001Good evening. This regular meeting of April 14th, 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. Hamill here. Jacobskazire here. Jones here. Parks here. Sansancy here. Whit here. We're pleased to welcome sixth grade students from Jefferson Middle School to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm Payeyton Sanders. I'm Lucy Schmidt. I'm Becca Savers. I'm Ally Ginty. [Music] I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you guys. Thanks for coming. Thank you. I move the board of education approve the agenda as submitted. Second. It's
002been 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. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. I move that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting of March 10th, the special meeting of March 19th, and the three special meetings of April 7th, 2025 as submitted. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting of March 10th, the special meeting of March 19th, and the three special meetings of April 7th, 2025 as submitted. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Right. That brings us to some board salutes that are around the table.
003Anyone want to start? I'll start. So, I wanted to salute the district's robotic team, uh, which continues to achieve great things and is quickly making our Debut Community School Districts somewhat of a powerhouse in the state of Iowa. For anybody that is unaware of this, we have a team called Servos Strikes Back, which received the impact award at the regional robotic competition held in late March. This award recognition qualified the team to attend the international first championship in Houston, Texas. and that'll be April 16th through the 19th. So, congrats to all involved with the team, the students, advisors, and the mentors in the community on their partnership to make this a terrific success. We wish you nothing but the best in the world competition. Very exciting. I have a board salute and board salute goes
004to the foundation of Debuke public schools and its many supporters for a tremendously successful enhancing excellence fundraising event that was held. It's held annually and this year it was on March 20th. District students and staff were present to highlight the amazing foundation supported work happening across the district and the impact of the foundation funds on student success. There are um awards that are handed out that night. So the categories I'll announce those. We extend congratulations to the award recipients. Um the top one was Hunter Firsty who received the distinguished hometown alumni award. Kate and Charlie Parker, who received the inaugural Friends of Debuke Public Schools award, and students Pton Dixon, Jacob Hog, Josie Norton, and Monica Scheler, who all attend Debuke Senior High School, who received the Young Philanthropist Award. Overall, the event raised $100,000
005for the foundation and ensuring and ensuring continued positive impact on students and staff in the DB community school district. Um it's amazing how many things are funded through the um Foundation of Debuke public schools that may not happen if we didn't have these funds. And so I know the foundation works with the Debuke schools define where the need is. And so it's all student enhanced. Everything is for the students. So, we're very proud to have this partnership. So, kudos to everyone involved and I'm pleased to offer a board salute to our longstanding partners at Loris College. Dr. Parks, I know you have lots of connection there. We have really decades and decades of long history of partnership and shared grants and all kinds of experiences. What the one that I wanted to say a thank
006you for tonight has to do with Loris's continued um hosting of the go the distance day. This has been a a a longstanding activity for fourth graders in the debut community school district and it promotes healthy lifestyle through fun activities. So this year over 800 fourth graders had the chance to participate in the day at Loris's Rock Bowl Stadium on Friday, April 11th over three sessions. So in addition to participating in hosting of the activities, the students had a chance to work with more than 100 Laura students. How awesome is that? And they volunteered throughout the day and helped lead activities with our students. So this long-standing activity is a great example of the impact that partnerships in our community have on our schools and our students. So our thanks to Loris College and all
007of those who were involved in hosting this wonderful host the go the distance day. Wonderful. Yeah, I I have a board salute but also commenting that that is a true partnership. I such a great experience for our fourth graders. My son Henry was there running around doing all kinds of stuff. uh but also students and I got to see a faculty member who had been out there. Uh he'd planned to only be there for his shift but just stayed the whole morning because it was so much fun and energizing to be with those kids. That's neat. It's great. Okay, so I also have a board salute which goes out to all of the middle school students and staff that were involved in their school musical productions. Washington and Jefferson have both wrapped up their amazing
008productions with Washington presenting Willy Wonka, which had a certain Oompa Loompa that I'm very proud of and Jefferson presenting um Annie Jr. this past weekend. Uh and there's still a chance to catch Roosevelt's production of The Lightning Thief on April 25th and 26th. These productions highlight the amazing talents of our students from singing and dancing to assisting with staging, lights, costume, hair, and makeup. Congratulations to all of those who brought and are bringing these productions to life. It's truly delightful and wonderful to see what these students can do. So, the music community here is uh exceptionally strong. Congrats as well to the um students that were doing vocals, instrumental, orchestral at the state soul ensemble contest. I also attended Willy Wonka. It's excellent. Their last showing is done. If you want to buy tickets for
