001Good evening. Oh, good evening. This regular meeting of October 13, 2025 of the Debute Community School District Board of Education is called to order. Our mission is to develop worldclass learners and citizens of character in a safe and inclusive learning community. Roll call, please. >> Bradley, >> here. >> Haml, >> here. >> Jacobitzkazire, >> here. Jones Arcs >> here. Sansancy >> here. >> Whitman here. >> All right. We're pleased to welcome students from Roosevelt Middle School to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> My name is Amina and I'm in seventh grade. My name is and I'm in grade. My name is Ashlin Austin and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Abby Crossman and I'm in sixth grade. My name is Noel Hoffman and I'm in sixth grade. >> I aliance to
002the flag [clears throat] 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 guys. >> Good job. >> Appreciate it. 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 those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion carries. >> I move the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting on September 8th, 2025 as submitted. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting of September 8th, 2025 as submitted. Is there [clears throat]
003any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion carries. >> All right. I believe there are a few board salutes around the table. So, who would like to get started? I'll go. Thank you. I want to say congratulations from the board to our girls high school tennis teams on an outstanding season. Special congratulations for our state tournament qualifiers. For Debuke senior, their high schooler Maddie Bellamy captured third place in the 2A singles tennis tournament and Hempstead's Maya Hoden and Nor Cas proudly representing the Mustangs in the 2A double state tournament. Congratulations to these student athletes on their state level success. We're proud to have you representing us as Rams, Mustangs, and for the entire Debut Community School District. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I have a board
004salute. October is National Principles Month, and we'd like to give a board salute to the principles across our district and their outstanding contributions to the school communities. Principles wear many hats in their roles. that is the responsibility of the entire overall operation of their school. They are instructional leaders, cultural builders, assembly planners, extracurricular event planners, and the list goes on and on. It is not uncommon to hear principles talk about their kids referring to the students in their school. And we see each day how this is dedication and commitment positively shapes the work of our schools and the excess of success of our students. Um I believe principal schools are their home away from home. They're very proud of their school and their kids and they do spend a lot of time there too. >>
005So this principal's month we extend a board salute to our district principles and give them our thanks for all they do. And I am very pleased to represent the board and giving a board salute to the Debuke Arts Council. They do phenomenal work and have for so many years. Uh they continue to support creating wonderful opportunities for our students to experience the arts through the artist and residence program. When I was an elementary principal, we would so look forward to Debuke Arts Council's artist and residence program. Always quality, always an interesting variety of things that they would bring, but a wonderful opportunity for kids to experience the arts. This year, Backtrackk Vocals brought its educational dance program to our schools with a dazzling live performance. So, this is really just one of the many programs
006that the Debuke Arts Council has supported in our schools over the years. Many years. I don't know how many, but many years. Each focused on the power of art to spark emotion, develop skills, and foster creativity. So, thank you, Debuke Arts Council, for your long-standing partnership. We treasure you. >> Wonderful work. Any other board salutes? >> All right. Thank you very much. That moves us to the visitors and open forum. >> I move the board of education suspend the rules of order and go into open forum. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded that the board of education suspend the rules of order and go into open forum. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> That motion carries. Okay. We're going to start our
007uh open forum today with a presentation from one of our very own principles, Jeff Joel at Roosevelt Middle School to tell us what's going well. So, good evening members of the board and Superintendent Hawkins. Thank you for uh allowing me to share what's going well at Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School this year. Uh academically I have to share the teachers are sharing some really impressive uh projects with their students. Uh whether it's STEM challenges uh whether that's writing projects or social studies uh simulations, we really have some really neat things happening. Um and it's meaningful standardsbased instruction uh that that's happening in the rooms uh in all of our classrooms. Um our teachers are collaborating as CLC's. they're working together to create these units of instruction that uh that really benefit every single student, all students.
