001- Good evening. This regular meeting of May 11th, 2026, of the Dubuque Community School District Board of Education is called to order. (gravel bangs) Our mission is to develop world class learners and citizens of character in a safe and inclusive learning community. Roll call please. - [Carrie] Bradley - Here. - Hamel. - [Carrie Hingtgen. - Here. - [Carrie Jacobitz-Kizzier. - Here. - [Carrie Parks. - Here. - [Carrie] Sainci. - Here. - [Carrie] Wittman. - Here. - We're pleased to welcome students from Audubon Elementary to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. - Go ahead. My name is Brox Lehman, my school is Audubon Elementary. My grade is fifth grade. - Hi, I'm Ava Hardwick and I go to school at Ottoman Elementary and I am in the fifth grade. - My name is Azah Stevens.
002My school is Audubon Elementary. I'm in the fifth grade. - My name is Odin Stackman. I go to Audubon Elementary School and I'm in fifth grade. - [Attendees] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America And to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Thank you. - Thanks for being here. - I move the Board of Education to approve the agenda as submitted. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been then seconded that the Board of Education approve the agenda as submitted. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - Aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move the agenda The Board of Education approve the minutes of the regular meeting
003on April 13th, 2026 and the special meeting on May 6th, 2026 as submitted. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the minutes of the regular meeting of April 13th, 2026 and the special meeting of May 6th, 2026 as submitted. Is there any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move the Board of Education suspend the rules of order and go into open forum. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education suspend the rules of order and go into open Forum. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Any apposed? That motion carries. We're happy to welcome. Is he
004still here? Where'd he go? Ed Glazer? - I think he's talking to the kids. Saying goodbye to them. - Yeah, he's the principal at Audubon. - [Anderson] He's gonna pep talk them. - We're really excited to hear from Ed Glazer. To hear what is going well at Audubon Elementary. So, hi Ed, welcome to the podium. - Good evening everyone. I would say we got a lot of things that are going well at Ottoman. You saw less than half of our student leaders, but we have our connector, Mrs. Russian. We're always looking for leaders in the school, but we specifically focus on our fifth graders every year to recruit kids and they fill out resumes and get references. And I tell them their job is to make this a student friendly place and that's what they
005do. At our staff appreciation last week, almost all the ideas came from the students. One day they serve the staff in the lounge and they got dressed up, had tablecloths down. Each day they had some little trinket for all the staff members. So, but throughout the year, the student leaders really, you know, I tell other students when they come with ideas, to go find a student leader and then take it to that leadership committee. So trying to build leadership with that, but I just feel like it's been a successful school year so far and some of our i-Ready scores are starting to come in and we're celebrating a lot of growth. I did a shout out for a little third grade boy today, went up 111 points. So hopefully we get a lot more of
006those. And then at the end of the year assembly we'll be recognizing kids that make growth. And most of our kids are not just making growth, but making expected growth. So we really look at that from fall to spring. So teachers and the students are doing a great job of doing their best on those. So looking forward to finishing strong in the next couple of weeks. So thanks for having me. - [Lisa] Thank you. - Thanks. - If there's anyone else who wishes to address the board, you may do so at this time. We ask that you come up to the podium, state your full name, your connection to the district, and to limit your remarks to three minutes using our handy timer. And please know that while Iowa Code prevents us from responding, we
007are listening. So if anyone wishes to address the board, you can come to the podium at this time. - Seeing none, I move the Board of Education reinstate the rules of order and return to regular session. - [Dirk] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education reinstate the rules of order and return to regular session. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. Alright, so that brings us to some board salutes that are around the table. And I believe we're gonna start with Mr. Sainci. - Thank you. Dr. Parks. A board Salute goes to all involved with the district's music education program, which for the 10th year in a row has led to the district
008being honored with the best communities for a music education award from the NOM foundation. Award honorees were selected through a comprehensive application and review process that evaluates key indicators, including funding, instructional time, participation rates, facilities and community support. And apparently this is a various rigorous application process because we have a leader by the name of Wolf Brown, a leading researcher and evaluation firm specializing in education and arts who actually does all this for us. So we truly appreciate this ward and kudos to the entire district on this. - [Kate] Thank you. Ms. Hingtgen do you have? - Alright, thank you. I'd like to give a special board shout out to the foundation for Dubuque Public Schools. First of all, the foundation for Dubuque Public Schools had their fundraising event I believe that was last month
009in April, where they generated nearly $100,000 in support of their mission to support public education in Dubuque. Thanks to the many event sponsors and attendees for the amazing evening. It was a packed house and it was a lot of fun. Special congratulations to Dr. Steve and Katie Leifer, who received the 2026 Home Hometown Alumni Award and Mattea Schmidt who received the Friends of Dubuque Public Schools Award and Lincoln Elementary School student, Alana Lubbock, who received the Young Philanthropist Award. In addition, the foundation for Dubuque Public Schools has secured a grant from the United Way' in the amount of $35,000 from the United Way of the Dubuque area Tri-States. And we're super appreciative of this grant because they're supporting a program called Pathways to Graduation, After School and Summer Credit Recovery with Integrated Brain Health supports.
