001- Good evening. This special meeting of March 16th, 2026 of the Dubuque Community School District Board of Education is called to order. (gavel bangs) Our mission is to develop world-class learners and citizens of character in a safe and inclusive learning community. Roll call please. - Bradley. - Here. - Hamel. - Here. - Hingtgen. - Here. - Jacobitz-Kizzier. - Here. - Parks. - Here. - [Clerk] Sainci. - [Anderson] Here. - Whitman. - Here. - [Attendee] Forgot one. - I move the board of education approve the agenda as submitted. - Second. - It's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approve the agenda as submitted. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. - [All] Aye. - Any opposed? That motion carries. Well, we're happy to turn it over to our superintendent,
002Ms. Amy Hawkins, to talk to us about the district facility plan. - Good evening, everyone. - [Member] Hi. - I'm really glad everybody made it tonight in this blizzard slash whatever we have going on, right? We laughed today in a leadership meeting saying that they were having trouble plowing the courtyard at Hempstead. And somebody said, "That's okay. It'll be thawed out by Wednesday because it's gonna be like 65 degrees." So Anderson, I'm happy that you made it to Washington DC okay. And happy that you could tune in with us tonight. - [Anderson] I'm excited to hear the conversation. Can you guys hear me? - We can. Yeah, awesome. - [Anderson] All right. - So, as you guys know, we had this thing called the bond referendum that we went out to the public, and unfortunately,
003the bond referendum did not pass. And so we were doing that bond referendum to find some efficiencies so that we could move the district forward in a path that found the efficiencies we needed at the middle school level. And so when that didn't pass, it's really been our team here at the district has been looking at, so what's next? You know, and some of those things we shared with the public when we went out and did our bond referendum informational sessions, and we talked about all different things that could happen if the bond didn't pass. And so now it's been our job as our internal core group or task force, our internal team has really said, "Okay, what are we gonna do next? And how do we go about doing that with a way that
004we get input from the community, in a way that we're making good fiscal decisions for the district that puts us in a place that is healthy down the road." And then our number one priority as always is how do we make sure that our students are at the center of all the decisions that we make? So as you know, the district needs to cut expenses. When we look at state supplemental aid and enrollment, the thing that we know the most right now is that the district cannot survive as is. We just, we just can't with the low state supplemental aid that we've been receiving. So if you look at this over time, this is a slide that we used during the bond projection, or the bond, what do I wanna say? - [Member] Info sessions.
005- Info sessions. And so you can see in '09, '10, and before that really, SSA was pretty stable and pretty predictable. Most of those times were between anywhere between 3 and 4%, which was keeping up with inflation. So the district was in a good spot financially. Then we went through 2010 to 2018-'19, and things became really unstable and unpredictable. Funds were not kept up with inflation. And it was really serving our community with less dollars, serving our district community with less dollars. And so we have been making changes throughout that time through cutting staff, cutting some funding sources that we've had. We've been doing things over a little bit over time to try to stay ahead of where we are today. Then we look at fiscal year '19 to '20 and to now, and unfortunately,
006SSA has been pretty predictable. It just hasn't kept up with inflation. So it's been predictable, but it's been lower than what we've had back in the day. So then you look at how our certified enrollment looks, and if you see, we've had an 8.1 decrease in enrollment from the 2006 to 2007 year till now. And so we haven't had a big cliff with enrollment, but we've just been every year just drop and drop and just little bit by little bit. And everybody knows that our funding really is based on our enrollment. And so as our enrollment goes down, then our funding is less for our district. And the thing that gets tricky about that, which I always like to bring up, is, you know, if we're down a hundred students and we have 18 buildings,
007you divide that out, it's maybe one or two students per grade level per building. So it's not like we can just say, "Hey, we're gonna cut a fourth grade section because we're down a hundred students." Those students are balanced throughout the district, which makes it harder to make staffing adjustments, okay? So then we talk about unspent balance. And these are things that we've talked about in the past, but I just wanted to bring it back to you just as reminders. So if you look at our unspent balance from the 2015 school year until present, you can see, you know, we wanna stay, that yellow blob there, that the highlighted area that's healthy, that's where we wanna stay, okay? That's where we'd like to be as we move forward each and every year. And you can
008see that we had some years that we went up in '19-'20, '20-'21, and that was really because of the COVID dollars, the ESSER dollars we received from the state, which really helped us to stay in a healthy zone. Then we kind of plateaued after COVID. And now you can see that we have actually gone up in our unspent balance, that has been done on purpose because we're trying to avoid the cliff. Because we know with low state supplemental aid and declining enrollment, that once we get, at some point that cliff is coming because our dollars just aren't keeping up with inflation. So you can see that we've done some things, you know, we closed Hoover, we've changed some teacher, just some different programmings that we've had in the district, mainly around pay, which has helped
009us put money in our savings account. And I know that makes people nervous, but really that's us trying to be proactive. But if you look here and it says projected without cost-saving measures, that means if we keep things exactly like they are today with buildings, with staffing, with programs and all the things, and that's assuming that we got the 2% SSA this year, which is what happened, and assuming that we've got a 3% increase in expenses, we could only hope that it's only 3%. And you can see by the '28'-29 school year, we're gonna be at a negative $6 million. Everybody knows that when the district is at a negative unspent balance, that is when the state comes in, and the state makes the decisions for the district, okay? We cannot let our district become
010that unhealthy. That would not be any of us in this room being fiscally responsible, okay? So now if we look at the unspent balance, and we look at it with this year, we are predicting as a cabinet team that we will be having about $2 million in reductions. So we're looking at about $2 million in reductions that will start for the next fiscal year. Those reductions, a majority of them, we plan those coming from retirement and attrition, okay? And some of those can come because of our declining enrollment. And some of those are coming just because we have to make choices and prioritize some of the positions that we have in the district. But if you look at this graph, it's still stating that you can see where our unspent balance went up, which is
011helping us be healthy. But if you look at that drop, this is with 2% SSA, which is what we got this year. And then again, that 3% increase in expenses, which we hope that's all it is, we still will be at an unspent balance of about $2 million. And again, remember, we wanna be in that yellow highlighted area. So that is really putting the district at risk to not be in a healthy position. Because we try as a district to keep in our unspent balance at least one months of our expenses. And we know that our monthly expenses are anywhere between 12 and $13 million in a district our size. Are there any questions with that? Awesome. So what we look at our cost reductions. So we know we've done realignment of our teacher leadership.