008So, that's really been fun to see this year. Um, we've also had strong engagement with our extracurriculars in our athletics this year. Our numbers with athletics so far this fall have been very strong. Our numbers with music are outstanding. Um, it's just it's really been fun to watch. Our marching band performance in the Labor Day parade was something special to watch. Thank you Sarah for walking along with [laughter] the kids. >> You're welcome. [snorts and clears throat] >> Uh our clubs from robotics club to garden club to builder club to student council and the list could go on um are really fun to watch. It's fun to see how students are learning outside of the school day. Um, I want to publicly thank the Foundation for Public Schools, um, our foundation, uh, for helping support
009our afterchool lead programming. Um, without their support, uh, with, let me rephrase that, with their support, we're able to offer, um, quite a few opportunities for students with after school things to do. So, that's where our learning continues after the school day. So, so a public thank you to Chelsea and the foundation for that. Um, I'm proud of the positive culture that our school continues to build through our PBIS program. Uh, our staff continues to emphasize our three guiding principles of respect, responsibility, and being resourceful learners. Uh, they do that through some clear instruction, fun activities, and things to do that continue to build the culture of our building. So, that's a definitely another uh highlight. Um, we've done things like lunch on the lawn. Uh, that happens not every day, but quite a few
010days as long as the bees are cooperating outside. [laughter] Uh, where students can use some of their raptor tickets from our PBS program to go outside and sit with friends on a nice day. Um, we do chill and chat. This month we're going to have bingo uh at the end of the school day for kids who want to participate in that. So, just some fun activities that help build positive culture. Okay. So, I I you know, I truly believe that Roosevelt's a place where learning and growing happen growing happens every day. Uh I'm proud to work at a school that's named after Elanor Roosevelt. I'm proud of our students. Um and uh I'm very grateful to for the support that each of you showed to our school and to all schools in the district. So,
011thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks, sir. Anyone else who wishes to address the board may do so at this time. We ask that you come to the podium, state your full name, your connection to the district, and that you limit your remarks to three minutes using the timer that we've provided. And please keep in mind that state code um prevents us from responding to what is said in an open forum, but we are listening. [clears throat] Seeing none, I move the board of education reinstate the rules of order and return to regular session. >> 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 those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed?
012That motion carries. All right. brings us to the consent agenda. >> I move the board of education approve those items listed in the consent agenda. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve those items listed in the consent agenda. Is there any item a board member wishes to have pulled? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion carries. All right. So we are now to the facilities and support services committee report brought to us by Mr. Hamill. >> Thank thank you very much. So last Monday we had had our uh uh monthly uh committee meeting about uh facilities and support services and uh the issues we covered were as follows. Uh we got a report um concerning the Marshall Elementary School
013playground replacement project and that playground has been completed and if you uh drive down drive by down in Ronberg Avenue you'll see it looks quite wonderful. Um, we also got a report there's uh some issues developing at Dell Zel with the south retaining wall and there's a recommendation that we uh enter a contract with Origin Design Architects uh to uh work on a solution for that. There's also been uh some problems found with the Irving Elementary School uh roof and there is again a recommendation inter to enter an architect agreement with origin design to address that problem. Uh also there there were a couple of uh funding kinds of issues. Um the the special education services that we provide, the state of Iowa uh uh provides money to all the districts in Iowa for that,
014but the uh the the amounts uh of money that have come from the state have remained the same for many many years. So we're we're we're we're facing ongoing uh shortages there. And there's a recommendation that we are going to have to fund an additional uh $4.9 million uh uh for the special education uh uh services that we provide. Uh and and that that that is unfortunate that the state's not providing enough money. Um but the district has worked hard at that and the the past annual amounts have been more in the area of six and six and 7 million. So we are making some uh cuts into that. Um there's another uh program where the state aid is also falling short and that's programs for students with limited English proficiency and the recommendation is
015that we need to fund another $631,000 for those programs. Um, also at the committee meeting, we got uh updates on on the ongoing projects uh in the district. That would be the Eisenhower gym edition project, the Eisenhower Keller roof replacement, the Irving mechanical remodel project, uh the Himstead shed replacement down in the athletic field, and the Sageville fuel oil tank replacement. Um, and so we had those. We also got a report concerning the school resource officers, the police officers that work in our schools. And we uh uh have uh an annual contract with the Debuke Police Department for those services. Um, and uh the annual contract this year is going to be for $376,940. And finally, we got a report from Synergistics. They're a company that helps us with a lot of our uh different
016kinds of energy con excuse me, energy cost. And uh part of their report was that the summer of 2025 um our energy cost where there the of course during the summer there's they call it the setback uh turning things off and or or lowering things and uh they were able to save $25,000 more in the summer of 2025 than the previous summer. Um, and I have a number of motions. Uh, first up, I'd move that the board of education approve certificate of substantial completion on the Marshall Elementary School playground replacement project. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve certificate of substantial completion on the Marshall Elementary School playground replacement project. Is there any discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. I. >> Any opposed? That motion
017carries. >> I move that the board of education approve the agreement with Origin Design for the Dell South Retaining Wall Repairs Project in the amount of $34,900. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the agreement with Origin Design for the Dowel South Retaining Wall Repairs Project in the amount of $34,900. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion carries. >> I move that the board of education >> pardon me. >> I'm sorry, I kind of lost my pl I didn't do the third one. >> Okay. Thank Thank you very much. >> I move that the board of education approve the agreement with Origin Design for the Irving Elementary School replacement project in the amount of $19,800. Second.
