time a lot of bills that are moving through committees or subcommittees or even uh one of the two houses uh I would say continue to Advocate because bills are simply bills until they become law and and you have to continue to stay informed within my Friday update I try to include uh
028the UE updates uh Urban education Network updates which typically have quite a bit of detail but also show some uh potential ways that might be impactful advocacy components uh for board members as well so okay thank you for that and we'll open up the floor to the rest of the board any I guess questions or concerns that you have or anything that you wanted to bring up or discuss one comment following up on Dr P's mention of advocacy for Education uh Friday March 7th at 4:30 P.M uh the League of Women Voters among other sponsors uh will be holding a legislative Forum at the van Miller adult education center in water loop a great way to start out at date night 4:30 on a [Laughter] Friday uh the primary topic of discussion will be education
029at that meeting okay anything else from other board members all right if nothing else I know this is a little shorter meeting today uh this is our second meeting and we don't have the full budget rundown and everything so it's a little bit shorter on these second meetings of the month um but thanks everyone for joining us tonight and I would request a motion to adjourn so move okay second second all in favor say I I I meeting adjourned