001[Music] this regular meeting of february 14 2022 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 here jones here parks here for hoska here ryan here sancy here whitman here we'll start with the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all i move that the board of education improved the agenda as submitted second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the agenda submitted is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries i move the
002board of education approves the minutes of the regular meeting on january 10th the special meeting of february 1st the special meeting of february 7th the special meeting of february 8th and the special meeting of february 9th 2022 as submitted second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the minutes of the regular meeting on january 10th the special meeting of february 1st the special meeting of february 7th the special meeting of february 8th and the special meeting of february 9 2022 as submitted is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye all right any opposed that motion carries all right thank you so we have a board salute i have one yes a board salute goes out to the hempstead high school swimmer george holsinger who meddled
003four times at the state high school swim meet this weekend george finished third in the 100 meter freestyle and fourth in the 200 meter freestyle he was also a part of the 200 meter freestyle relay team which also included senior aiden yaklich sophomore brandon decker and senior mitchell konchek concept that finished eighth and the 400 meter freestyle team which included sophomore michael rhett aidan jackich brandon decker michael rhett gilbertson i guess is the correct criminology correct name i'm sorry anyway they finished seventh george's score earned him automatic all-american honors 100 meters and during the state meet also set hempstead school records for the 100 and 200 meters congratulations to george and the mustang swim team so our our new pool paid off and i guess the times are really and the times were really fast
004in the states with what i heard yes so very good congratulations and another board salute if there are another okay i move that the board so i'm going to turn this over to mr colker and then uh eventually to to chelsea but in february uh is when we recognize this year's teacher of the year because it's teacher appreciation month and so this year uh chelsea cox uh was the the award winner teacher of the year uh and what a fitting year for chelsea to win it um chelsea for many of you and mr colker i'll try not to steal any of your talking points is an outstanding employee who has worked with kids at all levels uh in the school district and uh most recently is at hempstead working with our high school students particularly
005at a time when there's been a pandemic and and with all the social emotional needs this is exactly the perfect year to recognize somebody with chelsea's skill set she's awesome i can tell you that from my from my own kids and the other kids that i know who benefit from her work so we're thrilled to give this to chelsea and i'm going to turn this over to lee and let him do the official and then we'll do some pictures here in a minute all right well i'll give chelsea some microphone time as well but we're so honored to have chelsea recognized her she's taking care of the adult and student social emotional needs throughout these last years especially this last year chelsea has great ideas she's always thinking about ways to move us forward and
006she's not afraid to lead those ideas as well so congratulations chelsea i was told i didn't have to say anything but um i just thanks i mean this is not just me i mean i have a pretty fantastic team of people i work with from my colleagues and students and families and everybody i've met i'm this is my 20th year with the district and so i've had some really really great relationships these last 20 years that have helped me do what i can do every day so i'm pretty lucky to be a school counselor right now and uh yeah thank you for that thanks for the recognition thank you chelsea [Applause] i was so short in the last picture all right thank you congratulations i moved to the board of education so send the rules
007of 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 all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries persons wishing to address the board can do so at the same time if you would like to come up to the microphone and state your full name and your association with the district with a three-minute time limit on any remarks come on up don't have to go to the right yes yes the only way they can hear you on the television you can hear me my name is john legrain i'm a para here with lake or dubuque community school districts what i want to ask is do you guys know what the poverty level
008is price wise 17 420 as a para last year i brought home 17 000. i'm below poverty level and i work for a great district next question do you know that cedar rapids gave their paris a three dollar raise they gave all their full-time employees a 750 dollar bonus part-time employees got 550. also they gave their paras 685 dollars a month to pay for their benefits waterloo gave a 550 bonus and another 500 if you signed a contract for next year why can't we collect unemployment during the summer do you know that as a single para with one child your rent would be six hundred and seventy five dollars that's roughly that's bottom dollar right now going right that equates to you pay out eight thousand nine hundred dollars for twelve months that leaves you
009with a total of 8 100 to live off for a year as a single parent could any of you do that i highly doubt it because we have a hard time doing it you take on a second job what happens most your money goes to daycare what i'm asking for is to bring us up to a level above poverty level it's not that hard other schools have been using the essr funds to get their paris and their employees not just the paris but their other employees as well bonuses for working through the pandemic we're there every day every day we are with those kids one on one we love it the kids are our life but we're asking for something too we just want more money anything to get us above poverty level thank you