018>> It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the agreement with Origin Design for the Irving Elementary School roof replacement project in the amount of $19,800. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion carries. I move that the board of education approve the submission of the request to the school budget review committee in the amount of 4,933,51530 or as determined by the Iowa Department of Education following Department of Education audit review in modified supplemental amount to provide 100% spending authority for 2025 special educ. education deficit fund funded uh through a cash reserve levy. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the submission of the request to the school budget review committee in the amount of 4,933,51530 or
019as determined by the Iowa Department of Education following DE audit review in modified supplemental amount to provide 100% spending authority for 2025 special education deficit funded through a cash reserve levy. Is there any discussion? It's a long motion. [laughter] >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. [clears throat] Any opposed? That motion carries. I move that the board of education approve the submission of the request to the school budget review committee in the amount of 631,95844 or as determined by the Iowa Department of Education following Department of Education audit review in modified supplemental amount to provide 100% spending authority for 2025 excess cost of the limited English proficiency program funded through a cash reserve levy. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the submission of the
020request to the school budget review committee in the amount of $631,95844 or as determined by the Iowa Department of Education following DE audit review in modified supplemental amount to provide 100% spending authority for 2025 excess costs of the LAP program funded through a cash reserve levy. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion carries. >> Um, uh, finally, I move that the board of education approve the quarterly budget report. >> That sounds great. Let's have Lisa Demer give her give us some more details and then we'll vote. Call that a second. [laughter] >> Good evening, school board members and Superintendent Hawkins. Um, just a couple things to note. Our general fund expenditures aren't 100% yet. We're still working through a few budget items. So, that is
021hopefully will be completed by the end of October. Um, another thing I wanted to point out was our management fund expenditures. The report shows that most of the budget allocation has been spent. Um, the reason for this is because the month of July, the district pays 100% of our property liability and worker comp policies for the fiscal year. We also pay out early retirement payouts um to for the prior year retirees. So those expenses represent the majority of those expenditures in the management fund. Uh when we look at revenues, the general fund revenues, we are at about 25% through the fiscal year but only show about 10% received. Two reasons for this would be we receive 10 um month or state 10 state aid payments slightly over about eight um.5 million a month and we
022those payments just began in September. So we're just starting to receive those and then also we receive the majority of it from our property taxes and we tend to see larger payments in October and April for those payments. um management fund revenues show about 24% received and we will continue to see um a large increase in the October tax payments that we receive and that is also um the same for our pebble fund. We will continue to see a big payment here in October with the taxes being collected. And then finally, our nutrition fund. The year-to- date revenues for this fund is low because the uh federal and state reimbursement claims for August and September won't be received until October. So, those are just some things that I wanted to point out. Does anyone have
023any questions on the budget reports? Thank you. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> That motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Hamill. >> Thank you. >> Well, that brings us to the ED programs and policies report, and I'm going to take it this time. Um so we meet um this committee meets the first Wednesday of the month at four o'clock in the forum. So we met on October 8th [snorts] and primarily the discussion at this meeting um this month focused on student achievement and development as part of our strategic plan. Mark Burns, who's our executive director of secondary education, and superintendent Hawkins provided the board with some information about the Iowa school performance profiles for our district. And there's a lot of good good news uh that came through that.
