001this regular meeting of May 20 May 8th not 28th 2023 of the Dubuque Community School District Board of Education is called to order our mission is to develop world-class Learners and citizens of character in a safe and inclusive Learning Community roll call please Bradley Jones here Parks here prohaska here Ryan here sancy here Whitman here we're excited to welcome some students from Marshall to lead us in the pledge of Ottoman sorry to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance here they come here and I'm in first grade I'm Tavian I'm Jamari Becker and I'm in third grade I'm pretty sure and I'm in kindergarten [Music] all right so 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 okay nice
002job we get to hear from them a little bit later I move the Board of Education approve the agenda as submitted second it's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approved the agenda as submitted is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries I move the Board of Education approve the minutes of the regular meeting on April 10 2023 the special meeting of May 1st and special meeting of May 2nd 2023 as submitted second it's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approved the minutes of the regular meeting of April 10 2023 the special meeting of May 1st and the special meeting of May 2nd 2023 as submitted is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by
003saying aye aye aye any opposed that motion carries that brings us to a public hearing on the proposed budget amendment for fiscal year 2022-2023 um Mr Kelleher are you giving us a quick review first each year at this time we review our annual expenditures and where we think we're going to end up for the fiscal year and we take a look at that and compare that to our budgeted amount and so this year we did that again and because of some supply chain issues one of the areas we needed to increase was support services and that's basically because of our school buses our order from the prior fiscal year didn't come in until July which is this current fiscal year and if the ones we ordered this year come in before June 30th that kind
004of creates a doubling up so we had to increase the expenditures in that area from what we'd originally budgeted now does that does not change the tax levy rate at all it just approved or has the board approve us allowing to spend more expenditures than we originally budgeted in that area that's all it does any questions on that all right thank you I'm with the Board of Education review and file proof of publication of notice of public hearing on the budget amendment and authorized payment of the legal notice Publications cost to the Telegraph Herald second it's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education receive and file proof of publication of notice of public hearing on the budget amendment and authorized payment of the legal notification cost to the Telegraph Herald is there any
005discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries at this time if there are any public comments related to this budget amendment we would hear those at this time thank you I move the Board of Education adopt the budget amendment for fiscal year 2022 2023 as published second it's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education adapt the budget amendment for the fiscal year 2022 2023 as published is there any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries all right corner so that brings us to our visitors and open forum if we have a motion first I move the Board of Education suspend The Rules of Order and go into open form second it's been moved
006and seconded that the Board of Education suspend The Rules of Order and go into open Forum any discussion seeing none of those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries we're pleased to start our visitors Forum hearing from some of the students from Audubon about what's going well I am Brenda Russian the connector at Audubon School and our administrator is at the elementary track meet tonight so we came in his place come on up come on right here kindergarten going well because I'm learning to read thank you first grade is going good because my friends are playing nice math math is going good because of fractions specials is going good because no one's getting in trouble thank you all for having us tonight thank you [Applause] I moved the board no
007no no oh I'm sorry anyone else who would wish to address the board please state your name your connection to the district and limit your comments to three minutes using the timer hi my name is Evan Hudson uh I'm the program coordinator for Dubuque harm reduction I'm here to encourage the school board to look into increased naloxone access in especially in the high schools a little bit of context about what we do we provide low barrier access to public health services for people that use drugs in the Dubuque area and of course most of the people who use the type of drugs that require naloxone to reverse overdoses are over the age of 18 or out of the school district but especially with the increased level of fentanyl in the drug Supply that this is
008becoming an issue that I think it's necessary for the high schools especially to have naloxone on site and recently naloxone was made over the counter which removes a pretty significant barrier to that and there's a training available and ways to make it very cheap or free a little bit of an anecdote that indicates this need from my own personal experience I was meeting some clients and giving out naloxone and syringes and um I I learned I heard from several high school students who are ages 15 16 17 that they had experienced overdoses due to a counterfeit prescription pills so they thought they were taking Xanax an anti-anxiety medication but it had been made by some other source and it had fentanyl in them and so naloxone that we provided reversed two or three overdoses and
009I I talked to the people who had experienced the overdoses directly those are high school students and I just asked if if that had happened in the at school and naloxone wasn't available you know emergency Services can be called but sometimes in cases of Overdose just a few minutes make the difference between life and death and so even though it's an uncomfortable topic and a little bit less cheerful than the elementary school students it's still important I understand that some other stakeholders Vicki ellendorf and Diane heiken reached out to the the superintendent and they explained that the School District Health officer was uh hadn't had left in their high in the process of hiring a new one I would just like to start the conversation so we can begin to engage over the summer and