009the Lightning Thief for Roosevelt, they can be found at seatself.biz. Awesome. Thank you. Any other salutes at the table? So much good things. So many good things going on. So that brings us to a public hearing on proposed budget estimate for fiscal year 2025 2026. And I believe Miss Demer is going to get us started with a review of the certified budget proposal. Good evening board members and superintendent Hawkins. So tonight we are asking you to approve the budget for the fiscal year 2526 school year along with the proposed um property rate which is part of this certified budget document that you should have received. First I would like to review a timeline um kind of of what the process is last year um this change for certifying our budget and the levy rates. I
010want to make notice that on this um timeline the ones in yellow are the ones that were new last year. So, as you can see, the governor proposed the budget um and gave us a recommendation for state supplement supplemental aid or SSA on January 14th. Then the legislature is supposed to approve SSA 30 days after or around February 13th, which did not happen. So, the next couple of steps again were new last year. We had to have our budget submitted to the Department of Management by March 5th. This allowed the county to prepare notices that needed to be mailed to property owners by March 15th. As you can see further down, SSA wasn't settled by the House and Senate until April 7th. So on the March 5th deadline, our team had to determine the the
011highest rate possible because we are only able to lower the levy rate. We are never able to increase it. So when we went to public or went to cert excuse me when we went to publish it on the March 5th date we we published it at a rate of 1340 and that's what was sent out to property owners. So we are we are required to have a public hearing on the proposed levy rate to receive community input which we held on April 7th. Then we needed to publish a second notice for the property tax not levy that we thought we would have. And since we didn't have SSA, we thought we would go with 2% knowing that that was what the government governor had recommended. So that rate was $134. As of today, the governor
012has yet to sign the SSA bill. And depending on if there's any other legislations yet to be s signed this session, the department of management may make a a few minor changes to the levy rate, but we are proposing a $134 levy rate. So, just a couple of things that I would like to talk about with the um proposed levy rate and budget. Our team put together this proposed or certified propo budget proposal and is now published on our website. This document goes through a lots of facts and figures on how we determine the levy rate, what our authorized spending authority is, which is only for our general fund because the budgets are you are proving tonight are for all funds. There are about seven different funds that make up our overall budget. There are
013several graphs and charts throughout this document. We won't go through all of them, but I do want to point out a few. So, if we can go to the next slide, Comey. So, the first one I would like to show you tonight is on page four of the document, and it's our certified enrollment. This SLI slide shows a 10-year history of our certified enrollment. As you know, certified enrollment is a very important piece of our funding. We take our certified enrollment times our cost per pupil to supply our upcoming budget for the next year. As you can see, we continue to have declining enrollment and it has a significant effect on our funding. So, the district continues to look for efficiencies. But is it important to remember even though these enrollments are declining by over
014a 100 kiddos or 100 students, these kiddos are spread over 18 buildings. So, an average of seven kiddos per building. You know, at the elementaryaries, that would be one or two per grade. So it does make this more challenging to continue to find efficiencies. Next slide, please. Another key piece of our budget is SSA. This is the amount that our cost per pupil is increased each year. As you can see in this 15-year history back in fiscal year 067, we received 4% and it was pretty consistent. Then in fiscal year 2011 12, we received zero and has really fluctuated since then. We have this year listed at 2% which the House and Senate have agreed on waiting for the governor to sign. With all the fluctuations, it makes it challenging to work on expenses and
015keep them in line. So, ideally, it would be great if SSA was determined before we had to submit our budgets, but we continue to work with what we have. This would be this would also help with us to know our our spending authority and be able to plan accordingly. Next slide, please. So on this slide is on page eight of your document and has the history of our levy rate. It goes back to the fiscal year 1012 where the levy rate was almost $17 per thousand. As you can see, the levy rate rate came down and has went up a little bit and has fluctuated a little ever since. With the proposed levy rate this year, there would be a slight increase from the $12.99 last year to $134 per thousand based on our 2%
016SSA. Next slide. So, how does the levy rate compare to other districts? So, we have put this in the budget proposal compared the levy rates to our other urban education network schools in Iowa. So all the other bigger school districts in Iowa, as you can see, we are the second lowest to all those ones listed here, which many of these are in the same boat as us, declining enrollment and continuing to look with look for efficiencies within their district. Next slide. So here you can see the actual notice that was published in the paper. It shows our revenues and expenditures for all the funds that we are asking you to approve tonight. And below on the bottom of the page, you will see the levy rate of $134, which supports several of these funds within