010That further enhances the programming that we do at our Alta Vista campus in their fifth block program and their summer school offerings that help students gain credit and keep them engaged. So in the last two years that the foundation has had this grant, the program has helped students to gain over 200 high school credits throughout the fifth block in the summer program. So we're excited to see that program grow and continue to flourish. And we're very thankful for the foundation for Dubuque Public Schools. - I have a board salute that goes to everyone involved in this year's elementary track meet at another tremendous event. It's held at Dalzell Field and it was on May 4th. This event brings approximately 600 4th and 5th grade students together for a great night of competition and sportsmanship. Thanks
011to the partnership with the City of Dubuque. These students spent the weeks leading up to the event, practicing together after school to prepare for the meet. Excited teams arrived at Dalzell and the foundation for Dubuque Public Schools provided a free power up snack for each participant. So that was 600 little snacks, box lunches. - Yeah, it much appreciated too. Parents, you know, the adults got kids. - I dunno if the adults who ran relays get a- - We didn't get a snack back. No, we didn't get a- (board laughs) - Our superintendent was on a relay, so she had fun winning relay team. - Yeah, the relay team won. - They were number one. - So anyway, that power snack was appreciated. The night concluded with the signature moment when Eisenhower Elementary School was named
012the recipient of this year's Dick White Sportsmanship Award. It's awarded annually to the school, exhibiting the most outstanding sportsmanship. So Eisenhower, Dick got the award this year, so they look at throughout the night, it's not predetermined. So throughout the night, whatever school is exhibiting sportsmanship and enthusiasm, that's who the award goes to. And then Dick White's personally presents the award. - It's a huge trophy. - [Nancy] Yeah, so that's really, that's awesome to receive that award. So congratulations. It takes many, many people to make this happen. 600 students, I work high school meets and there's not even close to that many students, so I can only imagine it on an elementary, how excited they are. - I saw a lot of staff helping out in all kinds of ways. I bought a hot dog from
013Mark Lawler at the concession. (board members laughs) - It take everyone. - Ms. Bradley, do you have a last one? - I do, bard salutes are really given at the beginning of each board meeting to honor and celebrate people, programs, accomplishments, and we have so much to celebrate. My board salute is a more somber one and yet it comes at great celebration because it has to do with our former superintendent John Burgart, whose life ended very recently. The board certainly shares its deepest condolences with the Burgart family, Becky and Claire and Evan as they were a part of the life and fabric of this district as well as John. John was a highly respected educator and administrator and he really dedicated the vast, very vast majority of his career to a variety of roles he
014played in the Dubuque Community School District. This community certainly grieves his passing and just a word about John's history in the district is kind of interesting to do a walkthrough there. He joined the district in 1978 as a librarian at Hempstead High School. And then in 1986 he became the librarian at Jefferson Middle School. From 1987 through 2000, he was the director of curriculum and instruction for the district. And then he was later named Executive Director of Educational Programs for the district from 2000 to 2002. At that time, he was pulled into service to take over as the interim superintendent of schools and was very shortly thereafter named a full permanent superintendent in 2003. John served the district honorably and notably. He guided this district through a period of significant growth, significant expansion, many highs,
015many lows. And John kept us steadily moving forward through those times to the kind of positive result that our students and our staff in this community deserve to have. He retired as superintendent of schools in 2009 and those of us who knew him knew the many different facets of the John Burgart person. John was a lovely family man. I had his children at Table Mound when I was principal there. And what a joy to work with him as a dad. Then throughout his career a beacon of integrity and professionalism. He certainly was a modest person, a humble person. He was kind, he was empathetic and he was funny. John very often provided the relief that a situation and the people in it needed with his humor. So we could go on and on, I certainly
016joined this community in grieving his loss and being grateful for the contributions that John made. Each of us who worked with him learned from him. And he was an avid learner himself. He loved to learn and he loved to grow as a person and as a professional. So I was privileged to work with John for many, many years. He was a gifted educator and a gifted leader and he was a magnificent human being. So to know John was really to treasure him. We were mightily blessed by his work and his imprint in the school district, which will live on forever. So our condolences to the Burgart family, are gratitude for John for all that he was and did. - Thank you for that tribute. It was very well said. Okay, that moves us on in
017the agenda to a public hearing on the proposed budget amendment for fiscal year 2025/2026, And I believe that Ms. Demmer will start us off by reviewing the amendment of the current budget. - Good evening School board members and Superintendent Hawkins. Each year around this time we review our current fiscal year expenditures and compare them to the budget we initially compiled in February of 2025. Based on where we are today, we need to amend the budget for a few key reasons. First, we need to increase the area of total support services. This is due to the bus replacements that were ordered and budgeted in last fiscal year. But were not delivered and paid for until this year. Those costs were not included in this year's budget. We will need to amend the budget to reflect those
018actual expenditures. The second area we need to increase is the non-instructional program area to account for higher food purchase costs than we had originally anticipated. And then the third area is the total other expenditures need to be increased by about $4.5 million. And this is related to project costs for the Irving and Eisenhower projects, which were funded through bond proceeds. Not all those costs were fully known when we originally put the budget together over 14 months ago. So we need to amend for those expenditures also. So those are the three areas that are requiring budget increases. I do want to mention that this amendment does not change any tax levies, they will remain the same. This is simply an adjustment to ensure that our budget aligns with actual expenditures and remains in compliance with state
019regulations. And that's what we'll be asking for you to approve tonight. I will answer any questions you may have. Thank you. - [Kate] Than you. - [Board Member] Thanks Lisa. - I move the Board of Education receive and file proof of publication of the public hearing on the budget amendment. An authorized payment of legal notice publication cost to the "Telegraph Herald." - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education receive and file proof of publication of notice of public hearing on the budget amendment and authorized payment of the legal notice publication cost to the "Telegraph Herald." Is there any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. At this time, we would welcome public comment related
020only the 2025/2026 budget amendment. If anyone has comments, they can come up to the podium at this time. - Okay, seeing none, I move the Board of Education, adopt the budget amendment for fiscal year 2025/2026 as published - [Board Member] Second. It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education adopt the budget amendment for fiscal year 2025/2026 as published. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. All right, that public hearing ends and now we start a public hearing on the approximately $30 million school infrastructure, sales services and use tax revenue bonds. And once again, I believe Ms. Demmer will be joining us at the podium to give us an update on the intent of these bonds.