024Um these profiles consider things like absenteeism, graduation rates, student proficiency, growth, and post-secary readiness. [clears throat] and um they also measure provide measurements and profiles which include proficiency in English language, mathematics and science. So the board learned um some key takeaways for our district which were that we um as a whole district improved 4.8% in reducing chronic absenteeism by the state measure and 7% by our district measures which is fantastic to see. This has been a big priority for the state and for us as a district for the last couple of years. Of the eight big urban districts in Iowa, the Debute Community School District ranks third in having schools ranked acceptable and above. Seven out of the 12 elementaryaries surpass the state average growth rate in both ELA and math with an additional three
025elementaryaries. Um, I just lost my place. Sorry. Um, surpassing the Sorry, I messed that up. Uh, I can't read and run the meeting at the same time. Oh, this is too much. So, seven of the 12 elementaryaries surpassed state growth rate in ELA or math. And very exciting, Marshall Elementary moved up two full rating categories to commendable because of high rates of growth in several key areas. Uh, Prescott Elementary is listed as comprehensive, but has also shown an increase in overall performance of 10%. So, we're seeing some really positive movement in our elementary schools. Um, also at the secondary level, five of the six secondary schools increased their total points over last year. Jefferson's score increased by over 10% from last year to this year. Um, and then five of six secondary schools dropped a
026level below where they scored because of a subgroup not meeting the state cut score. And if I remember correctly, we have to have like a certain percentage of each subgroup that participates. And so that can be be a challenge despite all the efforts of getting everyone to to participate in those tests. So regardless, um each school is going to spend some time looking at this data and their school improvement plans to make sure they're addressing any achievement gaps that are there and also use it to help inform professional learning for the staff in the schools. So did I miss anything, Superintendent Hawk? >> No, I think you summed it up very well. >> Great. Good job, me. and we also talked about six different policies. So, our next meeting is going to be Wednesday, November
0275th at 4:00 right here in this room, open to the public. So, feel free to come by, see what we're talking about in November. >> Yeah. >> Fantastic. Okay. There is a motion and I don't think I can read the motion and do the things. So, someone else has to do that >> for new business, >> right? >> No, there's one under policy. I move that the board of education approve a $20 fine for parking violations on district property. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve a $20 fine for parking violations on district property. Is there any discussion? >> Just a change is go ahead. You want you can talk about it Nancy if you like. >> Please. So, in the past, um, this the district received parking
028tickets from the city of Debuke. And so, if somebody if a student was parked um in the wrong place or um that we had to give them a ticket, we gave them actually a city ticket and then the student would pay the city for the fine. And so, the city came back to us and said, "We're not going to do that anymore. We're not going to give you parking um tickets." And so, unfortunately, we still need to have a system because, you know, kids don't always park where they're supposed to when we're talking about high school lots because high school lots are busy and, you know, kids like to do they like to park all over the place. Yeah. [laughter] So, um so anyways, we are now we've never charged anybody any students for um
029parking fines. So, we had to add that to our um list of fees. So, that had to be updated in a policy. So, we're just asking you to approve that. Now we will actually issue those fines and those fines will be paid to the district. >> Any further discussion? >> Don't get a parking ticket. >> Don't get a parking [laughter] ticket. >> Now members are numbered. Right. So you all have your own numbered spot. So you should stay in your lane. >> Perfect. [laughter] Perfect. Literally. >> All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? >> That motion carries. All right. So, watch your parking students. That brings us to new business. >> I move the board of education approve the proclamation for cyber security awareness month. >> Second. >>
030It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the proclamation for cyber security awareness month. Is there any discussion? Seeing none. Oh, >> no. I think I think this is an important important month for >> Colby. Kobe Colby is um always worried about cyber security. Aren't you Colobby? So um he brings this uh great awareness to our district. Um many of our staff members know because sometimes they get emails and things that and if they don't um you know they might answer those emails which could be fishing emails and then they get sent to this um little class that they have to take, right? Is that how it works? So, um, no, but Kobe and his team have done a great job of bringing cyber, um, security awareness to our district and making
031sure that people really do slow down, you know, and read emails and make sure that there's something they should respond to. So, I just want to thank you and your team for that, Colby. >> And every once in a while, a board member sends me a message and asks me, "Did you just send me a meeting request?" And it's usually always no. So, even the board is trying to do a good job with this. All right. All of those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> No. >> Okay. >> Gota read it >> now. I'm going to read it. I read it after we approve it. I learned that by messing it up a few months ago. All right. So the proclamation whereas the Debute Community School District recognizes that it plays