017the budget and the amounts we are asking you to approve. So then, how does the levy rate impact property taxes? If you go to the next slide, on page 10 of the document, we start off with the residential property impact. I know some of you may have received those letters from our county assessor about the increases in assessed values. assessed value is different than taxable value. Also, with those new assessed values, it is it is not this levy rate. It's not for this levy rate. It's for the upcoming 2627 school year. So, it's important. So, it is not impacting our current levy rate that we are asking you to approve tonight. But again when we talk about assessed values it's different than taxable values because as you can see in this document there is a
018roll back number sorry a roll back factor that takes the assessed value times the roll back number to come up with your taxable value. This year was not an equalization year but the roll back amount changed causing your taxable value to go up. As you can see, the roll back went from 46% to 47%. Which changed your taxable values from just over the taxable value from just over 91,000 to 93,26 in this example. That then take that times the proposed tax levy rate of $134 for the school tax portion is $1,215.88, 88 which is an increase of $32.39 from last year on the average property value in this example. Also on this page it does show the impacts from the commercial for the commercial and resident or excuse me commercial and industrial properties. I know
019we had also gone through the certified budget proposal in more depth at facilities but does anyone have any other additional questions for me? I appreciate your your explanation, Lisa, of how it's calculated so that we know and the community knows. How does that number come to be? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for giving the 15year trend as well. Thank you. I move the board of education receive and file proof of publication of notice of public hearing on the budget estimate and authorized payment of the legal notice publication cost to the Telegraph Herald. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education receive and file proof of publication of the notice of public hearing on the budget estimate and authorized payment of the legal notice publication cost to the Telegraph Herald. Is there
020any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. At this time, if there are public comments that are specifically related to the um proposed budget estimate for fiscal year 2526, we ask that you come forward uh using the microphone at the podium, state your full name and your connection to the district, and limit your remarks to three minutes using our timer. Uh, good evening. Clerk slows 2925 Burlington Street and determining, you know, taxes for, you know, just speaking about the schools. It's a tough job, especially when you don't know what your state aid's going to be until very late in the ball game. Um, I was county engineer. I had to develop budgets. I'd equate that to not knowing what my road use tax funds are
021going to be and having to take an educated guess of what it was going to be. So, it's a difficult position. And the example of what you know the taxes would be after figuring out the roll back and that stuff. That's basically your gross taxes. It doesn't take into account uh the the homestead exemption or the homestead credit. And on my case, that would be about $345 less than what was on that example. And um you know, so it's it's you're you're on the high side of what you're going to be paying for taxes. And nobody likes to pay taxes. I can't think of a person who says, "My favorite thing is to pay taxes, no matter what type of tax it is." And the one thing, you know, everybody says, "You got to cut."
022And I know a member of the city council said, "Well, okay, tell me what to cut." You know, just don't say cut. Tell me what to cut. and just kind of going through through u you know some of the numbers and some of the information that's available on the website and without knowing the full details the one thing I kind of notice is in the in health care the difference in cost like the the frontline nurses and teachers you know for their family plans have to pay 25%. But you look at administrators and superintendent and other higher executives, they're paying 0%. And you know, just to look at the Blue Cross Blue Shield plan for the administrators that pay 10%, that means compared to the 25% people, you're paying $3,700 a year more for each
023of those individuals. for the superintendent where it's 0% that the district covers the entire cost. That's almost 6,200 bucks a year. So depending on the number of people that fall into those categories, that could be a considerable expense. I don't know what that number is. So I couldn't say, okay, you're saving, let's just throw a number out there, $200,000. I don't know what that is, but that's one of my one of my examples. Why aren't the administrators and the higherups willing to do something? They're not willing to do something. They're asking the frontline people to do. It should be fair all the way around. When I was county engineer, whether or not you were, how should we say, the county supervisor, the county engineer, or the snowplow driver, we paid 20% for our for our
024health care, no matter what, if it was a family or single plan. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak? Roseanne Shman 1570 cycle. I'm a resident in the taxpayer. I guess I'd like to ask the city, the county, and the schools to hold the line and stay where they are with all of their rates. The pie is only so big. people only have so much money and the assessed value is based on unrecognized gain which many people are talking about if they're going to assess my house at that I'll sell it to them I would make some money on that so all of this is kind of like playing with numbers I realize that it doesn't look like much of a change but every bit counts in a person's life.