021So welcome back to the podium. - Thank you. This bond issuance would support the Roosevelt Edition project. We are just getting started on the design phase and before moving forward, we are asking the board to approve the use of save bonds to finance this project. Right now we estimate the project would cost around 25 million. However, there are costs associated with issuing bonds. So we're asking for the approval up to $30 million to make sure everything is covered with the project. Even with this, the district will still have additional bonding capacity available for future projects. Does anyone have any questions on that? - Superintendent Hawkins, maybe you would be willing to share. How do we get to this point? Just in case people are like, wait a minute, you guys are spending $30 million on
022what? Could you tell us a little bit more about this? - So, you know, when we went out for our bond referendum, we were looking at how we can make efficiencies in our middle schools. And our proposal was to go to from three to two middle schools so that we had a feeder system that went into the high schools. Well, since that did not pass, we needed to find a resolution because we know that Jefferson and Washington are both a 100 years old and we have to do something in the infrastructure to one or both of those buildings. And so the proposal that we have brought to the board and to the community is really to look at adding an addition onto Roosevelt because we know that we have to utilize Roosevelt, Hempstead and Senior
023to the best of their capacity because of the infrastructure and the improvements that we've already made to those buildings. You know, Roosevelt's 20 years old, so people still call it the new middle school. But there's gonna be, you know, there is an opportunity for us to add on there that building so that at least two thirds of our middle school students could be in attendance at that building. So what two thirds that is, that is something we're working on with our external and internal core committee with the community. But we know that two thirds of our students will need to attend that building. So with that we're working again with Envision architect team to look at what are some things we can do to make improvements to Roosevelt. Because even in 20 years, education has
024shifted and needs of that building have shifted. So how can we look at that building to make improvements and then how do we make additions so that we can fit two thirds of our middle school population in that building. So with that, we know that it's probably gonna cost about, you know, what they said between 20 and $25 million to do that work. And so we know that we were going to put in about $52 million in the bond referendum to be part of that middle school project. So we know we have those dollars available and we think that this is a way we can do that and to continue striving. - [Speaker] Main Street. - Forward to make improvements and give our kids the best learning spaces possible for their education. So again, knowing
025that prices keep going up, we know that we wanna make sure that we have some leverage, some wiggle room in there. So if we can go up to 30 million and you know, by no means do we plan to borrow up to 30 million, but we would have that capacity as things continue to rise as we go through the costing process, the bidding and all those things that are yet to come in the project. - [Board Member] Thank you. - Can you talk about how spending 30 million causes efficiencies? I think that's hard sometimes for the community to understand that large and expenditure and yet it actually brings us much greater efficiencies. Can you speak to that? - I think the biggest pieces are, it comes from different buckets of dollars. And so when we
026use SAVE dollars, SAVE dollars can only be used on capital projects and facilities. We cannot use SAVE dollars to pay our staff, you know, to pay for insurance, to buy curriculum, you know, some of those types of things. And so if we, you know, when we looked at going from three to two middle schools, we knew that that was gonna save our operating budget about three to three and a half million dollars a year. So where we need to find efficiencies is in our operating budget. Our operating budget, about 83 to 85% of our operating budget is on people. You know, it's on salaries and benefits and those types of things. So that's where we find our biggest efficiencies. And so our operating budget is where our dollars come from, from the state for state
027supplemental aid. And when our state supplemental aid has been lowered and our enrollment continues to decrease because birth rates are lower, then we know we have to find efficiencies so we can continue to keep our operating expenses moving forward. So I think the biggest piece is, it comes from different buckets of dollars and the operation budget, general fund dollars is where we need to find efficiencies and this helps us with those efficiencies by using SAVE dollars to get more students into one building. We know that if we have a four section elementary school, those operating funds are more efficient than operating a two section elementary school because we can save dollars and not need as many staff members. So I hope that makes sense to everyone. I think it may, you know, as we talk
028about that with the community, it's confusing because it's like, you're spending $30 million, but again, that's coming from a different bucket of funds and the operating expenses are where we need to find efficiencies. And our CFO is shaking her head like- - [Lisa] that's very well said. - I have a two part question. We're requesting here $30 million in the SAVE funds, but we were planning 52 million had the bond passed, correct? So are we leaving 22 million for future planning? I mean that's our capacity, right? The 52 or something similar to that. So we're leaving that for future capacity that in 10 years from now, if we decide as a school district, we need further development. - Incorrect, we actually have more than $52 million in capacity. And so when we went to the
029bond referendum, we decided that $52 million we could afford, but still leaving a balance in there for everybody that's coming after us, you know? So yeah, so this will leave us that 20 million plus to be able to do future projects going forward. So yeah, that's a great question. - And then the second part of my question, and I know it's early and people are still trying to figure this out, but the legislator passed a bill in their property tax reform that will eventually scoop some of the SAVE dollars. Is our future impacted by that or do we kind of not know yet? - It will be impacted by that. Our financial advisors haven't even been able to kind of dive into that yet to give us a total number of how that will be
030affected. Right now we still have plenty of capacity and save. So it's not really affecting this project, but it will take some funds from future, yes. - That's what I'm worried about. And grateful for you, right? That you're planning, okay. We're leaving this much in there. Not only just for future planning, but also for impact of legislation that could be on us that we don't get ourselves in trouble 12 years down the road - And it all does depend. You know, we have issued bonds for projects like senior and things. When those bonds get paid off, then obviously that gives us more capacity and some of those bonds will be coming due here in the next few years. So there's a lot of factors into that. But yes, we are not spending all of the
031capacity that we have. - And I think one of the celebrations, you know, 'cause when they were talking about property tax reform and talking about SAVE dollars, we never want them to take SAVE dollars away from our public school system. However, they did extend those SAVEs until 2071. So that will help us with bonding capacity as well. So that was a celebration in that property tax reform bill. - But we are still losing SAVE dollars as a result of the- - Yeah, we are still gonna lose the percentage of those SAVE dollars each year. They're gonna take some off the top, so. - But only from public schools. - But, yeah, only public schools have the SAVE dollar capacities. - [Lisa] Yep. Thank you. - Alright. I move the Board of Education, adopt the resolution,
032supporting the proposed issuance of approximately 30 million school infrastructure sales, service and use tax revenue bonds. Roll call please. - [Board Member] Second. - Well need a second. It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education adopt a resolution supporting the proposed issuance of approximately $30 million school infrastructure, sales, services and use tax revenue bonds. That's wordy. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - We have to do roll. - It doesn't say it all. - It's a roll call vote. - [Julie] Bradley. - Aye. - [Julie] Hamel. - He said aye a second ago. - [Dirk] Did they call? - It's a roll call, Dirk, yep. - [Julie] Hamel. - I vote. Aye. - [Julie] Hingtgen. - Aye. - [Julie] Jacobitz-Kizzier. - Aye. - [Julie] Parks. - Aye.