012So the state gave us flexibility in some of our categorical funding. And so we were able to save about a million dollars annually by making some reductions in teacher leadership. We also know that we were able to reallocate some teacher quality funds, funds that we use for some professional development. And the state, again, gave us flexibility in those categorical funds so that we were able to move about $800,000 annually into our general fund to help with that decline. Then, as you know, we closed Hoover Elementary School, and then we made the intention when we were in the bond referendum as a board who had stated that we were looking to close Jefferson Middle School at a future date yet to be determined. So that leads us to today. What is today about? Why are we
013here today? And you know, many people are chatting in the district, there's lots of rumors going on. I'm hearing all kinds of fun stuff. And I'm like, "Oh gosh, that's interesting. I never thought about that." And so the district is at a crossroads. We have to decide which path are we gonna choose for our kids in Dubuque Community School District, and for our community as a whole. And so one path we could choose is to say, we're just gonna keep cutting programs, we're gonna continue to cut staff, and we're gonna make class sizes go up. And that really, unfortunately, is an easy choice to make because that wouldn't change the number of buildings we have. That wouldn't change where kids go to school, that wouldn't change any boundaries. That would just really put our students
014and our staff in a situation that they probably don't wanna be in our district, right? So we're recommending to you tonight that we really take the path that looks at a way to better Dubuque Community School District for the future. And I feel really passionate that we have an opportunity here. And we could sit here and say, "Oh, poor us. The bond didn't pass." "Oh, poor us, we low state supplemental aid." "Oh, poor us, we have declining enrollment." "Oh, poor us. You know, vouchers are in effect. And so the state is now funding two educational systems." But instead, we have to remember that we're here for kids, and the kids are at the center of everything that we do. And so we have to put all of our thinking caps on and think about how
015can we make Dubuque better? How can we look at Dubuque as it is today and say, "What could this look like?" And that's hard to do. Change is really hard. Change is hard because we get used to seeing things the way that we see them, and we think that's the right way to go. But we have a chance that we can enhance the student experience, and that we could operate more efficiently in our district. And so what we're gonna talk about today is how we as a community can really imagine what could Dubuque be, what could it look like, and how can we set Dubuque up for success for years to come? Okay, so tonight we are making three. We're making like a three-step recommendation to the board. Okay, so recommendation number one. Step number
016one is that we are going to be asking the board to make a decision to put an expansion on Roosevelt Middle School. And what that does is that helps us address the space that we need for middle school consolidation. We know that our biggest inefficiencies from all the studies we've done with the bond referendum, were that we were most inefficient at our middle schools. So what we're looking for this to do is to start the process now. We know that there's land at Roosevelt that we can add on. We know there's infrastructure at Roosevelt to add on. Roosevelt is one of our most modern facilities in the district. We need to use that to its best ability. And so we are looking at putting an addition on at Roosevelt Middle School that would open in
017the '28-'29 school year. At that time, we would then close Jefferson Middle School at the end of the '27-'28 school year. So any student that is at Jefferson currently today would finish out at Jefferson, okay? We're estimating that this would cost between 20 and $25 million. That funding would come entirely through SAVE, or the 1 cent penny sales tax. If you'll remember when we had the bond referendum, we were going to put about $50 million into the building at Washington. Remember we were gonna put, we were gonna put in about 50, and then we were gonna have like 70 come from the bond referendum. So we know we have capacity in SAVE that we could then put this addition on at Roosevelt and still have capacity in our SAVE funds to do other things that
018the district might need over time. Okay, the biggest piece of this is there would be no property tax impact to residents because we would be using SAVE dollars that we already have. We know that Roosevelt needs to house about 2/3 of our middle school population. Now what 2/3 that is, that's something we need to work, you know, we're gonna need to work through. But right now we do not have the capacity to close Jefferson and move Jefferson students all to Roosevelt, or even to move Jefferson students, some to Roosevelt and some to Wash. So we have to do something different. So knowing that, and it takes time to get that done, we know that we need to start that project now and get that on the roll so that it can open in the '28-'29
019school year, okay? Step two, and this is probably the largest piece of what's to come. We are introducing a community planning process to determine what's next for the Dubuque schools. And this process is gonna help us to determine what will happen in the '28-'29 school year. So I just wanna say, this isn't anything that's gonna happen next year. It's not gonna even happen the year after that. It's what the Dubuque schools could look like in the '28-'29 school year, okay? So together, as a community, as a district, as a leadership team, we need to explore our options. There's tons of rumors out there. "Oh, they're moving eighth graders to the high school. Oh, they're gonna move all sixth graders back to the elementary schools. Oh, we might do a just one high school." There's all
020kinds of rumors out there. And you know, for us as a district, if we haven't been looking into all those different options, then we wouldn't be doing our work. We wouldn't be doing our jobs. And so as a district, we have an internal core team, and we have been looking into many different options. We have gone to visit multiple districts across the state to say, "Hey, tell us how you do things here." We've been calling and talking to superintendents and leadership teams within their leadership groups and saying, "Hey, tell me what this looks like if you're going to different grade level alignments, and why are you doing that?" We've been looking at, "Hey, what do you do for career and college readiness?" Is Dubuque on the right path for that moving forward? So we have
021gone and done tours, and we wanna bring that information back to the community so that we can make the best decisions for us. Because we know every community's different. Every community is in different financial situation. I mean, we're hearing that all over the news. You know, I mean, Keegan's here tonight, he's been in about every school district in the state in the last, you know, couple months. And we know that everybody's looking at what can we do to make sure that we're putting our district in success for the future, but we can't do that alone. We can't do this in isolation. We can't say, "Well, Amy Hawkins says this is what we're doing." That's not how it works. And it works by us coming together and putting together a process so that we can make