025And I heard a story on the radio and it was a man talking about he built his house 40 years ago and he said, "I can remember every 2x4 where I put it, everything I did in that house." He said, "With the price of taxes and and um insurance, but the price of taxes, he's not sure he's going to get to stay in that house any longer. and he built that house himself 40 years ago. I'm asking the schools, the county, and the city to hold the line. You guys know where to make cuts. He just gave you kind of a good idea. Um I'm in my own business and I paid I paid my own health care 100% of it. I understand we have to have perks. I get that. But the perks don't
026have to be better than the private sector anymore. And I think you can see what's going on in the federal government. Doge needs to be done in everything. Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, I move that the board of education adopt the budget estimate for fiscal 2025 2026 as published. Second, it's been moved and seconded that the board of education adopt the budget estimate for fiscal year 2025 2026 as published. 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 suspend the rules of order and go into open form. 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
027in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. To start our visitors and open forum, we're happy to welcome Greg Layman, the principal of Jefferson Middle School to share what's going well at Jefferson. So, good evening, school board, Superintendent Hawkins. Uh Dr. Parks took my opening line here, so we did just wrap up Annie Jr. and uh you asked me to highlight some things that are going well. When I watched those students the first time taking the stage, the courage that they have to stand in front of their friends and do that. I wonder how many of us would do that. How many of you would stand in front of your friends and sing a song belted out loud to this open form? They could do that now, right? If we
028want to do if it's three minutes. Oh, three minutes. Okay. So, um that did just uh we did just wrap that up. It was a wonderful production and as you stated, there's a lot that goes into getting that to happen. So we've been focusing also on some challenges this year uh specifically attendance and academics. So we've had the challenges middle school kids they love competition most of them. So we challenged different home bases and one of the challenges we had was for attendance. So this year I'm very happy to share that we have decreased our chronic absenteeism by 10%. The kids have are um have met that goal. We are in the end of the year challenge for attendance. So we're continuing that. And then as far as academic, we've done I Ready challenges. And
029I Ready is a computer program that we have for students where they have individualized pathways uh that helps them in reading and math, helps patch them those holes and reinforce the skills that they need. And in the month of March, I wanted to write this down so I got it right. They completed over 4,500 individual um lessons on I Ready. So, we are hoping to see those gains when we take the I Ready test here in May. Um, we like to celebrate those little successes along the way as well. So, those um challenges, kids, it's amazing what they'll do for a Jolly Rancher, right? You give them a Jolly Rancher for doing a lesson or an ice cream treat. The home bases are competing. So, we've seen a lot of gains in that. And as
030I said, we're doing another attendance challenge as well. And then the other thing that's going well is we have a small but mighty PTO at Jefferson. So if there's any PTO or Jefferson families and you'd like to join our PTO, please consider to do that. They have supported us uh throughout the year and buying materials for the kids and and also opportunities for the kids, field trips and things like that. So our PTO has been wonderful partners for us. they um they do our fundraiser for us and they make sure that that money goes back to the kids that are raising that money. And then lastly, um as I always say, we have just an amazingly talented staff up there, our teachers, our paras, the support staff. I count myself lucky to be able to
031work alongside them. They are a very caring uh dedicated group and I just uh can't speak highly enough of our Jefferson teachers. They do an amazing job every single day working with our kids. They know the kids. It isn't just about teaching math. It's about teaching that child and then then they get to the math from there. So, is there any questions from the school board for me? I tried to keep it to three minutes. Amy said don't don't go long. So, great. You did great. Can you sing a song for us? Uh, I will do do you uh the privilege of not doing that for you. So, but um back to that story. We had a young man that had never been out for plays, not in for choir, and became the lead for
032our story. And the amazing thing about that is the pride on his dad's face when he was there, seeing his son do that. Um, he was so proud of his son for doing that. And, you know, that's that's the exciting stuff. That's the good stuff when you get to see that. So, it was a wonderful wonderful evening. No question this way, but you know, I get the privilege of being inside of your building, it seems like every other week, and I I can echo what I experience when I walk into the building, teachers smiling, students excited. Um, so you're doing a lot of great things over there. So, I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you. And we have mentoring groups that come in as well as individual mentors, and we're all part of that. We're all
033part of their story to help them be successful. So, principal Layman, you talked about both attendance and the arts when we started thinking about further restrictions or any cuts. Can you speak to um whether you think your attendance and your engagement with your students is at all related to their participation in the arts? Um absolutely. And arts and extra extracurriculars. Um this year we've seen after co there was a tremendous drop in participation and this year we're seeing an increase in participation in our extracurriculars the arts band orchestra choir as well as the athletics pieces of that and I think that is the benefits we're seeing for that attendance they're part of it they feel they're part of the school. Excellent. Thank you. Well thank you for the opportunity. Have a good day. Great. Thank
034you. If anyone else would like to address the board, you're welcome to do so at this time. We again ask that you state your full name and your connection to the district uh and limit your remarks to three minutes and know that the board can't interact with you based on state law. So, we're not able to respond to what you share. Uh but we are here to listen. Uh Clark's 2925 Burlington Street. uh after the two last weeks of me kind of being critical, I'm here to give some kudos to the board, um you know, dealing with all those mentioned robotics, the arts. Uh there are some taxing groups that sit there and call those extravagant items. I disagree with that. If those are extravagant items, we need more of that. Um you look at
035some of the items they say are extravagant amenities. Uh, if you get rid of that, you're sending us back to the stone age. Uh, computers, they criticize computers for every kid in school. If they don't know computers, they're behind the eight-ball. They're going to be going to engineering schools, doctors, lawyers, other sciences. They're going to be behind the eightball. I know that it costs money to provide this stuff, but our job really is to make it better for the next generation. better than what what um I had. I know it's better than what I had. In fact, right now, I'm kind of jealous of students today. Robotics, the closest thing to robotics we had was watching it on a science fiction movie. Um computer AED design and drafting didn't exist. Uh engineering classes didn't exist.
036Like I say, I wish I could go back to high school now. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for recognizing those things. We're proud of all those programs, too. We can't. 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 signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. I move that the board of education approve those items listed in the consent agenda. Second. Second. Okay. 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?