033- [Julie] Sainci. - Aye. - [Julie] Whitman. - Aye. - That motion carries. Fantastic. - Yeah, it's great news. - All right, so public hearing part of the meeting is over and we're at school board recognition month on the agenda. Looks like Superintendent Hawkins. - Yeah, I'm excited to come up and talk about this one because May is school board recognition month and we know that these individuals make a lot of money to be school board members. I don't know if you've heard that or not, but this is a volunteer position- - [Board Member] that was sarcastic. - But this is a volunteer position. - [Audience Member] It's okay. - And I think people are, you know, we are very thrilled with the board members that we have because they're here for the right reasons
034and they're really here for kids. And they donate their time, their energy, all the things. And we really, really appreciate that. The Iowa School Board Association has a theme every year. And the theme this year is "Because of you." And it says, "Because of you, students' futures thrive, they begin, they lead, they grow, and opportunities become stronger." So we just wanna say thank you for your service and for making a difference in our schools 'cause it's really appreciated. And something I'm really excited to share with you is we have, I dunno if you'll be able to hear me, I'll carry this with me. - [Board Member] Okay, nice, portable. - So tonight the Alta Vista campus has made each of you a wood block with your name on it and it says, "Thank you for
035your dedication, from the Alta Vista campus. Because of you, we have the opportunity to engrave our mark on the world." With a date on it. And so they've made that for each and every one of you. So wonder we're thankful for. - [Board Member] That's so wonderful. And so everyone in our district and the Alta Vista campus says, thanks for everything that you do for our students, our staff, and our community. So thanks so much. - [Anderson] That's great. - [Board Member] Thank you. (audience applauds) - [Kate] Thank you. That's so great. - Appreciate that. I should just bring them all out. Well we didn't practice. (board members laugh) - Keep it real. Keep it real. - [Amy] For Lisa. - [Lisa] Thank you, this is so awesome. - So you can put these at
036your desk or whatever you'd like to do with them, but there you go Lisa. - Thank you Amy, appreciate it. - [Amy] Sarah. Sarah. - Thank you so much. - [Amy] Put that on your desk or (speaks faintly). - Yes. - They smell good too. - Anderson. - Feel like graduation all over again. - Yes. - [Anderson] Say a speech. - Mae. - Thank you. - There you go. There's your certificate. - Thanks so much. - Thank you. - [Amy] And Nancy? - Yeah. Thank you so much. - [Amy] And your certificate. - I appreciate that. Thank you Amy. Thanks to the AV students and staff who did this. - We're expecting something every year now. - I Know . - These are like fancy gifts, aren't they? - This is how we get paid
037(laughs). - And it's under the- - Oh great. - [Board Member] The $2. - But again, I just wanna say thank you and I really appreciate all your support for everybody in the district. So thanks again. Enjoy the celebration month and there's lots of little cards and things up here from students as well. So everybody's thinking about you this month, so thank you. - Well we appreciate it and I think I can speak for the board, you know, we're happy to be up here. I think like Amy said, all doing this for the right reasons because we care about kids and we care about this district and it's pleasure for me to work with everyone. So that is also a wonderful reward too, is being a part of this. So thank you. Yeah. Alright, all.