022the best decision for the district. So we're gonna be looking at grade level alignment. What could that look like? Which schools should serve which grade levels? Those are things we have to explore. We have to look at future building consolidation. Can we continue to keep all the buildings open that we have currently today? And then what other system level efficiencies are out there? And what can we make and what can we do to help the district? We have to make sure that we're still providing the supports that our students need, the enhancements our students need, and yet giving them all the opportunities that they have now. 'Cause we know one of our biggest selling points is the opportunities that students have in our district. And we don't want it. We don't wanna, we don't wanna
023stop that. We don't wanna look at programs and say, "You know what? We're gonna have to cut that program 'cause there's just not enough kids interested in that right now." That's not what we're about. So if you remember, we had belief statements that we work on every single year, and we bring back to the board and we say, you know, "What are the things that we strongly believe in in this district? What we rooted in when we make decisions?" And every one of you would say, students, right? At our core, it's about making best decisions for kids. But then when we did our new strategic plan, these are the things that came out of those belief statements into our strategic plan, right? We want excellence in instruction and a safe, vibrant learning environment. We want
024to expand our career and college readiness efforts. When we went and toured other districts, we found that we have a wonderful core of career and college readiness opportunities. We've got great partnerships in place, but there's so much more we can do. And we've learned that through taking these trips. And so how do we enhance that for our student population? How do we keep supports that remove barriers to learning? That's a huge priority for us. How do we maintain ideal class sizes? You know, that's something I know Nancy, we talk about that all the time, right? I mean, who really wants to teach in a district that has a classroom of 32 kids in kindergarten, right? Our kindergarten teachers right now, if you're watching, they're going, "Not me." You know, and those are things that we
025have to keep at the forefront when we're making our decisions. We have to ensure that our opportunities are either equal to or better than what we have right now. Because we have an opportunity to look at that and do something with that. We also know that we have to maximize our district's most modern facilities. We've done additions and renovations at Hempstead and Senior, the board has made great investments in those buildings. We have to make sure we're using those to their max. And that's why putting an addition on at Roosevelt, we're utilizing that to its maximum abilities. So we have to make sure we're looking at our modern facilities and saying, "How are we best using those?" And then this came through loud and clear when we were talking about the bond referendum is how
026do we provide equitable learning spaces and experiences? 'Cause we know right now we have students that are not receiving equitable learning spaces. I wanna emphasize spaces, students that are going to classes without air conditioning. Right, they're not climate controlled. They might be, you know, I mean rural classrooms that are awfully small and crowded. Our spaces are not equitable. And that's something that we have an opportunity to look at and expand on. And the last step in our process that we're sharing tonight as we move forward is looking at our physical plant and equipment levy, our PPEL. And as you know, we have to renew our PPEL every 10 years. And Lisa Demmer and I brought this to the board a couple months ago and we talked about it, and I think we had great discussion
027about what does this look like, because ours expires in 2027. Currently the district is at a 67 cent PPEL rate. We are asking you to go out and seek renewal for $1.34 per $1,000 of assessed value. That's a 67% increase in our PPEL. - [Member] 67 cent. - [Amy] Yeah. What did I say? - Percent. - Oh yeah, sorry cent. Yeah. And we know that this supports our maintenance, our roofs, our sidewalks, our safety systems, buses, you know, it keeps our buildings functioning and in really good condition. And we know that if we renew PPEL at $1.34, that could give us additional funds that we could use to accelerate air conditioning projects in the district, and help us explore having secure entrances at the schools that currently don't have those. And again, those were things
028that we talked about in the bond referendum. And this would be a way for us to still meet those needs that the district has. Again, PPEL expires in 2027. So we will be looking to go for a special election in September of 2026. And that is voter-approved. 50% plus one. - [Mae] Can I ask a question? - Yeah, ask a question. Yeah. - Can you for people who don't understand the difference between like PPEL and the bond, explain kind of the history of PPEL and how we've always used it, that this is something that's existing, we're just changing the rate, and how that's different than the bond because for some people, when they go to an election, it might feel like the same thing. - Right, that's a really good question. So PPEL is something
029that the district has had in place for decades. And so we have renewed this at about 80% or plus each time we've had to renew that. And so this is something that all school districts utilize. And when we looked into it, because it was a question asked at the facility meeting, what do other UEN districts do with PPEL? And Lisa looked into that. And how many districts are not at the $1.34? - I think there was five. - There's five total districts that don't utilize at the $1.34 rate. Everybody, I mean, so those districts are at 67 cents. So really we know that most districts our size and even smaller utilize that $1.34, okay? And so this, like I said, is a renewal. And the thing that's different between, do you wanna talk about that
030Lisa, a little bit? The different between the bond and the PPEL, just so that I say it correctly? - So the PPEL is something that is on our levy rate currently at 67 cents. We use it for all kinds of maintenance and things. The bond would have added another dollar to the levy rate. So it is similar in a sense. It's just different that we use it for different things. The bond was specifically just to build that middle school. This would be for any kind of maintenance, any kind of air conditioning projects, anything we would like to use on it. - So Lisa, if the bond had passed, we'd still be going for a PPEL election this year, correct? - [Lisa] Correct. - 'Cause we have to renew it every 10 years. - [Lisa] We
031have to renew it every 10 years. - So and in my mind, that's one of the differences too. - [Lisa] Sure. - Because like this, we would've been adding that on to the bond if it had passed, but since the bond didn't pass. - [Lisa] So we have to renew it. - We have to renew this anyway every 10 years. Yeah. - Yeah, Lisa, you're saying of the districts that you surveyed, only five aren't at the higher level. - [Lisa] That was of the UENs. - Of the UENs. So that's of the 10 UENs, the eight UENs, the 10 or 15? - [Lisa] No, there's 20 or so. - [Amy] I think there's 25 now, yeah. - It's a wider group. - [Lisa] Yeah, it's a wider group. - Yes, the original eight are still
032in the UEN, but the UEN has actually expanded. So now I believe there's 25 districts in the UEN. - So only five of the, and the UEN is the larger districts in the state as we are. And so only five of the 25 UEN districts aren't at the higher level we would seek. - [Lisa] Correct. And we're one of those five. - Right. - [Lisa] And we are one of those five. - Yeah. Right. - And can you explain, if it does not pass, you know, 50.1%, does it go away or does it revert back to the 67 cents? - So we have to renew it by March of 2027. So we would have another, so we're gonna go out in September and then if it would, we could go back out in March and