010figure out possible ways to move forward on this thank you thank you thank you good evening my name is Ed zaccaro and I used to be on the school board this is the first time back in 22 years so it's it's a little weird I've had children go through Dubuque schools and um I brought my own timer I'm not sure what you do yeah oh okay I'll put mine away um but I have grandchildren now in the schools and when I was on the board I was a big advocate for schools I'm not here to advocate for the bond issue or against the bond issue what I'm advocating for is I don't think there's enough transparency people I've talked to think from hearing about the meetings that there'll be no tax increase and what I
011found out is that my home is assessed for about uh 200 000 taxable value uh well my tax will be raised 300 to 400 possibly that's what if I vote for it or if this Bond passes that's what people's values will be 145 which I've been told per 1.45 per thousand of taxable value um but up to two dollars and five cents and I know it's been promised they're going to try to keep it a dollar 45 but that's not written in stone so I'm here to say this 150 million dollar bond issue is stunning and unprecedented for Dubuque and there's not enough information out for it the general public thinks there's no tax increase for it and that is not true so I know our save funds at the one percent sales tax is
012pretty much tied up at least three quarters of it for the near future that we can't depend on that the other thing I'd like to ask is um with a bond issue at 4 4.25 percent the interest will be paying at the beginning is six million dollars for that kind of bondage per year and what I've read is we're trying to save three million so it just to me I know they're from different um they're from different budgets one's operating costs one is building costs but to have six million go down the drain in interest costs uh to save 3 million in administrative costs as to me doesn't seem fiscally wise so what I'd like to do is have it put out there how much a taxpayer will be responsible for if this passes um
013so I I just I think we just need to be up up front about this and again I'm not opposed to it I'm not in favor of it I just want transparency thank you for listening perfect I move the Board of Education reinstate The Rules of Order and return to regular session second it's been moved in 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 aye aye any opposed that motion carries many of you know that this week is teacher and staff appreciation week and so we're doing lots of things in our buildings to show appreciation to our staff and our teachers and so to all of you thanks for everything that you do for
014our kids each and every day but another really important piece this month is it's School Board appreciation month for the month of May and so I know a lot of people maybe aren't reaching out and telling you how much they appreciate all the work that you do but on behalf of the staff the students the families in the community I just wanted to say thanks for everything that you do for our kids in the district each and every day um selfishly as my first year as superintendent they've been amazing very very supportive and I appreciate all the conversations and everything that you do this this job is very time consuming and it's a huge commitment and so I thank you for that and some certificates that we have for them tonight the theme is developing
015Iowa's future and I find that to be very ironic because as we look at moving forward with a bond referendum that's really for the students of the future and we're really working to set Dubuque up for success for the next hundred years or so as we move forward so I appreciate everything that you do for the district and congratulations for school board appreciation month thank you foreign well thank you Amy thank you y'all make it easy to serve because this district is doing great things so appreciate that speak for yourself I did get a lot of uh emails and Facebook I'm really happy good work you know there's a lot of cards around the table here that students goodies lots of goodies back here the invites to the lunchroom to come try some chicken nuggets
016are you sure all right thank you so that brings us to a few board salutes that are around the table uh do you want to start with I can start one goodness Jones do you want to start uh congratulations to Hempstead High School's ijig students who won third place in the lifting our voices for Equity project competition at the jobs for America's graduates National Career Development conference in Florida the team of seniors Kalia Hill and Ava Rundy and Junior Leila Saunders were among 100 students who participated in the Love Project competition in which they were tasked with identifying an inequity in their community and developing a strategy to address it more than 800 students from 40 States attended the National Conference congratulations to this team of IJ students and their outstanding accomplishments crane birds and
017Community Partners involved in the district's first ever Marshallese career learning connection this event part of the district's vertex initiative offerings included a meal an information session for members of the Marshallese Community with a variety of General District information and the opportunity to learn more about career pathways a district team that was led by Shirley Horseman and David Mohler Moeller met regularly along with leaders from Marshallese Community as well as Kelly Cooper from the Dubuque area Labor Management Council which helped fund the events through the support of the dra Grant a host of other District team members helped to do research to attendees present programs and volunteer at the event including re-engaging coaches vertex coaches high school counselors CTE teachers Equity team members and more the event was attended by 150 people and was an amazing