038- I move- - Oh yeah, ready to the consent agenda. - I move the Board of Education approved the items listed on the consent agenda. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve those items listed in the consent agenda. Any item to be pulled? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. Alright, that brings us then to the facilities and support services committee report from Dr. Jacobitz-Kizzier - Okay, thank you very much. I think we're gonna open by talking a little bit with Brian Kuhle if you're ready, about the different contracts we've been working through with our unionized employees. - Good evening. On Monday, I brought to facilities that we had finished bargaining with the
039DEA, with our teachers union and with our buildings and grounds group. And then on Wednesday at programs, I brought forward the bargainings that we finished with food services, with transportation, with custodians, and then our non bargainings. So happy to say that we finished with all but one group so far, we've got one left to go. And all of our groups are predominantly around the 3% range. And so we're fortunate to have gone through another year and hoping to wrap up with one more next month and move on from there. We had a tall order this year with our teachers union had to rebuild a salary schedule with the expertise of Rick Till and Amy Vandermeulen And we have been fortunate enough to get that accomplished. So we had a great partnership with the DEA and
040so thankful for their work with us. And it's two years in the making. It took a lot of time to work on this. So we're appreciative that we could come to an agreement. - I think Nancy called it a miracle just because it's so much work. - The salary schedule is a miracle on a page. What it is, is a testimony to the relationship, the positive relationship between the Dubuque Education Association and the district. Without that, I can't imagine how that would've gotten accomplished. - Yeah, we're very fortunate for the work that we've done with our teachers union and a shout out to Tammy and Joel that have done a fantastic job this year and it's just been a pleasure to work with them. - And Tammy's retiring this year and she has been a
041DEA president for 20 years. It's amazing. So. (board laughs) But yeah, that relationship is a testament to Nancy and her team- - It's Tammy. - To Tammy and her team, yeah. - Brian, what's the only group left that you have to settle with? - [Brian] Our truckers and mechanics. - Okay. - [Sarah] Okay. Thank you so much. - [Brian] Thank you. - So this meeting that we had on May 4th at four o'clock was hefty in the multitude of projects that we have going on as the weather warms up, but everybody gets busy. And so I'm going to go through each of the items that we talked about on our agenda in an expedient fashion because then I have nine motions to make. - [Kate] Only nine. - Only nine, yeah. - Okay. Kicking it
042off with a bang. We had a guest, former superintendent, Stan Rheingans here talking about the Keystone AEA building. If you recall, this was a building that we sold to Keystone with the intent that they would be serving our students and that in the future should they want to sell that building back to anyone that our district would have the first right of refusal. And so he was just talking about what are the needs of Keystone to continue maximally serving their students and whether or not that involved the property or not, he would like us to consider going on a tour through that space of which our students are already using. And so we were grateful that he reached out to us to extend us that courtesy and to see how that space may further serve
043our students. And we'll be going on a tour of that space on May 18th. Any questions about that? - I think one thing that's important to note is, when we built the forum here, the spot next door, we sold the land to Keystone for $1. And then the addition was put on. And so that's when the contract came in that if they were ever to sell that. And so we right now this is about 17 acres of land, and one of our jobs as leaders of the district is to really look into the future. And for us to be able to own everything on this 17 acres would be a really good investment for us. Instead of us probably having a partner next door that isn't in association with the district, you know? A couple
044of the things, as you know, when the bond didn't pass, we talked about that Jefferson Middle School will be closing, which is the location to our online school. And then our re-engagement center, which was located down in the NICC clock tower campus, they are actually doing a renovation. So we've been removed from that area. So our re-engage center is actually over at Keystone currently right now until the end of the school year. And so a comment that I've heard is people think that we're not serving kids in this building. And I think it's important to know that everybody in our district, including everybody at the table, we serve kids every day. Everything that we do in our jobs is about kids. So we all serve kids. The other piece is in the reengage center. We
045do have students that are now on campus. It's been great to see them physically here in and out throughout the day. And also our online school, they serve about 350 students. And so those 350 students, they do predominantly online school, but they do meet in the community at the library at Panera, all different places to do some collaboration and things. So if we had them next door in this building, that would be a collaboration space for them as well. Also, I just want people to understand that if we did not have an online school, if you remember, it's about $8,000 per student. So you take that by 350, that's about $2.8 million. So that building is about kids and about students and how we serve them. We just serve them in a different way than
046our traditional buildings that we have in the district. So I just think it's really important for people to understand that that building would still be serving a lot of kids and Keystone would still be using that space as well to continue to help us serve our students with a lot of our services that we get receive from them through special education. - We did talk about them renting some of the space back to us, yeah. - Yes. - I think one of the tricky things, especially with social media these days is, you know, we have a conversation publicly, you know, last week and then right away it's firecrackers on social media with everyone having their own perspective of what's going on. And you know, I think it's important for people to remember that we have
047these conversations publicly before we make any decisions and nothing has been made yet. It's all just discussions right now. But I appreciate one thing that you said Amy, for all of us, when we make decisions, it's not just for the kids that are here now, right? We do have to have the foresight, which you do Amy, 10, 20, 30 years. And not everyone has all those pieces to the puzzle, but you live in it and you give us a piece of that for us to help shape that. And so I'm looking forward to the tour because I think for many of us, we haven't been in and out of that facility to see how it's currently being used for our students and what's the possibilities moving forward because we do have a responsibility for that.
048And so just a reminder to the residents that are watching or that will hear this, that weekly when we have these meetings, things come to us and then we process it and then we come together to try to make a decision. It will never be an immediate jerk reaction. It is always well thought out and we try to have a good process to make sure our residents are included the process, so. - And anybody who gets excited about this is welcome to come to the meetings, they're open. - Yeah. - Thank you Anderson. Okay, moving on, I'm gonna give you a quick update on the multiple current district projects going on and then we'll save the motions for the end. So over at Eisenhower there's the gym edition project as well as the Eisenhower Keller
049Roof replacement project. With the gym, they're wrapping up the painting, the brick work is started and they're doing the flooring installation in the month of June. Right now with the roof that is currently on hold waiting for nice weather and school to get out. Over at Irving, they continue on the mechanical remodeling project. They are working on the first floor and in the boiler room getting that ready and doing some additional electrical work. Over at Sageville, they're working on the fuel oil tank replacement project. You'll hear about that in the motions and the receipt of the award. The senior Dalzell Field retain wall project has not yet started. Remember that's where we're gonna be having graduation in a couple short weeks. So we'll be awarding the contract for that project, but it will not start
050until June 8th, 2026. With the Irving roof replacement project. We will be awarding this and that work will start in June. The Irving playground replacement project will also be awarded and worked on this summer. So that is more detailed in the multitude of emotions that I have. Next we talked about the update on our facilities and efficiencies. This was principally led by Superintendent Hawkins, giving us an update on both the internal and external task force meetings that are up and going. I don't know if you wanna give a quick synopsis on this or talk about it later in the meeting. - You know, the meetings have been going really well with our internal and external. We do those every other week. We meet for about two hours and this last Wednesday we actually took the