033decide, you know, what that looks like. But yes, if it doesn't pass, or if it doesn't renew, then we lose all those dollars. - All of it. At 67 cents. - And so then we would not, we would have to use those funds, the things to maintain our buildings, roofing projects, you know, all the things, we'd have to take out of the general fund. And if we have to use general fund dollars, then we would be looking at making more reductions to staffing and things like that in the district. - Right. So this is so important to our infrastructure. - [Amy] Absolutely. - And busing and safety systems, all of that. It's so important. - Absolutely. Yeah, and the PPEL dollars really generate, it generates about $3 million a year. And so that $3 million
034is again what we use to buy buses, you know, keep our buildings up to date, new roofs, you know, when water main breaks, all the things that come up we have those dollars available so that we can keep our buildings. - Is it 3 million at the 67 cents? Have you calculated? - The 3 million is of the 67 cents, we do have a projection, a board-approved one through our PPEL levy. That's the 34 cents. But that's part of the levy when we establish it, that's not voter-approved. So the voter-approved just generates a little over $3 million. - And if it were $1.34, did you calculate what that might be? - [Lisa] Roughly over 6 million. - Yeah, double. - Yeah, it would double it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so that would give us the capacity
035to use those funds to look at air conditioning buildings that need air conditioning, and to add those secure and safe entrances to buildings that don't currently have those. - And just to be clear, the additional income, if the levy were higher, would be money that would come in, taxpayer dollars that we would be obligated to spend on these specific things. This isn't like a fund, like a bank account that would continue to grow year by year. This would be money that we would come in and spend on the designated things. - Yeah, we couldn't use it for like teacher salaries or anything. It would come in and it would have to be used for the infrastructure pieces that we currently use them for. - Yep. - And it's been at this rate for a long
036time, correct? - Yeah. I mean we believe since like 19. - [Member] Whoa. - 80 something. - 19? - Yeah, it's been at this rate for a long time. Yeah. - [Member] The mid 19. - So really other districts over time have increased their PPEL. - [Amy] They have. - Long before we are now planning to do that. - [Amy] Exactly. - And at a time when we're facing, you know, lower aid and also increased costs for all of these things, right? Like our costs have not, they've gone up in the ways that we needed to maintain buildings. Whereas we've kept that rate the same. So it would make sense to change it. - Yeah, and I think, you know, Mark Lang would say, as we see, you know, projects come in that we're doing
037to update buildings and things, those costs have gone up as well. So yeah, that would help us keep up with that inflation piece. - I think it's important to think about the passage of PPEL in September. It's not just accelerate air conditioning and explore secure entrances, it's also to continue the maintenance that we've been doing for decades, right? - [Amy] Absolutely. - Right, I mean, 'cause it, like Lisa said, you know, if it doesn't pass and it goes away, we won't be able to do the stuff that we've been doing always to maintain our great buildings. - Absolutely. Absolutely. So what are our next steps? What are we gonna do next? Right, we just talked about those three steps. And so really our next steps are, you know, we have that internal core committee in
038place, which we've already talked about. And we've been meeting frequently, weekly. We've been going and visiting buildings, and doing all sorts of things. And now it's time for us to go out to the community and say, "We need your help. We need you to get on board with us and help us determine what's next for the district." So we will be putting together an external community task force. And so tonight after the meeting, there's gonna be an email that goes out, you know, to families to let them know that this is what we shared with the board tonight. These are things that we need support in, and this is how you can get involved. If you wanna get involved, here's how you can get involved. And then from that, from that group that we're planning
039on, we'll meet probably every other week from now through the next possibly six months. In between those meetings, we'll be going out and having focus group feedback opportunities. And so Mike, do you wanna talk a little bit about what those will look like that will look different than our last focus group meetings? - Sure, I think one of the things that we've really talked about is how can we continue to deeply engage our community in these conversations as we start this planning process. And so we've talked a lot about what that looks like from an engagement perspective. And of course, as Amy mentioned, we're looking at a community task force that would be a really in-depth working group that will meet every few weeks. That's a really big commitment. But what we also want broader
040input from our community in meaningful ways. And so as you know, in the past, what we've done for, like the bond, for example, was we went out and did information sessions, and that was 90% information and about 10% questions and feedback. And so we wanna flip the script on that and really create opportunities for our families, our staff, our community members to get engaged in deeper ways so that those meetings become 10%, set the framework for the conversation. And then regardless of the size of the group, be able to break through those groups into smaller kind of table conversations with guided framework to walk us through questions, data, give those groups the opportunity to really get deep into that information, into the data, into the topic, have those conversations, and then be able to get
041the input from those table discussions. We know that not everybody wants to stand up in front of a room and ask a question or give a piece of feedback. And so how can we intentionally create meaningful opportunities, even if it's a big group, to have those small group conversations so they can really dive in and ask a question and give feedback. And then we can collect that feedback and use that feedback to then inform the work of the community task force and the core committee. So really looking at flipping the script on that, really to make sure that community feedback is a key part of that, and deep community feedback. So that even if you want to come for one night, you can't make a commitment for those other things. You can come visit with
042us for an hour or two, and you can engage deeply in that topic and give really meaningful feedback in a way that we hope enhances the process for everybody and helps us move together as a community as we do the planning. - [Mae] Can I ask another question? - Yeah, yeah. Ask a question, yeah. - I have a question about this as well. So it really felt like you did a lot of really good work prior to the bond and getting information out there and between the first and the second bond referendum, getting that feedback from people. And you had a new plan for the second bond, and our bond still didn't pass. So do you feel confident? Are you just hopeful that there are enough community members who will proactively engage in this discussion