018effort that the district as is excited to follow up on so thank you thanks everyone yeah great participation in that first ever and I I have a board salute that goes out to the students from Hempstead High School's physics team and their teacher who recently had an impressive showing earning top honors it's a 2022-23 state physics competition at University of Northern Iowa on Tuesday April 11th as a team the Hempstead won the championship finishing first out of 20 teams based upon the scores in their top eight individual finishers the team also had two students who who earned individual medals as one of the top three Place winners in their categories the competition included a series of five physics events that stress creativity and engine and Ingenuity as well as an understanding of physics related principles
019as a result of their team win ten one thousand dollar scholarships will be gifted to 10 students that choose to go into a STEM related field at Uni congratulations to all these students on the team as well as their advisors for this outstanding accomplishment well thank you any others I have the opportunity to go see the performance of clue at senior high school so their first performance for students in the theater the theater looked great and the show was amazing so it was it was really fun and a good time so great job again senior theater students and everyone involved in that production all right thank you board members 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 approved
020those items listed in the consent agenda is there any item a board member wishes to have pulled seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries uh so that brings us to our facilities and Support Services report from Mr praska thank you our committee met uh on May 1st a week ago and I'll just kind of go through some of the things we had discussed or discussed at the meeting and then I'll make some motions um we did get a review on the employment agreement with the food nutrition employees we did have a update on the senior high Edition Renovations as well as the fixtures and equipment the order has been placed and delivered this summer we also had an update on the dalzel fields scoreboard replacement the
021projects in design and the bids will be ready by June we also had an update from Nick retenberger who gave us an update on three major projects the Roosevelt Middle School replacement which will start on June 7th the day the day after school and also the Eisenhower Elementary School mechanical system which will also start on June 7th and then the transportation fuel system replacement uh we'll take Begin work shortly after July 4th we also had a report on the sageville elementary school solar project a a Rob Powers presented a update on the Lincoln Elementary outdoor Wellness project this will this will go out for bid in November we had a report from Kevin that our synergistic Abby is leaving and a new person Josh will uh post Yak will be taken under the her spot
022Kevin also reported on the certified budget amendment that we spoke of and we talked about the lunch breakfast fees for the upcoming school year Kevin gave us a recap of pebble and save projects and also Kevin and his group his team received the asbo or the association of school business officials award for the 14th year in a row so great great job then we also Brad from envision gave us the feedback on the vetting of the project costs for the for the general obligation bonds and superintendent basically gave us a little update on our legal counsel regarding the the writing of the petition and we we're going to be looking at that here in a few minutes though I now have a few motions to make I moved the Board of Education to prove the
023agreement with the food service employees as presented second it's been moved and seconded that the board approved the agreement with the food service employees as presented is there any discussion I just like to add that the percentage increase total package was 3.07 percent which is right in line with our other employees settlements all right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries I move that the Board of Education approved change order number seven to tricon Construction Group on the senior high school renovation phase two project in the increased amount of 67 949.98 second it's been moved in second it ended education approved change order number seven to tricon Construction Group on the senior high school renovation phase two project in the increased amount of 67 949.98 is there any
024discussion I think part of it was due to some heaters it had to be replaced and also some ventilation that had to occur in some science rooms right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries I moved that the Board of Education approved the executed Construction contract bonds and Certificate of Insurance with Iowa solar Pros LLC for the sageville elementary school solar panel project in the amount of 325 140 dollars second it's the executed Construction contract bonds and Certificate of Insurance with Iowa solar Pros LLC for the sageville elementary school solar panel project and the amount of three hundred and twenty five thousand one hundred and forty dollars is there any discussion I'd like to add this was a rebid project and this is under the budget so I
025believe so this project will be started also at the beginning of Summer here all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed that motion carries I moved at the board of education to prove the food and nutrition meal charges for the 2023-2024 school year second it's been moved and seconded that the Board of Education approved the nutrition and sorry food and nutrition meal charges uh for the 2023-2024 school year is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries all right Mr praska thank you for that report and as he mentioned um we are very happy that for the 14th year in a row our district has um received the certificate of excellence in financial reporting obviously the finances of our district it's very