051whole group to Hempstead High School and we toured our CTE area and consumer science areas and then got an update from our high school principals about AP courses, concurrent courses and some of that career and college readiness pieces that we currently offer in the district. And then we took them down a path because we've gone and toured a bunch of schools across the state, to show them what our internal team has seen across the state as far as career and college readiness. So it was great conversation. Lots of great questions after the presentations. And I look forward to our next meeting, our next meeting, we are actually meeting out at Seedlings, the preschool center 'cause we're gonna talk about, we've talked about the current and college ready end. Now we're gonna talk about the early
052enrollment and our pre-K setting and some different options that we can be looking at pre-K. So exciting to advance that conversation. - We did talk a little bit about Seedlings at this last facilities meeting, but principally just the fact that we are one of four tenants in a building that's designed for four condominiums. So there's an amendment to the learning campus condominiums of which we are in one of them. And now that those are all full, we have an amendment in regard to that. We also talked about the PPEL resolution and its relevance with the levy. So I don't know if now is the right time to give an update on this. - I can give an update on that. So as we know, every 10 years the district has to go out for a
053renewal of our PPEL levy, okay? And that's a levy, that's a bucket of dollars that we can only use on maintenance of buildings. So that's how we keep all these projects we're talking about roof replacements, you know, when we do playground replacements, we also buy buses out of those dollars. And so right now the district has a levy for 67 cents. And the state allows you to go all the way up to a $1.34. And so we know with rising costs that are happening as we go out for these projects, we're finding that, you know, they're going up maybe a $100,000 more than we had thought originally just because the price of goods are going up. And so we did some research and saw that of the UEN districts. There's only five of them, we're
054in one of those five that have their PPEL levy at 67 cents - Because all of the other districts are already using the higher rate. - They're already at the $1.34. - Correct. - And so when we looked at that, we have to get public approval for that and that is 50% plus one. And so we are going to be going out for a special election in September, 'cause the only way you can do this vote is by a special election in September. And so we will be going out and asking the community to renew our PPEL, but at the $1.34 rate. If this does not pass, the district gets zero. And so we know that those dollars are critical for us to continue maintenance of our buildings as we move forward. 'Cause many of
055our buildings are aging and they need maintenance as we move forward. So we'll be asking the community to approve that. We gladly are excited to say that we did lower our levy rate just one two meetings ago in February. So that was at 13,03. Lisa's telling me 13,03 and we took that down to 12,48. So we were able to lower our levee rate and that's our 67 cents is included in that amount. We're gonna be asking for that 67 to go up another 67 cents, which would total a $1.34, okay? - Because it's just those two amounts? - It's just those two amount, so- - We didn't randomly pick that. - Yeah, so we'll be looking for that support from our community as we move forward. We'll be advertising in our buildings and to the
056community, you know, what projects in each of our buildings are paid for out of PPEL. Because I think it'll be important for families and our staff to see the importance of those dollars for our district moving forward. - Excellent. Thank you. We spoke briefly about how we'll be selling three school buses. You'll hear a motion about this. We'll be selling them on govdeals.com. We must do a motion in case any of these transactions exceed $25,000. Last but not least, we did briefly stop to celebrate how we found out that the Association of School Business Officials International Certificate of Excellence was awarded again to Elisa and Rick of our finance department who continued to do an absolutely amazing job, both at keeping our books squeaky clean, but also on educating us on the complexities of school
057finance. So shout out to you both for doing an absolutely amazing job again. Any questions before I jump into the motions? All right, friends, I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the Dubuque Education Association as presented. - [Board Member] Second, - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the Dubuque Education Association as presented. We heard from Brian Kuhle already with an update about where those agreements stand. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the maintenance personnel as presented. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved in seconded that the Board of Education approve the
058agreement with the maintenance personnel as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract, bonds and certificate of insurance with Tricon Construction Group for the Sageville Elementary School Fuel Oil tank replacement project in the amount of $314,000. - [Board Member] Second. - Its been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Tricon Construction Group for the Sageville Elementary School Fuel Oil Tank replacement project in the amount of $314,000. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board
059of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Portzen Construction Incorporated for the Dalzell South retaining wall repairs project in the amount of $125,505. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Portzen Construction Incorporated for the Dalzell South retaining wall repairs project in the amount of $125,505. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Jim Giese Commercial Roofing Inc. For the Irving Elementary School roof replacement project in the amount of $674,750. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved
060and seconded that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Jim Giese Commercial Roofing Incorporated. for the Irving Elementary School Roof replacement project in the amount of $674,750. Any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion also carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Play Power LT Farmington Play Pro Recreation for the Irving Elementary playground replacement project in the amount of $301,300. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with Play Power LT Farmington core of Play Pro Recreation. I'm gonna go with that. For the Irving
061Elementary Playground Replacement Project in the amount of $301,300. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the third amendment to the Learning Campus Condominium's Declaration of submission of property to Horizon regime. - [Board Member] Second. - Sorry, I wasn't expecting the word regime, it just tickled me a little bit. Okay, I's been moved and seconded that the district approve the third Amendment to the Learning Campus Condominium's Declaration of Submission of Property to the Horizon regime. - [Sarah] Thank you. - Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion passes, Horizon regime. - I move that the Board of
062Education approve the resolution offering for sale by public bid three 2017 IC Corp combined unit school buses and set the date, time, and place for possible public hearing as June 8th, 2026 at 5:30 PM at the Dubuque Community School District. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the resolution offering for sale by public bid three 2017 IC Corp combined unit school buses and set the date, time, and place for possible public hearing as June 8th, 2026 at 5:30 PM at the Dubuque Community School District. Any discussion? Seeing none. all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. Last one. Dr. Kizzier. - Ah, thank you. This is the final one about the levy. I move that the
063Board of Education approve the resolution ordering and election on the question of continuing to levy a voter approved physical plant and equipment property tax by roll call. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the resolution, ordering an election on the question of continuing to levy a voter approved physical plant and equipment property tax. We heard from Superintendent Hawkins about this. Anything further at this time? - The only thing I would add is here where it says, physical plant and equipment property tax. That's the wording when we're describing PPEL or PPEL funding, it's PPEL Pebble funding. - Yeah. All right, seeing no further discussion roll call vote please. - [Julie] Bradley. - Aye. - [Julie] Hamel. - [Dirk] Aye. - [Julie] Hingtgen. - Aye. - [Julie] Jacobitz-Kizzier.