043with us in order to make the best decision about moving this district forward? Or should it just be like a decision we the board makes? - [Amy] You know, go ahead. - Okay. You know, that's a really good question because I think a lot of people think that a decision already has been made, you know, and the answer to that is it hasn't. Because we know that we can come out with a statement, a decision and say, "This is what we're gonna do." And people will probably just, you know, throw lots of spaghetti noodles at that. And the reality is we need to get everybody on the same page. And I do believe that we have enough people in this community that are passionate about our district and wanting to see our district move forward
044in a positive way, that I think we'll get people around the table to say, "Yes, how can I be involved and how can I help shape Dubuque into the future it needs to be." I feel very confident about that. But I also think we do want people at the table that are maybe gonna question some things, right? Because if everybody's sitting around the table has the same ideas, we're not gonna come up with the best possible solution. And one of the words that Mike has been using with me is better, you know, we wanna find better than what we have today. And that's hard to think about because again, change is hard and we're gonna have to go out of the box. We're gonna have to think differently, you know, because if I, you know,
045gosh, I went to Jefferson Middle School and I don't know what Jefferson's gonna, what it's gonna be like without that? And the reality is we're gonna have to find a way to be different without Jefferson. And you know, I think about Hoover, you know, when we sat here and talked about closure of Hoover, people were devastated about that, you know, and people came to the table. We made the announcement, then we had a community input session. And many of our families, I mean, we had over a hundred people come to that session to say, "Wait a minute, what are we doing?" You know, let's talk about this. And we broke up into many tables, people gave feedback, and we actually changed our plan. 'Cause if you remember, we had boundary alignment and some of the
046families said, "Hey, this doesn't make sense for us to go to this school. Let's talk about this." And we said, "Yeah, that's a great idea." And we came back and we made that adjustment as a board to say, "Hey, this makes more sense. Let's change it. Let's listen to our community." And people were so thankful that they were able to give input and that we actually took that input. The other thing that I think about with closure of Hoover is people were devastated. I tell this story all the time. I had my little friend Lydia, who stood up and she wrote me a letter, and "You can't change Hoover. I mean, my life's, I'm gonna be devastated. I won't have any friends," you know, all the things. And so Lydia and I started having lunch
047together and doing some planning and whatnot. And now Lydia and I still have lunch together, but she's at Carver and she was just on the front page. 'Cause she went to State with the state robotics team at Carver, and she said, "I love Carver Elementary, this place is great." You know, because again, she couldn't see herself there or whatnot. But through time, you know, and going through the change, she now feels like she's in a really good place, you know, and she's, you know, having great success at Hoover. So, and I think that same thing's been with staff too. As I've met with staff who've gone through that change, they're like, "Wow, I never knew that this school was just as great as Hoover." You know, because you don't know until you experience those things.
048So to answer your question Mae, I do think we have a great community that wants to get behind us. I do think we have a community that's ready to think outside the box and make good decisions. But I think it's important that our community understands that we can't have our cake and eat it too. And that's a really hard thing to understand, because I think one of our principals said today, we were talking about things and they said, "It's almost like what's the best of the worst ideas?" You know, because honestly, nobody wants to be sitting here tonight and saying that we need to look at Dubuque Community School District differently. I don't wanna be sitting here saying that, nobody does. Nobody ants to say, gosh, maybe we shouldn't have this school or that school,
049or we should change this grade level alignment or that grade level alignment. That's nothing anybody goes into wanting to work around. But the reality is, where we are financially and with the low SSA and the declining enrollment, the district has to choose a path. And we can't say, "Hey, I don't wanna move eighth graders to the high school." I'm using that as an example only, and I don't want 32 kids in my kindergarten classroom. It can't be both things. And so we have to make some really tough decisions, and we're not gonna make everybody happy in this process. But if we go back to those core, you know, beliefs, we have to remember as we're working through this with our community, these are our goals, this is what we're rooted in. And if we can
050stay rooted in those goals, we're gonna come up with a better plan than we have right now. But that's only gonna happen if the community comes to the table and is involved in the process. And you know, it's real easy, you know, tonight to get on social media and say, "Oh my gosh, this is what's going on." And, you know, and start rumors and whatnot and not get engaged in the process. I'm asking you tonight, I'm asking the community, get engaged in the process, come be part of this. And if you can't be a part of the external core team, come to focus groups, hear what we have to say, see the data that we're gonna share, and say, "Wow, this really is a big savings. I could never have imagined that." And then let's
051see what the best decision is moving forward. 'Cause I foresee us coming out with focus groups and you know, talking about things and then saying, "Well, clearly this one doesn't work. Let's throw that one out." Because the other reality is it's not like we have a thousand options here to choose from. We only have so many buildings, so many grade levels, so many staff members, and so many supports for our kids. So we have to determine how can we stay rooted in our goals and yet come out on a better side of this for the district. And that's a goal. I mean, and that to me is an exciting time for our district. You know, we could be doom and gloom, like, wow, I mean, what are we gonna do? And this is an exciting
052time. We could really be making some major, major systemic changes that are gonna, you know, put our district way ahead in years down. So again, you know, through thoughtful planning, we're hoping our community partners come forth and be engaged in this process. And help us look at how can Dubuque schools look differently? Because we know we need to remain strong, innovative, we need to have student-centered, and we need to be prepared for generations to come. Because we're making decisions in these next few months, not only for the kids that we have in front of us today, but the kids that we are gonna have in front of us in 5, 10, 15, and 20 years. And that's kind of exciting. It's an exciting time for our district. It's gonna be challenging, and we're gonna hear
053lots of noise. But oftentimes through that noise we come to a better product, because we need voices to be heard. And I'm sure as heck hoping that we have a much better plan in place in six months than we do today. So what other questions do you have? This was a lot of information I know, but what kind of questions do you have as a board? - Think the process started, hypothetically, ideas that your groups have. Will we come out with some suggestions and build on that or start out with the community saying, I think we should do this and this and this? - Well, I think we'll first form that external task force, and from that we're gonna bring some data to the table. - [Lisa] That's what I mean, you'll come with some.