026important priority uh and we need the right people making the sure that we're in good shape and we're very grateful to Kevin and to Rick till for their efforts on this so I want to invite Rick to come up to receive this certificate thank you Rick for all you do 14 years the great life before his speech basically I need to thank Kevin Anderson staff because we're very fortunate to have a very good group of people and in order to do this 14 years in a row speaks a lot for our staff so really that's really the biggest thing I want to say because it's it's not me it's everybody it's a team effort thank you we appreciate that but I think that the last meeting the word perfect was used oh right that you
027were you were perfect in your job so we're awesome thank you thank you Mr veraska for the report I'd like to add if anybody has a chance to peek around the office between Kevin and Rick there there's all their nice plaques or hail hanging on the wall there it's very impressive another one to add to the wall all right that brings us to the Ed programs and policy committee report from Ms Jones right uh let's see we met for the educational program and policy committee meeting last Tuesday on May 2nd we first heard from the graduation requirements committee who are working to review and possibly modify our District's graduation requirements by possibly reducing the required total credits to graduate from 46 to 44. and also including 13 elective choices um they're also looking to create
028new vertex career Pathways or career clusters they are increasing opportunities for registered apprenticeships internships and concurrent classes and creating a 9th grade seminar elective class to help students with the transition to high school by doing so this will allow more student Choice connected to Career Pathways or college and better aligned Dubuque School District with the other schools in the Mississippi Valley Conference so we look forward to hearing from Mr Mark Burns and his Committee in the fall for an update second we got to hear from Lisa to backhorse she gave us an update on the belief Grant which is allowing the district and our Community Partners to look at ways to provide both quality Early Childhood programming and access to Quality Child Care before and after school the district is in the process of looking
029at the former Medline building on shavenel road to build a new preschool and in partnership with the Dubuque YMCA we would also be able to provide wrap around care as they plan to build a center there as well um the district does plan to maintain a preschool in each of its Elementary buildings as well and uh Mr Kevin Kelleher reported that the district is budgeting 3 million from the pebble fund for that project and then we also heard from dear Littleton our director of equity who updated us on the achievements over the last two years with diversity equity and inclusion these include promoting Equity inclusion diversifying curriculum and training staff on cultural awareness and sensitivity we were also very saddened to learn that deer will be moving on from our district when his contract is
030up in June however we feel now that we do have a strong foundation around Equity thanks to the air in our schools and are excited to continue to his work so a big thank you to Dear for his work the last two years he will be greatly missed here and then lastly uh our superintendent Amy gave let us know that the district was awarded the leap grant for additional five years at both Washington and Jefferson Middle Schools to enrich after school programming so we're excited to to continue those programs as well and that's all I have thank you so much that brings us to new business I move the Board of Education approve the proclamation recognizing the Marshallese Constitution Day and authorized the president and secretary to sign on behalf of the board second second
031moved and segmented that the Board of Education approved the proclamation recognizing the Marshallese Constitution Day and authorize the president and secretary to sign on behalf of the board is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries I'll ring read the proclamation whereas the citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands celebrate their Constitution Day on May 1st each year to commemorate the day 44 years ago when a new constitution was adopted and status as an independent republic was achieved and whereas the Dubuque Community School District and our greater community community benefit from a very vibrant Marshallese community that is Rich with tradition and whereas celebration of Marshallese Constitution Day in the Marshall Islands would traditionally be focused on island culture with games of tug
032of war husking a coconut and canoe racing and in the United States is celebrated with basketball softball and volleyball tournaments and whereas the observance of Marshallese Constitution Day in the United States is held on the three-day Memorial weekend and the Marshallese Community will recognize it with a special with a celebration open to all members of the Dubuque Community now therefore I Kate parks on behalf of the Dubuque Community School District board of education do hereby Proclaim May 1st and Memorial Day weekend as a celebration of Marshallese Constitution Day sign this eighth day of May 2023. we have some folks from the Marshallese Community who are visiting oh we want to thank you guys to invite us to receive the very important velocity is coming in here we want to say um and we're going to
033sing some nursery song to you as say thank you on the end of all those margins here thank you thank you which is translated in English I mean Marshallese means thank you very much [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] really baby [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] every day [Applause] [Music] oh my God [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I realize [Applause] [Music] my wife [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] doing it with me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] happy birthday [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] come back [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] come on [Music] anyway these are my songs [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right now [Music] my life [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] songs [Music] [Applause]