064- Aye. - [Julie] Parks. - Aye. - [Julie] Sainci. - Aye. - [Julie] Whitman. - Aye. That motion passes. Great thank you for that report. It's gonna be a busy summer as you all can hear lots of construction and projects happening starting in June. Next up on the agenda is the Educational Programs and Policy Committee report from Ms. Bradley. - Thank you. The committee met on May 6th and as we always do, hence the name, we deal with educational programs and with policies. So starting with the educational programs and I would just say we learned so much about our educational programs as board members at these meetings and get to talk with the folks who are actually on the line with them. We really encourage the community to feel very free to come and be
065a listener at those as well. It's a wonderful to learn more about how our programs are helping kids and to get an insight into that. So our first was, as we've already talked, Mr. Kuhle brought us information about four groups of contract negotiations that had been settled, that for the non bargaining employees, the custodial employees, the food and nutrition employees, and the transportation employees. And as he has already indicated, all of them are at or very close to 3%. So I'll be bringing forward motions at the end of my report to go ahead and take action on those. Then we heard from Lisa Feltes, our executive director of elementary education. Lisa brought us an update on our literacy grant. It's a big deal. I said to Lisa after the meeting, this really is a big
066deal. It is a lot of money. It's focused squarely on teaching kids to read and do language based activities and proficiencies. And so the grant is a state grant. Our first year was a total of $619,679. And it's given to the district to develop and implement local plans for accelerating student reading proficiency. That's a big deal. If you know much about the elementary school day, about half of it goes to teaching kids to read and do language based proficiencies and activities. So to have this assistance is timely and a wonderful thing. The district was one of only 28 districts in the state to receive the award. And the grant covers from birth, not just kindergarten or preschool, but from birth through 12th grade. And it's a grant that spans five years. Sometimes grants come, they're
067there for a year and they're gone. And that can be helpful or it can be hard not to have thereafter. This is a five year grant and Lisa shared with us the great news that it's just been renewed for two additional years, which again, is a big deal. It's a sustaining grant .In each of those years that will give us a total of the three years of $1.9 million to help with our outcomes for teaching kids to read and do language based things. So some of the things the money can be used for, professional learning for our teachers and other staff members. Evaluation of literacy materials, purchase of literacy materials and collaboration among educators. It is a really wonderful way for our teachers to learn with and from each other when they have some set
068aside collaboration time that's given just for the sake of that learning. And this grant will provide some opportunity for that to happen, which again, is a wonderful thing. So we celebrate all of that and thank Lisa and her team for bringing us that information. Then we moved on to hearing from our executive director of special education, Brenda Duvel. Who brought us an excellent report on Individuals with Disabilities Act or as we know it, IDEA. In this case it's IDEA-DA, which means that it is the Individuals with Disabilities Act, IDEA differentiated accountability. Which is Iowa's monitoring framework designed to make sure that our district as well as all districts are in compliance with each and every special education law by intent and by outcome. She shared with us the implementation plan update and the next cycle
069will include system continuous improvement and professional learning to activities as well as reporting of progress for our students with disabilities in terms of their IEP goals and their progress for each of them. The goal for all of the IDEA DA, is to improve educational outcomes for all children with disabilities. So lest you think that that's not carefully monitored, be assured that each and every child's progress, their IEP, their efforts within that IEP and those who help them is monitored. It's done with integrity and it's certainly measured in the reported results. So we thank Brenda for bringing that information forward. Then we took a look at iJAG, We have an annual renewal of that contract. iJAG is Iowa Jobs for America's graduates. It's a wonderful program that exists at Hempstead High School, Senior High School, the
070Alta Vista Program, Jefferson and Washington Middle Schools. So we renewed that annual contract in the consent agenda tonight, $475,000. Then Superintendent Hawkins has added to our an agenda an item that's being extremely helpful, and thank you for that. She's bringing us information about legislative issues and at this meeting she brought us the latest legislative changes that resulted by the end of the legislative session, which had just happened on the previous Sunday. And we certainly know that as you heard from Ms. Demmer, that the tax reform legislation that was passed at the end of the session, Iowa legislative session, certainly will have fewer damaging consequences for public education than we feared. And yet some significant losses for public education through the SAVE program and some dollars that will be taken from the SAVE program, which is
071a public education funding to give to downsizing the tax consequences for folks living in Iowa. So it's a gain on the property tax side, but it's yet another loss for public education funding. So as Lisa said earlier in her report, we're waiting to hear from our financial advisors about how that really will ultimately affect us and to what extent and when. So then we dealt with the policy section of our time together. That was 11 policies every five years we review and revise all of our board policies. We did many different topics. If you're interested in that, please let us know. We'd be happy to share with you what policies we've worked on and the kinds of changes that were made in an update. So our next meeting of the Educational Programs Policy Committee meeting
072of the board is Wednesday, June 3rd, 4:30 in this room. Welcome please. Community come and learn with us about the programs and events that are happening in our district. Very good learning for us to have. And I have four motions, not nine. You definitely win the- - [Kate] It's not a competition you two. - Well, that's right. That's right. I guess we're happy I don't have nine, but I would make a motion that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the non bargaining personnel as presented by Mr. Kuhle. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the non bargaining personnel as presented. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed?