054- To say, Hey, these are things that we need to look at, you know? - Yeah, maybe parameters of like, this is what. - Because we could have 100 different ideas. - Yeah, these are the options that we have, you know? These are the options we have, so let's talk about those. Let's look at data, let's look at things. And then as we do that, then we'll go out to a focus group and say, "Okay, these are things that we've come up with. And so talk us through how you feel about these ideas or these solutions." And then we take that back to the external core committee and with our internal core committee. And we work through the next piece of that. And so this is gonna be a lot of process of back and
055forth, back and forth, because as we know, as people bring ideas to the table, we have conversations, we may have to tweak some of the things that we looked at with that external core committee, go back, talk through that, and then come back to the focus groups. So this is not gonna be an easy process that we can just say, "Okay, we met one, two, three times and we got the plan." I think we can't really put an end date. I mean, I think ideally we'd like to say, "Hey, let's work on this for the next six months." Because ultimately we know we have a deadline. We have to be able to make a move in the '28-'29 school year that Dubuque Community School District looks different than it does today. - And that does
056have to start happening sooner than later to be completely go to fruition in '28-'29. - [Amy] That's right. I mean, you know. - So we have to start now talking to constituents. - I'm looking at Brian Howes 'cause he just came in as our second director of, executive director of secondary education and Lisa Feltes, who's our elementary. And these two are going, wow, if we're gonna make any kind of changes. I mean, think about that. And one of the ideas somebody said was, let's bring sixth graders back down to elementaries. Think about all the planning and time that would have to go in if that was something we did, right? Or hey, we're gonna, you know, have a building that's just sixth and seventh graders. Think about all the planning that has to go into
057that. And that these two are gonna have to get many people involved to get that moving. So we do need that time, but we know that by '28-'29, we have to have a different plan in place, because financially we're not gonna be healthy. - Change is hard for families, but it always ends up being positive. You don't see that now, but. - I like that you're optimistic to say always. (all laughing) - [Lisa] I am. Well, any change that I'm going through. - [Anderson] Amy, this is Anderson. Can you guys hear me? - Yeah. - [Anderson] So a few things, and I had to turn my camera on so you guys can see me. I do agree that change is hard, but I also, as I listen to everyone, change is needed. As we are
058in a changing an economy, a changing community, changes at the state level. If we don't change and adapt, we won't be an organization that will last. And so I think that's important for the board to reflect on that as well. As I've been on the board for eight years now, just some of the things that we've had to change and transform our entire organization. And Nancy, you've been with me through this journey, but just think about where we were with Prescott and the conversation with Prescott and what we had to do, and the fear that was there for communities. All of us, just think about where we were as a community and as an institution when COVID, no one knew what was going on, but we had to change or we had to adapt in
059order to still provide the services to the students and families that we had. Closing buildings, not that we wanted to, but we had to change in order to again survive. And so change is hard, but it's needed. Many organizations throughout the community, let's acknowledge, that they are changing their operations, they're changing how they do business for a variety of reasons also. So we're not the only ones who's having to look within and figure out how to change with limited to no support. And what we're asking the community to do with us is help us in that decision so it's not just us doing it on our own. And I think we've all learned from Tom Barton. You know, it seems like every time I think about some of these conversations, I think about what he's
060shared since I've been on the board. You have to have good process. And good process is not to get people to agree with you, but it is designed to allow people to be a part of the process. And so things are not just happening at them, but it's happening with them. And through those difficult conversations, as you mentioned Amy, the best thing will come out of these conversations. And I think no matter what, we can't lose sight that we have existing children and children that are coming in our district that depend on us to prepare them for the future, right? Not just today, but the future. And so I think, Amy, you've laid out the clear problem that we continue to have within the district. You've looked at data, and that's not only SSA, that's
061student enrollment, that's class sizes, student-teacher ratio programming. You've talked to a variety of people within the buildings to get their ideas. So really not just doing things at teachers or our leaders, but saying, "Hey, here's the problem. What are you thinking?" And so you're gathering a lot of data, and you're bringing that information to the board members. And now you're saying community members, we also want you to be a part of the process because that's just who we are. And at the end, we have to come up with a solution or solutions that's going to catapult us forward as a district. 'Cause if not, as you said, a few years from now, we're gonna be million dollars short. And again, then the state will come in, then there's more problems. And so to the board
062members, I think change is necessary in order for us to continue to have a district moving forward. And it will be hard conversations, but as long as we keep our eyes centered on the main thing, which is what's best for children, I think what's gonna come out of this entire process is a beautiful product that's going to be good. Not just for us as board members, but for the next board members that come in place. So I appreciate the conversation, I appreciate the ongoing data, and I appreciate, Amy, that you are asking community members to be a part of that process so we can support our children's and teachers. We can't forget about that too. So I appreciate the process that you guys are putting in place to get a lot of input. So thank
063you for that. - I would just add to that, I think in the end, this whole process will be as good as the community involvement that we're able to engender. Can we get this community, every person as they learn about this needs to feel welcome and invited to come and be a part of the process. I'm not certain that I fully understand. I heard you say Amy, six months, I heard you say cabinet team, I'm not sure you called it cabinet team, a core task force, and then community focus groups. Can you say more about the different structures within the process that lies ahead? - So right now we have an internal core team and that is our cabinet. It is principals across the district. It is some of our teachers on special assignment, and
064it's people from our maintenance, transportation, and food service. And so that is what I would consider our internal core team. And we've been meeting weekly. We are going to send something out after the meeting tonight to all families and all staff, letting them know that there's gonna be an external core team. And then we're gonna give them directions to how they can be part of That external core team will be a team that meets every other week. And I had said, you know, we're looking at about the next six months, but again, you know, I'm not gonna give a definite like it's ending this day just because I wanna make sure that we're flexible with our time if we need more time. - [Nancy] Sure. - Then if there's people that cannot commit to that