037I would like to request that the board policies before us for revision this evening be removed from the consent agenda. Okay. Removed from the consent. So, we would not vote on that part of the policy. Vote on everything except for the the policies. Yep. And then we'll go back and have discussion around that. Okay. What I'm wanting to is to be able to have discussion, not to have them just be cast in a singular vote for all all of the consent items. Okay. Yeah. So we can do that piece first and then we'll go and then approve the rest of the things in the consent agenda. Okay. Okay. So what do we do now? We don't usually do a discussion. Yeah, we have discuss discussion about those policies. If if I might make a statement,
038I know it's unusual for us to withdraw things from the consent agenda, but I have to share that tonight's a a profoundly sad night for me. Uh, in all of my eight years on the board and the 47 years before that as a district employee, teacher, and administrator, I've never before been asked to vote for compromises to my principles and values. There are 17, just so the public understands the context for my objection, there are 17 protected classes historically in federal and state legislation for schools to protect students, staff members, and volunteers from bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Those protected classes, the 17 are age, color, creed, national origin, race, religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical attributes, physical or mental ability or disability, ancestry, political party preference, political belief, socioeconomic status, and familial
039status. Now, as a board of education, the federal and state governments are mandating that one of those protected classes be struck from all public school districts policies and practices. Specifically, that class requested or required to be removed is gender identity. If we do not fully comply as we're told to do, we will lose our entitle uh our entire title one funding which provides vital academic supports for our elementary children living in p poverty. Approximately 30% of our elementary students receive reading or other academic supports from title one funds. About $2.4 4 million in title one funds would be removed if we were to not comply with the requirement before us tonight in the those policies that I've asked to be removed so that I I or andor others could make comments is that six of
040the 11 policy changes before the board tonight strike as required the words gender identity from our policies by the federal and state government's requirement Government public school district superintendent all across the United States must sign an assurance to the government that gender identity has been removed from all bullying, harassment, and discrimination policies and practices. When I ran to be elected to this board of education in 2017 and then again in 2021, my election campaign slogan was for the kids. When I put myself out there to be an elected volunteer for the board of education, I didn't mean some of the kids. I didn't mean most of the kids. And I certainly didn't mean all except those kids. When I said for the kids, I meant all kids. And all means all. This federal and state
041government requirement to remove gender identity from our policies and practices calls for us to protect most or some or not those kids. Nothing in me now or ever before can be okay with that. All means all. This is not a partisan issue, though it probably sounds as if it is. It is not. My response is not about a particular party. That to me is totally irrelevant to the issue before us. The idea of protecting and treating fairly all students, all staff members, all volunteers in our schools is about basic human decency and about fairness. So, let me offer my personal assurance to this community whose children we serve and to our students, our families, our staff members, and our volunteers. This Debut Community School District will not abandon protections and fairness for some students, staff
042members, and volunteers even after we have as required and essentially as forced to comply with these dreadful change requirements of our district policies. Bullying, harassment, and discrimination have no place in our schools. None of them. or in the life and practices of this public school district. Here in the Debuke Community School District, protections and fairness are for all and all means all. Madame President, Superintendent Hawkins, and fellow board members, I will abstain from voting on these policy changes that are being governmentally required of us and of all public school districts in Iowa and across the United States. I am committed and I believe this entire board is committed though I don't seek to speak on your behalf fellow board members committed to fairness and protections for all students all staff members all volunteers now and
043in the future. This is a very sad night for me. Thank you. Well, Nancy, I appreciate your remarks, you know, tonight. Um, one of the things that we've worked really hard on is our strategic plan. And when you look at our strategic plan, we talk about that we're ready. We're ready for you. And we're ready for everybody. And so, um, as you talk about asurances, those are things we talk about every single day within our district, within our schools, within our buses, everywhere we go, we're talking about making sure that every student in our district has opportunities, every student in our district can thrive in our district. And we want to make sure that they have the best experience that they can have in our district. And we meet everybody where they're at, right? And
044so, um, those asurances are spoken throughout our district every single day and they'll continue to be spoken on behalf of our students and our staff. Thank you, Nancy. I would just like to say um it was beautifully said uh you should have run for politics. I feel like you've got my vote. Um but it was very difficult having those discussions um at the commanded meetings and I too feel um like it doesn't necessarily follow my moral compass but um I also feel lucky to live in a district and have the leadership that we do both with superintendent Amy Hawkins and the district uh leadership that we have that we will continue to support all of our kids and ensure that they have the best experience. And it does feel like we're being a little forced
045um by removing funding from some of our most vulnerable populations, but I do feel confident that we will continue to support everyone. Any other discussion at this time? Thank you for sharing your thoughts. All those in favor of approving items listed the agent uh the consent agenda signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? Abstain. That motion passes. Okay, that brings us to our facilities and support services committee report from Mr. Hamill. Thank you. Um uh ladies and gentlemen, so on the first Monday of every week at 4:00 up here at the forum, we we have a uh a meeting to go over the issues involving facilities and support services. There's a lot more information in those meetings and everyone's invited to come. That's where we get reports uh on issues and recommendations and we
046discuss them and such. Um so last Monday uh uh the first thing we talked about had to do with we were purchasing a lot of technology. So every year um for every school year all the sixth graders get au get a new computer and they keep that for sixth, seventh and eth. All the freshman incoming freshman get a computer. They keep that for their whole high school careers. There's also uh iPads at the elementary level that stay in the classrooms and all of the teachers in the district, they get notebooks and it's basically about a third of the teachers every year get a new notebook. And we were fortunate that uh most of those items, those computers were in stock in the country and we were able to get them at the pre- tariff prices.