073That motion carries. - Then I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the custodial personnel as presented by Mr. Kuhle. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the custodial personnel as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. - I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the food service personnel as presented by Mr. Kuhle. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agreement with food service personnel as presented. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. - And lastly,
074I move that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the bus drivers and bus attendant personnel as presented by Mr. Kuhle. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agreement with the bus drivers and bus attendant personnel as presented. Is there any discussion? Just wanna give a shout out and thanks to Brian Kuhle for all the work that he does to get these contracts where they are, yep. - [Nancy] Six bargaining units, so. - It's a lot. - Yeah, - It's a lot of work. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you so much Ms. Bradley for that update That brings us to new business. Anyone wanna? - I move that the Board
075of Education approve the proclamation recognizing Marshallese Constitution Day and authorized the President and the secretary to sign on behalf of the Board of Education. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the proclamation recognizing Marshall Lee's Constitution Day and authorize the President and the secretary to sign on behalf of the board. Is there any discussion? Seeing none. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. So I will read the proclamation. Whereas the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands celebrate their Constitution Day on May 1st each year to commemorate the day 47 years ago when a new constitution was adopted and status as an independent republic was achieved. And whereas the Dubuque Community School District and
076our greater community benefit from a very vibrant Marshallese community that is rich with tradition. And whereas celebration of Marshallese Constitution Day in the Marshall Islands would traditionally be focused on island culture with games of tug of war, husking a coconut and canoe racing. And in the United States is celebrated with basketball, softball, and volleyball tournaments. And whereas the observance of Marshallese Constitution Day in the United States is held on the three day Memorial Day weekend. And the Marshallese community will recognize it with the celebration open to all members of the Dubuque community. Now, therefore, I, Kate Parks, on behalf of the Dubuque Community School District Board of Education, do hereby proclaim May 1st and Memorial Day weekend as a celebration of Marshallese Constitution Day. Signed this 11th day of May, 2026. So definitely check that
077out over Memorial Day weekend. It'll be a lot of fun. - How fortunate are we to have our Marshallese students and their families. - [Kate] Wonderful. - In our schools to be sure, certainly in this community. What an enriching cultural thing that is for all of us. - [Kate] Absolutely. - Alright, next on the schedule, I move the Board Of Education receive and file the superintendent's recommendation regarding termination of an employee contract and file it with the board secretary. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education receive and file the superintendent's recommendation regarding the termination of an employee contract. And file it with the board secretary. This is it. [Amy] That's it. - Okay. Thank you. - [Amy] Yep. - All in favor say aye. - [Board Members]
078Aye. - [Dirk] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. - Our next action is I move the Board of Education, accept the superintendent's recommendation to terminate the continuing teaching contract of Melinda Janes, effective the end of the '25/'26 school year. - [Board Member] Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education accept the superintendent's recommendation to terminate the continuing teaching contract of Melinda Janes, effective at the end of the 2025/2026 school year. Roll call vote - [Julie] Bradley. - Aye. - [Julie] Hamel. - [Dirk] Aye. - [Julie] Hingtgen. - Aye. - [Julie] Jacobitz-Kizzier. - Aye. - [Julie] Parks. - Aye. - [Julie] Sainci. - Aye. - [Julie] Whitman. - Aye. That motion passes. That brings us then to board member or administrative issues. And I see a couple things listed that I'm
079guessing Superintendent Hawkins would like to highlight. - Yeah, these aren't really issues, these are exciting things, right? - [Kate] These are issues. - Yeah, just as a reminder, the last day of school for us is May 29th. So we are getting out before June. That's an exciting thing for us. So finals will be at the high schools on the 28th and the 29th of May. Graduation ceremonies. So on that Friday, May 29th, we will have a ceremony for the Dubuque Online School at 6:00 PM at Roosevelt Middle School in the auditorium. It's a great celebration. I hope all of you can attend that graduation for the online school students. And then on Saturday, May 30th, we will have Hempstead High School graduation at 10:00 AM and seniors graduation at 3:00 PM. So as you know,
080anybody that can, you know, make sure we have wonderful weather on that day, you know, do your magic. We love to have great weather on that day. And again, Hempstead's will be at 10:00, and then Senior High School's will be at 3:00 PM. So we look forward to seeing our community there to celebrate all our graduates. - Someone asked me if there is a limit on the number of people who can attend the graduations. - There is not. All are invited. - Wonderful. - We did have tickets. - There's streaming also. - Yes. We live stream them as well. Ah, yeah, we do live stream them. But during COVID we had some limits on how many tickets. But now that it's out in the football field at Dalzell, anyone can come. We encourage all to
081come - [Kate] Wear your sunscreen. - Wear your sunscreen, wear your hats. - [Mae] I don't wanna jinx it, but since I've been on the board. - [Board Members] No, no. - Oh, no, no, no, no, no - We started doing it outside. The weather's been fabulous. - Okay, what is that, I'm gonna put that in my speech. - Bring an umbrella here. - Is there a rain day? - Yeah. There is, yeah the day after day after. On that Sunday. - Okay. - Yeah. - At Lisa's house. That's what we're at. - Lisa's house. - At Lisa's house. (indistinct) a beautiful garden. - You're responsible for eight umbrellas. - Yeah. - Sorry. - And then my next reminder is just to remind the community that we have our strategic plan update and that'll be
082next Monday night at 5:30, right here in the boardroom as well. So part of that update, we will be taking you on a tour of Keystone as part of our facilities update. That is part of our strategic plan. But just know that that's at 5:30 next Monday night. - Alright. Wonderful. Anything else board members? Our next meeting is June 8th, 2026 at 5:30. School will be out by then. And everyone, have a wonderful evening. We're adjourned. (gravel bangs) Thank you. (bright music)