010hi my name is rasika mudalike i am here to talk as a parent and also as an educator for the last 14 years i have been in higher education for the last 25 years in this country so i am here to talk about book banning whose idea is this iowa was very much number one in education we don't ban books this is a bad idea okay next time what are you going to ban are you going to ban evolution from teaching being taught in science curriculum are you going to ban climate change and then some of the books are banned because of explicit sexual content how many of you know what your child is doing on your cell phone how many of you know your child is doing on cell phone this is what gives
011you actual explicit sexual content to teach kids not a book i have read some of the books that were banned none of them have anything that is offensive and then the other one is that it gives discomfort to the child did you ask your your children whether it gives discomfort to them or is it this give this comeback to you the parent because when you when you hear about the inequity of education inequity social inequities do you think that the student get discomfort or do the parents get discomfort when they realized they didn't do anything about it during their time and i know the new students who are coming up that's my hope because they are the ones who actually passionately talk about equity passionately talk about climate change passionately talk about having a future
012for themselves we are destroying their future to have comfort for ourselves think about it seriously and then i am really really dedicated my life for the last 14 years to educate your children i'm asking you only one thing and you get my child with the same same uh care same thought i'm not sending my child to give a just a bunch of facts and education uh some uh you know i don't know um civilized version of history every country has bad black marks every country has bad things that has happened in the past you teach them because you do not repeat it in the future and you teach it to your children so that children do not repeat they do not repeat a civil war they do not repeat uh putting down children putting down
013the children because of race or because of any other reason i'm an immigrant to this country i want my child to learn the actual history history as it happened i know more about the history of this country by reading than my child who is learning from this country thank you hello i'm michael peet i'm the president of the buick soccer club board of directors i have a couple other guys here with me supporting the soccer organizations in dubuque i was at the facilities meeting last week monday and you guys tabled the discussion on the sale of the soccer complex until after the march facilities meeting i have two requests one when this facility and its sale is discussed it needs to be discussed in more than financial terms so we serve more than a thousand
014kids every year at that soccer complex teaching valuable life skills just like all other sports can teach more than just the sport okay and then i want you to also consider the amount of investment from both all of the organizations throughout the years to that complex and the community in both volunteer hours and in financial means so in the last 30 years that we've been out at that complex there's been more than a million dollars spent in maintaining it and making it what it is and that doesn't count any volunteer efforts and that that's very significant so those are the first requests and then the second request is is when you do bring this to the facilities working group i would request that the soccer organizations get an open seat on the agenda when that
015is discussed those are the requests that i have today thank you anywhere else 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 any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries i move that the board of education approved those items listed in the consent agenda second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved those items listed in the consent agenda uh is there any item that a board member would want removed from the consent agenda all those in favor of approving say aye any opposed that motion carries okay so we're to facilities and support services report from
016ms whitman okay i will highlight the what we went over in our facilities meeting first of all jacob blanchard a boy scout proposed to build 27 pz pvc pipe displays for his eagle scout project and this will be done and donated for lincoln elementary school we reviewed purchase professional service contracts with crayola software and with tyler technologies the tyler technologies is for to purchase driver tablets and mounts for school buses we had an update um by ken johnson from straca johnson architects an update on the senior building he indicated that the project is 27 percent complete areas where the performance pe and wrestling room are all enclosed and winter work is being done the theater area that's fully enclosed and winter work is being done and the projects are on schedule and and are on
017budget hempstead school intercom replacement we have an update from that and we had an update from the central kitchen mechanical system replacement hempstead high school kitchen freezer replacement we had an update on that the hoover elementary school boiler replacement it was recommended that we just replaced the burner for now on that project we had a discussion from straca regarding solar study update to determine determine the reasonability of putting solar pv arrays to offset the demand for to reduce electrical costs we have it on our building next door and we're looking at other buildings if it would be cost efficient for us to to go forward with that we had an update on center center districts um soccer complex appraisal that came to our attention there the value came in there was two values on this