047The school I'm looking this the the the notebooks for the teachers were not available and at least last Monday it looked like we were going to have to pay 24% extra. I saw there was some exemptions for electronic devices. Co Kobe, do you have any information you can share with us on that? Sorry. On the spot. He didn't know he was going to be called up. Hi, Kobe. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Hawkins. Uh Mr. Mr. Hamble, you are correct that uh the the uh administration did um provide some exemption for some electronics that are coming out of uh China. Basically is where they've been the the reciprocal tariffs that were enacted and they did roll those back. Um they rolled those back to the 20% uh initial tariff that was put in place. However,
048that is still very volatile and there's some uncertainty around this yet. Um, we're trying to reach out to the manufacturers. The manufacturers, I think, are still probably going to digest some of this information, figure out how they're going to, uh, change pricing accordingly. So, at this point in time, uh, those stat those faculty laptops that you alluded to during your report are the only ones that we still have some uncertainty on. So hopefully uh once we get some more clarity around this from the federal level um and then we also hear from the manufacturers, I'll be able to come back before the board and see what we can do to hopefully move that forward. But I think the worst case scenario of 145% more um which they were originally talking about um I think is
049being avoided. So hopefully we'll uh find out more, but at this point in time that's the only update I can give you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's good news. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Um then on the uh Sageville Elementary School solar project that that's working well. And on a related note, part of what we were able to, we the smart people of the district, it didn't have anything to do with me, they were able to lower the energy consumption out at Sageville and to a level where it, the way Alliant has it set up, there's dividing lines. We got below a dividing line so that we get charged a lower rate. Uh unfortunately, Alliant has also raised its rates. Uh so that that will be an ongoing um issue, but
050uh one of our contractors, Synergistics, they're continuing to work on uh that for us. Um on the uh there are two big uh contracts uh that we discussed. One was the Irving mechanical project. That's a new heating system uh for Irving. Uh also uh uh adding air conditioning which was never there. And another part that came in is uh we decided to add high efficiency windows. And that bid uh was uh the winning bid was Conland Construction for million $6,80,000. The other big project uh we discussed was Eisenhower Elementary and that involves a new gym, three new classrooms, uh an improve improved entrance with more security, upgraded kitchen, storm sewer and playground modification. Uh the winning bid there was Tricon Construction for $8 million uh $17,000. that was uh in all these big projects, the
051architects uh provide estimates of what they think it's going to cost, and the estimates are generally very accurate. the Eisenhower Elementary project that came in uh about a million dollars higher than the estimate and the the the general view is that's also related to uh tariffs and the additional expenses that thing uh that that we'll be facing. So that's the high points and I got a couple of motions. Good job, Derk. The only other thing that um was part of that Eisenhower project is that they're due for a roof um renewal. It's time and so we can save a cost at the district level by doing the new roof as part of the Keller Y portion of the building by doing it at the same time as the gym. Um so that would represent a
052cost savings for the district on another project that needs to be done. Thank you very much. Of course. Yep. Okay. So, uh, for motions, my first motion is I move that the board of education approve the executed construction contract, bonds, and certific certificate of insurance with Tricon General Construction for the Eisenhower Elementary School addition and remodel project in the amount of $8,17,000. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the executed uh construction contract, bonds, and certificate of insurance with Tricon General Construction for the Eisenhower Elementary School Addition and Remodel Project in the amount of 8,17,000. Is there any discussion? The only thing I'd like to add about this is just to remind the public that these the this project is being paid for out of our save dollars. So out
053of our one cent sales tax because I know there gets to be lots of different buckets of money. And so it's important to know that that's where that project is coming um it's coming out of. So thanks Derek. Thank you Amy. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. I move that the board of education ten t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t tenatively approve the plan, specifications, form of contract, and estimate of total cost v the Eisenhower Elementary School roof replacement project and set the date, time, and location as Monday, May 5, 2025 at 4:30 p.m.