065every other week meeting, you know, and the information that we're gonna share and whatnot, then we're gonna invite the entire community again to these focus groups. So focus groups would be around a topic. So let's just say one of the topics might be grade level realignment. And you as a community member feel very passionate about what could that look like? What are the options for grade level realignment? Then you would come to that focus group meeting, and we would have that set up so that there would be people there from the internal and external core task force that would then facilitate smaller groups in an exercise so that we can share data with them, we can share findings that we've had and thoughts that we've had as we've gone through that other process. And then
066we're getting their feedback. And then we would take that back to the external core team and to the internal core team so that we're then planning, are we ready to move forward? Is there any feedback that we need to, you know, talk about? Is there anything, a different idea that we haven't thought about? Do we need to go back out for another focus group around grade level realignment, you know? And then once that was complete, we would go to the next piece of that. And maybe, and I'm just again throwing things out, but maybe that's around transportation. 'Cause people are saying, "Whoa, how's transportation gonna look if we do something different?" So then we would take out data and information around transportation, share that with the focus group who's interested in that piece, and then
067gather information, do a work session around that, bring that back. In the meantime, as we're doing those focus groups and coming back, we will be communicating with the community as a whole. So we can say, "Hey, this is what happened at the focus group last night. These were the conversations that were had" and this is, you know, some of the things that were talked about, you know? And then also reporting back to the board at our facility meeting every month throughout the process. So you know what we're hearing from the community, you know, what focus groups we're hearing that we need to bring to the table. 'Cause I'm sure there's a focus group that we haven't even thought about that we're gonna say, "Hey, we better bring that to the table. 'Cause that's something that
068the communities really wants to talk more about." And then once we get through that process, we would then have the external core committee, task force, external task force come to the board with a plan and presentation that we would say, "This is our recommendation for how we move forward in the district." And then ultimately the board is the one that would make that decision. But I'm very hopeful that you would be involved in that process throughout the whole thing so that you weren't surprised at the outcome, at that recommendation. - And I think importantly, the community should also be involved throughout the whole thing. If this is something that people are passionate about, and not just at the end, once we get to that decision, I mean we've always had very transparent processes in the
069time that I've been on the board and before that, anytime we're making a decision where the community can get involved and give us feedback. It might not always happen exactly the way folks want it to happen, but I feel like very proud that we've had clear processes and transparency, and that our decisions are made better when we hear from the community. And so I would echo what Anderson and what Amy have said, that it's really important for people to get involved and to share their ideas and share their thoughts about what we could be and what we could be doing kind of within the reality that we're in so that we can be in a better position. Because change is hard, but it's also an opportunity, like you said, to be something different and something
070better. And that is exciting. I think it'll be, you know, I appreciate that we have some time as well, that it's not just, you know, two sessions like you said and then we're making a decision. But instead kind of this thoughtful, iterative process where we're gonna adjust and hear from the community as much as possible to kind of get to the best place. And that makes it easier for us as a board to make a decision. I wouldn't wanna make it without that feedback. So thank you for thinking through the best way to do that. - [Amy] Yeah. - What we know is that this community cares about its kids and it cares about education. So to the extent that we can engage really whole lot of people in giving their ideas and reacting to
071others' ideas and those kinds of key things, the better we're going to be. How will the community know where they can be involved, when and how, external core team focus groups, how do they find out about that? - [Amy] Go ahead, Mike. - Well, as Amy mentioned tonight after this meeting, we'll send a message out, which will have instructions for our families and staff, for folks who are interested in getting engaged in that process. As we move through the process, I would expect that we would, as we do with all of our external outreach initiatives, we'll promote them with local media. We'll promote them through our social media channels, we'll promote them to our families and staff directly. We'll, I'm sure do some paid social media to reach folks who we wouldn't normally reach to
072try to expand our geography as much as we can. So really we'll try to use all of the tools at our disposal to hit folks in different ways, hoping that we can, you know, connect with them in whatever media it is they are choosing to pay most attention to. But really try to cast as wide of an net as we can, and use the most direct channels when we have them. So certainly we have a different ability to communicate with our current families and staff than we do with the general public, from a direct text message, phone call, email standpoint, but looking to broaden those outreach efforts whenever we can to expand that throughout the community. And really, we have great luck doing that through our local media outlets. We see great, great publicity through
073them and being able to share with our community in a broader sense, folks who may not be engaged with us on social media or may not be district families, so they don't receive all of our ongoing communications. And so really looking at those partnerships as well to be able to share that information. And then again, we do have some ways, especially in the social media space, to be able to share information with folks who we aren't normally engaging with, or they're not normally engaging with us on a regular basis to increase that visibility. So we can stay on top of that. - Another. - [Nancy] Not involved, I'm sorry, go ahead. - Oh, no, and I just wanna add to that, you know, when we had the bond referendum, Mike and I went on the
074road quite a bit. And so I foresee us doing that as well to go and talking to community leaders. I know we're already on the agenda to talk at the greater GGDC meeting in two weeks. We also look at sending emails to people that were engaged in our process before. You know, how can we get a hold of DARSPA? How can we make sure that we're getting a hold of, you know, these different groups that we went and talked to and send out our letter, send out our information and say, "Hey, we want you to be involved." Because we know that a lot of groups in the community invited us in and said, "Hey, we wanna hear what you have going on. We're interested." And so those are groups that we'll be tapping on again
075to say, "Hey, we need you now." You know, so this is how you can get involved. I know that we had a task force that worked on the bond last time. We'll be reaching out to them tomorrow morning and saying, "Hey, here's something different. How can you be involved?" We'll be reaching out to our YES committee, "Hey, here's how you can get involved." And I know that Elizabeth and Keegan are in the room, and I'm sure they'll have great reports out there for our community so they can see how they can get involved in the process. But I think we are gonna have to reach out externally to some of those groups that invited us in the last time around, and then get feedback from them as well. - Will there be like a centralized
076web space as well, like we did with the bond referendum? That'll kind of keep it up to date and have information and all that stuff? - Yes, there will be. So we will make sure that there's a section on our website dedicated to this where we'll include ongoing information about the planning process so that people have a resource to go to that will be up as we start to move through the process. It's not up yet, but that's something that we will definitely have engaged so that people can go to our site, they can get the update as to what's happening as we get into those opportunities, they can see what's next, what are the opportunities I can get involved, and to keep that information available there. - Nancy, I didn't mean to cut you