018for the residential of looking at it as residential property the value was one million five hundred and fifty two thousand if you're looking at as commercial use the value was one million one hundred and seventy thousand um we had a review on the tax levy for 2022 2023 and we also had a review for the statewide voluntary preschool program enrollment for 2021 and 2022 school year resulting in a decrease in the 2020-2021 school year in which many of the parents kept their children's at home due to covet 19 pandemic this district has been authorized to submit a request for funds related to the increased enrollment and the amount of seven thousand two hundred twenty seven i have some recommendations that i'd like to read i moved the board of education approved the donation from jacob
019blanchard eagle scout in the amount of 300 300 for pvc display for lincoln school elementary school second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the donation from jacob blanchard eagle scout in the amount of 300 for pvc displays for lincoln elementary school is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed that motion carries i move the board of education approved the executed executed construction contracts bonds and certificate of insurance with ports and construction for the central kitchen mechanical replacement project in the amount of one million four hundred and forty three thousand seven hundred second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with ports and construction for the central kitchen mechanical replacement project in
020the amount of one million four hundred and forty three thousand seven hundred dollars is there any discussion all those in favor signify by singing saying aye aye any opposed name that motion carries i move the board of education approve the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with tri-con construction for hempstead high school kitchen upgrade product in the amount of 448 000. it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the executed construction contract bonds and certificate of insurance with tri-con construction for hempstead high school kitchen upgrades project and the amount of 448 thousand dollars is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries i move the board of education approve the recommendation to reject all bids for the hoover boiler replacement project
021exactly it's been moved and seconded that the board of education uh approved the recommendation to reject all bids for the hoover boiler replacement project is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries i move the board of education authorize the district to levy property tax for fiscal year 2022 2023 for the regular program budget adjustment as allowed under section 257.14 code of iowa second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education authorized the district to levy property tax for the fiscal year 2022 2023 for the regular program budget adjustment as allowed under section 257.14 code of iowa is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed that motion carries i move the board of education and prove
022the resolution as part of the district's response to the impact of the covet 19 pandemic this district's administration is authorized to submit a request to the school budget review committee for funding related to the fiscal year 2022 statewide voluntary preschool program enrollment increased enrollment in the amount of 7227 dollars second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the resolution as part of the district's response to the impact of the coven 19 pandemic the district's administration is authorized to submit a request to the school budget review committee for funding related to fiscal year 22 swvpp increased enrollment in the amount of 7 is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries thank you for that update thank you now we turn to ed
023programs with ms bradley thank you um as you as you likely know by now these two committees the facilities and support services and the one i'll report on which is educational programs and policy committees are where the the bulk of the work of the board's conversation about these issues take place and so when you see not much discussion up here it's because we've had lengthy discussions about them in those committee meetings so i'm pleased to report on the work of the educational programs and policy committee from this past week several things came before the before the group i'll give you a quick rundown of them then i have a motion to make about one of those things we were pleased to hear from julie lange director of digital literacy and val lowenberg district mentor they
024brought the committee an update on the online school application process historically there have been a very small number of schools or districts or entities in the state who were certified by the iowa department of education to serve as certified schools for online instruction more and more schools it used to be three it's now over 20 and those 20 school districts are likely about to include the dubuque community school district and julie and val brought us excellent work which really reported on their preparation for us as a district to submit our application to the department of ed to become an iowa approved online school we go from having a program that's allowed under pandemic rules to being an actual approved school for having online learning and providing that for students within our district who wish to
025be a part of that we have about 300 now who's for whom the students and their parents have chosen that format for learning and once approved as a an actual online learning school should that happen we would be able to also have others from around the state who could participate in our program other large districts cedar rapids has recently done that iowa city has recently done it i'm not many others as well about 17 and all right so i'm we're excited to to hear that update and in a moment i'll bring a motion forward on behalf of the committee about submitting that approve or that application secondly we heard uh presentation on social emotional learning and programs that are being added this district can be very proud of the work that's being done in bringing