054at the Debuke Community School District, 2300 Cheney Road, Debuke, Iowa, for a hearing thereon and further off a authorize the ad advertisement for competitive bids. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education tentatively approve the plans, specifications, form of contract, and estimate of total cost for the Eisenhower Elementary School roof replacement project and set the date, time, and location as Monday, May 5th, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. at the Debuke Community School District, 2300 Cheney Road, Debuke, Iowa, for a hearing thereon and further authorize the advertisement for competitive bids. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Any opposed. That motion carries. Uh, next up, I move that the board of education approve the executed construction contract, bonds, and certificate of insurance with Conland
055Construction for the Irving Elementary School mechanical upgrades project in the amount of $6,80,000. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the executed construction contract, bonds, and certificate of insurance with Conland Construction for the Irving Elementary School mechanical upgrades project in the amount of $6,80,000. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I would just like to add this is again a project that we're paying for out of save dollars one cent sales tax, but I also think it's important for the public to know that um with the closure of Hoover, we had mentioned that we were going to use Hoover as a flex face so that we could continue like if we needed to do a project continuously um we could do so. So, we have worked with um the construction company here
056for Irving and we will be utilizing Hoover for some of those Irving students for starting in the fall of 202526. And so, all families have been notified, staff has been notified, and this will help us get that building air conditioned much quicker in one school year. And um this way we won't have to be moving students from classroom to classroom throughout the year. So, it'll help with them to be more consistent in one building. So, I just wanted to to talk about that out loud. So, thanks. Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. I also move that the board of education approve the quarterly budget report. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the quarterly budget report. Believe we will
057hear again from Miss Demer. Good evening again. Um Carrie did provide um the budget recap uh reports for you separate from your packet. So I will be referring to page one under the general um fund expenditures. As of March 31st, we are about 75% through our fiscal year. The report shows that when we combine the year-to-date um expenses of a total of 99 90.5 million plus the incumbrance totals of about 48.5 million. Um those two added together total around 139.1 million. This amount is below our earlier projections which is good news for our unspent balance. Historically, the fourth quarter spending usually increases a bit, but I am hopeful that we will be under our projected amount. As a district, we have had to make some difficult changes and we are starting to see the results
058of those changes in our general fund. The next one I wanted to point out was our uh save funds. So, our sales tax tax funds um this report shows a deficit of about around 800,000 in the budget u balance column. The reason for this is because our incumbrance totals include some architect and soft cost um for the Eisenhower and Irving projects. Unfortunately, when we had to put our budgets together over a year ago, we didn't have those costs available. We have since sold those revenue bonds, so we had the funds to cover those costs. It just wasn't included in those budget numbers. And then the final thing I'd like to point out is in our pebble fund. Um the report shows a deficit of approximately $3.7 million. Uh the reason for this is in the
059expense columns the FY2324 bus replacement and vehicle replacements um were pushed into this current year. They were budgeted last year but because of um supply chain issues and things they were pushed into this year. So the expenses are incurred this year. We are also doing some safety upgrades as part of our safety grants that we've received. So, those are also being paid out of the Pebble Fund and we will be receiving reimbursement once those are completed and will be put back into the Pebble Fund. Does anyone have any other questions on the report? Those are just some that I wanted to point out. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Hamill. That brings us to the ed
060educational programs and policy committee report from Miss Jones. Okay. Thank you. Uh we received an update on Debuke online school from Val Loenberg who is the principal for Debuke online school. Um the school opened in fall of 2022 and is currently serving 326 6th through 12th grade students with 33 of those students enrolled from other districts in Iowa. So any student who resides in the state of Iowa is el eligible to apply to our online school. 11 full-time teachers provide learning in addition to specialists that are shared with Jefferson Middle School. Online instruction is delivered both through a combination of live virtual classes as well as as ondemand classes. Uh Natalie Nemers, the DOS counselor and teacher Mark McCarthy shared with the committee that the program meets students where they're at. Students attend the program
061for a variety of different reasons, including health concerns or a need for flexible learning schedules. The option to transition back to in-person learning is also possible. And students also have additional opportunity to connect with other students both online and they have weekly meetups at the multicultural center. And I believe they also do some community work and um field trips as well. Students who graduate from the online school will receive a DOS diploma and this year graduation will be held on Friday, May 30th at 6 PM at the Roosevelt Middle School. Um, I must say it was very clear throughout their pres presentation last week how passionate the staff are and um the positive impact that they're making on their students lives. So, that was a pretty fun um one to sit in on. Uh, we
062also reviewed a three-year purchase professional contract for uh, Zello, I believe it is, which will update our current program for a college and career readiness information system to support students in grades 6 through 12. Um, and that comes in at an estimated cost of $11,372.70. Our next uh, meeting will be here at the forum on May 7th, and we invite all to attend. Right. Thank you so much. That brings us to new business. I move that the board of education approve the proclamation recognizing the week of the young child and authorized the president and secretary to sign on behalf of the board. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the proclamation recognizing the week of the young child and authorize the president and secretary to sign on behalf of the