032a vital role in identifying, protecting its individuals and responding to cyber security threats that may have significant impact to our individual and collective safety and privacy. And whereas cyber security education and awareness is crucial for everyone including schools, government agencies, the home user and anyone who connects to the internet with a computer, mobile phone or other internet connected device. And whereas monitoring and maintaining professional and personal accounts, being conscientious of what you share online, keeping your systems and software up to date, creating strong and unique passwords for each of your accounts, recognizing and reporting suspicious messages, and using mobile devices and other internet connected devices safely are ways people and organizations can protect themselves from fishing, viruses, ransomware, other types of malware, financial loss and loss of sensitive data. And whereas maintaining the security of
033cyerspace is a shared responsibility in which each of us has a critical role to play and awareness of essential cyber practices will improve the security of Debute Community School District's information and infrastructure. And whereas the Debute Community School District encourages all individuals to learn about cyber security and to put that knowledge into practice in their homes, schools, workplaces, and businesses to stay safe online and connect with confidence. Now therefore, I, Kate Parks, on behalf of the Debut Community School District Board of Education, do hereby proclaim October 2025 as cyber security awareness month. Signed this 13th day of October, 2025. Very important. And it stresses me out that I should be changing all of my passwords all the time, right? There's only so many passwords that we can have. All right. Thank you, Kobe, and your
034team. That brings us to board member administrative issues. I believe Superintendent Hawkins >> Yeah. >> would like to share. >> I would I would really just like to um give one last um shout out to the district is going to be sharing um many facts about the upcoming bond referendum. And so our next um community session is October 21st. That is next Tuesday and that is at 6 pm at Washington Middle School. There will be tours before that if you want to come and tour Washington Middle School and then we'll have a program that will go through facts and um get to see what the project actually looks like. And then at the end there'll be plenty of time for questions and answers. So, if you have questions, you have concerns, I really encourage you
035to come attend. I also will be presenting at Convivium on Saturday um this Saturday on the is that the 18th? Um and that'll be from 9 to 11 in the morning on Saturday. Um you know, we really encourage people that if you don't um know what we're talking about about the upcoming bond election, um if you have if you have questions about it, please go on to our website. There's very detailed information about the bond referendum. There's also an FAQ and our communication staff is is updating that those FAQs on a daily basis. As we get questions asked, we place those on the website so everybody can see the answers to those questions. Um there's also a tax calculator on our website so you can see what that $1 on the levy rate, what does
036that mean for your home, your property, and you can um enter that in. It'll show you what that will cost you monthly and then yearly. Um and then we'll be sending out flyers to homes, so people will be getting information in the mail. And we have lots of things going out on social media with videos and information um for you to learn more about um what's going into this bond referendum. Again, the vote date is Tuesday, November 4th. And so, we as a district cannot encourage you which way to vote, but we can encourage you to vote on November 4th. So, my last plug before uh the November uh election. This our last board meeting. If someone has a question that they can't find an answer to otherwise, what should they do? >> So, they
037can do multiple things. One thing, they can go on the website and there's a place for you to submit a question. >> Great. >> Um, anybody can email me at ah-hawkinsdbqschools.org or they can call Carrie Moss and Carrie's been setting up meetings with us to have conversations with community members if they want to sit down and have a one-on-one or a small group conversation. Uh Mike and Lisa and I have been out in the community sharing information about the bond. So if there's if you work for an organization or you have a workplace or whatnot that you want us to come talk about it, we would gladly come and share the facts about the upcoming election. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. I just appreciate the transparency um with our team just trying to get information out
038in multiple ways to multiple different groups so that way again people can make an informed decision, right? Um and so very thankful for the work that you and your team are doing just to get information out. That just constantly reminds me when I hear you're not being transparent. It's like, well, what else can we do to make sure that we can be transparent to give you the information that you need to make the best decision, not just for you and your kids, but the district moving forward. So, thank you and your team for just being transparent. >> Absolutely. The other thing I would add is we are going to have some satellite voting sites and so there'll be more information on our website and going out to the community um so that if you couldn't
039vote on the fourth there'll be some other opportunities prior to that election. >> Great. Lots of ways to learn more. >> Yes. >> Great. Anything else tonight? All right. We are adjourned. Thanks everyone.