034[Music] [Applause] [Music] oh yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] three years [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] love me [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so we have something special we had a lot of foreign in the future we come back we will build a Ark working and then we will bring with us bring back the yard we call it model or metal means Navigator but it's it's gonna surprise you this is made of uh we only do the occasion special location to our special and I won't say uh favorite because but two are important you know schools we have nothing but we just have this to bring it on this is our special gift to our special guests and special occasion November this made of coconut Leaf that's the only like you said you just said it that
035we do cork coconut so this is from the Coconuts yeah and Rochelle it's in the deep deep down in the ocean inside all the way down awesome job everyone [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] oh sure so thank you thank you that's all we have tonight beautiful songs [Music] thank you [Music] it doesn't get in here one two three thank you [Music] thank you thank you very much [Music] yes one more motion I move that the Board of Education approved the language of the general obligation Bond petition second he's been moved in second that the Board of Education approved the language of the general obligation Bond petition I'm going to read the language if there's any other discussion and then we'll vote so this is the proposed Bond language shall the board of directors of the Dubuque Community
036School District and the counties of Dubuque and Jackson State of Iowa be authorized to contract indebtedness and issue General obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed 150 million dollars to provide funds to build furnish and equip a middle school facility to replace the existing George Washington Middle School facility including related Demolition and site improvements to remodel repair and improve existing school facilities including the addition of air conditioning and related HVAC improvements to build furnish and equip a gymnasium addition to Eisenhower Elementary School with related Remodeling and improvements to build furnish and equip a baseball and softball facility including lights restrooms and a concession stand and to acquire land for future District facilities so just to clarify this would be the language that would be on the ballot in November that we'd be asking the
037public to vote on as well as the petition correct the same language right and it'll be on the petition that he'll be coming as well uh yeah so assuming the petition goes through this is the language is there any other discussion I I've had a question about the uh petition uh when can when will it roll out when will I be able to start well ideally we'd like to do that by the end of the week so um really this it's just a reminder to the community that we're like in the very beginning stages of going to the bond referendum so there's lots of steps that to move us forward to get us to the vote in November and so um the first step is getting the language approved that language then goes on our
038petition and we'll get those we have to get 25 of the number that voted in the last School Board election once we get those signatures those signature those signatures will be presented to you the board members and then once you accept those signatures then we're officially going for the bond referendum and I think it's important for the community to know that once we get that go ahead that we're that with the petition being completed then there's going to be lots of work communication there's going to be Community meetings we're going to have lots of information Flyers opportunities for you to come ask questions and talk with members of the community members of our district um to to how this is really going to affect us and affect you personally as a taxpayer so there's definitely
039more information to come more communication to come in more explanation around the bond referendum I think one of the things that's important too for the uh viewers is that there has been a lot of conversation leading up to this point just to get to where we're at and there is a strong why we're trying to do this to prepare the kids for the future and what the impact would be if we if it doesn't happen right to the district and our our students in our community and so I do think it's important that we've tried to infuse a lot of various ways of communicating with the residents about why we're doing this and we recognize that we haven't touched everyone yet which is why we're going to try to figure out how to engage as
040many people as possible to show why we need to do this moving forward yeah to kind of uh spin off of that uh we already assembled a type of committee that's going to be involved in promoting this and to the public right yeah we've had a community community task force committee that's been working on the project for it feels like since I started so almost a year now and then from that committee that's going to grow into what we consider like a yes committee that will be going out and and promoting the bond throughout the community just one quick question what what is the deadline for the petition maybe I missed that okay well we're going to try to get that approved by the next board meeting just because sometimes our July board meetings are
041don't line up you know the second Tuesday or Monday of the month always so we'd have about a month for the petition yeah we think we're going to have about a month yep right okay good discussion any other discussion read all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries all right so that brings us to board member administrative issues that are not on the agenda looks like we have a reminder about commencement ceremonies that are coming up [Applause] so on Friday May 26th at the Roosevelt Middle School auditorium will be at the Dubuque online school and then the next day Saturday at dolls all field at 10 A.M is senior and at 3 P.M is Hempstead praying for beautiful weather it's gonna be great is the rain we're not going
042to have any rain I say it no if it's too hot or something that would the rain date be on Sunday then or if there's rain we would do it on Sunday yes yeah but it'll be fine don't worry everyone it's gonna be confident all right are there any other items board members or Administration has at this time looks like we are adjourned thank you [Music] foreign