077off before, what were you saying? - No, you didn't. No, not at all. I'm just thinking of, when I think of the community of 60,000 plus, really, because we go beyond the city limits. How do we reach the folks who aren't gonna be at any of those groups, who aren't on social media, but who are voters and they care about kids and they care about education? I think that's a challenge, not just with this. I think that's a challenge. Anytime something goes to the voters and to reach that part of the community, important elements of the community that they are, they're not gonna be at any of the presentations you make. They're not going to see it on social media, but they're there and they'll vote. And how can we help them to connect to
078this, connect with their ideas, connect with their feedback, and it's just a challenge. I'm not saying I have an answer to it, I don't, I wish I did, but. - [Amy] You should write a book if you know that all. - Yeah, that's right. That'd be true. I don't. I just think it's, there are so many folks who really want to have a voice in their community and certainly in their public education system. And I think there are a whole lot of folks in our community who want to know, but we don't have a connection to them. And I'm not sure how we get that. I guess I would encourage those who do get information to share with those whom they think in their social circles or family circles or whatever, may not have connected
079to some of those other informational pieces. So I guess what I'm doing ultimately is challenging us to continue to try to make those further out connections, but also to encourage the community who does connect with the information to share it beyond themselves to those they think might not have it. I think again, it's about can we all be a part of making this as wonderfully impactful as you've well said, Amy, going forward to the kids of Dubuque and to the educational process that we want so much to be of highest quality it can possibly be in spite of the budget limitations that we face. Nobody wants to make a decision that's going to hurt a kid, let alone kids. And so the more folks we can, I mean, I'm not saying anything you haven't, I'm
080being redundant, but there are just so many folks I think it's hard to find that connection with. And so my challenge is to those in the community to try to help us make those connections. - Yeah, I agree. And you know, I look across the board and we've talked about this before, and each of you has such different, you know, backgrounds and like where you work, and you know, all these things. And so how can you reach out as board members? I mean, we're the second largest employer in the city of Dubuque, so how can our staff do that as well? You know, with conversations with their families, with their friends, and some of their social groups that they're in as well. How can we, you know, reach out and say, "Hey, give us some
081feedback." Even if somebody doesn't physically come to a meeting, you know, you can send me an email, right? I mean, I get emails all the time, good, bad, and indifferent, right? And so we wanna hear your voice. And so there's lots of ways that people can reach out to me. I know during the bond referendum, I had many people call me and wanna set up a meeting, and I met with every single one of those people that wanted to sit down and talk with me. And I would do that again this time as well, just to hear feedback and hear what people had to say. So we're open to that. And I think at some point, people also have to take initiative, you know, and I wanna encourage our community to take the initiative and
082to get involved because our kids matter. Our students are at the core of this community. And if we don't find the best way to continue to educate our students, Dubuque's gonna be in trouble. You know, our students are the people that are gonna be taking care of us, right? And we need our students to have a great education, and we also need them to choose to stay in Dubuque, right? Because Dubuque's a great community and we want people to stay here and work here and thrive here. So that's why we will be reaching out to the Greater Dubuque community as well to say, "Hey, you know, workplaces and workforce, how can you get engaged in this process and help make Dubuque better, a better place?" So I appreciate that. - I just wanted to clarify,
083Nancy had talked about a vote. This does not, which I know the answer, but I mean, it does not go out to a public vote. - Good point. - So the ideas that we come up with, the decisions that we make, we wanna include the whole community. Even those that aren't affected by their children or grandchildren going to our schools, they do have a stake in how our community educates our future leaders. So they're all interested parties. - That's a good point, Lisa. - We all know that everyone is, and it is a hot topic in Dubuque right now. Everyone's talking about it. So they're just waiting. We use, you know, newspaper, radio, all those social media to tell them when our meetings are and where to contact. But I don't want the community to
084think that we're gonna have a final vote 'cause we don't have a final vote. We take everyone's information and with the experts, with the school district, and of course we're gonna, we're the ones that are gonna vote on the final decision. - Yeah, of the three steps that we laid out tonight, the only one that has the vote is the PPEL. So addition on Roosevelt, that's again gonna be SAVE dollars, which we already have set aside, so we will not need a vote for that. And then obviously the planning process, we're sharing with everyone. And so that will not come to a vote except for the board. But the PPEL will have a vote and that'll be in September. And again, that's just for building maintenance and some of those things that we've already had
085in place, and it's a renewal, it's something the district has had in place for decades. - Which ultimately may or may not be related to the plan that we come up with through this process. - It just happens that's this is. - We need to renew PPEL anyway to continue maintenance. But the additional money that we get may come into play and we don't even know that yet with the plan that we ultimately come up with. - Absolutely, that's the exciting part, right? That's the exciting part. But we thought it was fair to bring that forward to the community now, so people understood that. And we've been talking about it at the board table through facilities and things, and we have to get it on the ballot. So that's something we gotta move forward with
086so well, so you know, transparency is our number one goal here through this process. - [Mae] What else do you need from us tonight? - I just need your smiles. That's so good, that's good. Yeah, the launch, that's what Joe Maloney's calling today, right? Today was the launch of what's next. And I think it's a really exciting time, and I really encourage everyone to listen, to hear what the community has to say. Sometimes it's easy to dismiss things. And I think it's important that we do listen to what's out there and what people have to say. And I really encourage the community to have an open mind. You know, don't read the email that you see tonight or we have a short video clip that they're gonna share and just make assumptions. I encourage the
087community to also listen, to be open-minded, and to think about what are the possibilities and next for Dubuque schools 'cause I think that's really important, because we are gonna have to think outside of the box. We are gonna have to make tough decisions, but we are gonna make the best decisions for kids. So thanks. I appreciate everybody being here tonight. - [Kate] Thank you. - On the snowy Monday March. What is this blizzard that they're calling it now? - [Member] The snow's gonna be gone come Friday. - I know, I know. So I appreciate all of you. I appreciate the community tuning in, and I hope we can see you through this planning process. Thanks everybody. - [Mae] Thank you. - [Kate] So two hour late start tomorrow? - Hour late start. - Cold, cold
088start. If there's no other items, then we are adjourned. (gavel bangs) (cheerful music)