063board. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. No one's going to be opposed to the week of the young child. That would be that would be too far. So, I'll read the proclamation now. Whereas the first years of a child's life are the period of the most rapid brain development and lay the foundation for all future learning. And whereas participation in highquality early childhood education saves taxpayer dollars makes working families more economically secure and prepares children to succeed in school, earn higher wages, and live healthier lives. And whereas the Debute community's high quality early educa early childhood educators ensure that children supported by families have the early experiences they need for a strong foundation. And whereas last week the Debute Community School
064District celebrated strong early childhood programming and important lifelong benefits that come from early learning. And whereas the Debute Community School District urges all members of our community to support efforts that increase children and family access to highquality early childhood education. Now therefore, I, Kate Parks, on behalf of the Debut Community School District Board of Education, do hereby recognize April 5th through 11th, 2025 for its importance as the week of the young child. signed this 14th day of April, 2025. I move the board of education approve the appointment of Lisa Demer as district representative to the Debuke County Conference Board. Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education approve the appointment of Lisa Demer as district representative to the Debuke County Conference Board. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor
065signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Congratulations, Lisa. You're on the board. I move that the board of education take no further disciplinary action related to student number 162410777. At this time, second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education take no further disciplinary action related to student number 0777 at this time. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. There any um board member or administrative issues not on the agenda? Um maybe you're going to mention this already. the um middle school consolidation meetings. Go for it. Okay. The middle school consol consolidation. We have had um envisions working with a group of people um a task force to go for another bond referendum and we're going to explain all of this to
066the public. There's two different meetings that you could attend attend. You only need to attend one. They're going to be the same. So the first one is April 16th this week at 6 PM at the forum. And the other option is April 28th at 6 PM at the forum and you'll be able to ask questions and be informed of everything that's been talked about and ideas that we have. Thank you, Lisa. Yes. Um just another thing that I just want to um next month we will be having our facility and support services on May 5th at 4 o'clock. Then we will have our ed programs and policy committee on May 7th at 4 o'clock. And then we will have be having our board meeting on Monday, May 19th and that'll be at 5:00 because at
067that board meeting we're going to do our regular scheduled board meeting for May and then we're going to go to our strategic plan update. So um that will be a time change um for the month of May and I just wanted everyone to be informed of that. And then just my last thing is, you know, this is Lisa Demer, um, our new CFO. It's her first time going through the certified budget and you've done a wonderful job. I know the the hard work you and your team have put into it. I just want to say congratulations. You know, you've come in to a new job at a time when we have some decline declining enrollment. we have some, you know, we're not sure where SSA is, but you've done a really good job of handling
068those situations and setting us up for success. So, I just want to say thank you to you for that. So, nice words, Lisa. And and I have a comment, too. I was writing some notes down as I was uh processing um some some things. Just a reminder uh just to the board, you know, a few days ago um you know, I express how proud I am of each one of you um for doing what we were voted to do, and that is to do what's best for every single student um that walks into our our building. You know, I don't think any one of us have forgotten um our role and what the taxpayers have asked us to do. Um, and again, that's to do what's best for every single student that walks into our
069building. Despite what goes on on the outside, we still have a responsibility to do what's best for every single student. And as Mr. Clark uh mentioned, it's not just the students that are in our building right now. It's preparing the next wave of students that are going to be coming to our community and to our our district. So, we're building a system um that hopefully lasts way past each and every single one of us because this is not going to be our full-time job, right? Um but we're building something that will last beyond us. So, again, I want to thank you guys for your efforts. I want to publicly thank because we don't do this enough, our superintendent um for hiring um some of the best staff, surrounding herself around the best people again to
070do what's best for every single student. And we are ready for every single child that comes in this building because we have amazing teachers and we have a board that people don't get to see what we do behind the scenes. You know, there's a lot of times where there's this disagreements, right? But we come here uniform and ready to do what's best for every single kid. So, I just want to thank you guys again and stay focused on the mission, which is what's best for every kid. Don't get distracted by the politics outside of our community. stay laser focused and together we're going to make some stuff continue to happen. And so again, I just want to say I'm proud of all of you. Thank you. Thanks. Lots to be proud of in this district
071and at this table. Great. So now we're moving into close session. I move the board of education enter into close session present to Iowa code 21.51C to discuss strategy with council in matters that are presently in litigation and where litigation is imminent where its disclosure would be would be likely to prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in that litigation. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded that the board of education enter close session pursuant to Iowa code 21.51c to discuss strategy with council in matters that are presently in litigation or where litigation is imminent where its disclosure would be likely to prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in that litigation. Is there any discussion? Roll call vote please. Bradley I. Hamill I. Jacob, it's Kazire. Hi,
072Jones. Hi, Parks. Hi, Sansancy. Hi, Whitman. Hi. At this time, we'll uh take a 10-minute recess and the board will reconvene in the conference room for the closed session. Thank you, everyone. [Music]