026a focus certainly on high academic work with our students but also in the area of social and emotional learning and so mimi holsinger who is the director of behavior and learning supports updated the committee and brought us the next layer of work that's being added to the social and emotional learning competencies this one includes five areas of competencies that would have additional programming brought forward they are self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision making we believe those to be a part of a well-rounded public school education and so we were very pleased to hear from mimi about the work that's going forward the castle standards are a part of the state standard casel and that stands for i've got that here collaborative for academic social and emotional learning it's it is the gold
027standard for what we as a district would like to be providing for our students and indeed this new effort would would add already to the things that are in place and would be an a wonderful addition to our programming for students so right now they'd be added to the second step curriculum that's currently being piloted in five elementary schools they are eisenhower fulton irving lincoln and marshall that's a scattering across the district that gives us a chance to try out these new pro this new program and then to add and expand to it in into the other schools should we find that that's that's what would be most desirable then we heard from lisa tobaccous the executive director of elementary education who updated the board on the belief grant this is an opportunity to explore
028in the area of preschool programming to look at work with community partners in the area of preschool and daycare it would allow the district to actually join forces with our community preschool programs and possibly explore a standalone preschool center we know as we read the telegraph herald and have other points of awareness we know that dubuque is looking to add more opportunities for our preschool children to have programming available to them and so this could be a wonderful addition to that so we're pleased about that we worked with two policies public information and student rosters which we made some modifications those were approved in the consent agenda a moment ago when we approved that then superintendent reinganse brought us an update on the covid 19 data for our district he was happy to report that
029the known active cases are decreasing decreasing with many district bill buildings already at zero that's good news in comparing we also looked at attendance rates superintendent reinganse brought us information on attendance from the night the 2019-20 school year then skipping forward to this school year 21-22 and we were we knew that there was some additional absence due to covet and other issues as well and happily heard that the increase in absences is limited to four percent so that was good news for the board to hear we also heard from brenda duval executive director of special education who updated the board on the court case involving federal court case involving mass use for special education and ms duvall was strongly assured the board that the iep process is in place in this district to ensure that
030district students who need these accommodations because of their medical condition that they are absolutely getting those supports so we were pleased to hear that mike size brought us information about the mobile vaccination labs in a partnership with mercy one we'll be able to have that up and running in the next few weeks for families who are looking to have vaccination opportunities for their children and lastly the superintendent search none of us is eager to have that happen but it needs to go forward and we are indeed deeply engrossed in it the board has the month of february very busily engaged in the process of finding our next superintendent as mr reinkens goes on to his next opportunity at keystone aea as the chief administrator so we have conducted interviews for the seven semi-finalists we were
031very pleased with the finalists that we had available two semifinalists we had available for our our review had excellent interviews and with difficulty we narrowed that field to three finalists and those three finalists will be announced next friday who they are not who the final selection is but who are the three finalists who will then the following week the week of february 21-25 will the board will be conducting finalist interviews that week along with other teams of interviewers that include staff and parents and community and higher education partners and other business partners we have large a large schedule of interviews for each of our three candidates each will be involved with interviews throughout an entire day and into the evening so we will for sure make them tired and and hopefully get to know each
032of those three finalists very well and then finally our selection of our next superintendent will take place sometime the week of february 28th so the community can expect to hear that we will be announcing that sometime during that last week of february and early march so i now have a motion to make on behalf of the committee regarding the online school application i moved that the board of education approved the application for the district's online school second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the application for the district's online school is there any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye any opposed that motion carries so that brings us to new business and we have a black history month proclamation should i read this first okay so i'm going
033to read it and then we'll have a motion whereas carter g woodson established a week in 1926 bringing attention to the contributions of the black community setting the foundation for what would eventually become black history month and whereas black history month was first officially observed in the united states in 1976 recognizing african-americans contributions to the history of the united states and the world and whereas in february and throughout the year we recognize and celebrate the significant cultural economic and social contributions made by african americans that helped shape our nation and whereas the association for the study of african american life and history has established black health and wellness to be the 2022 black history month theme honoring the legacy of black scholars and medical practitioner practitioners as well as other ways of knowing throughout the
034african diaspora and whereas the dubuque community school district takes great pride and honors the historical and current contributions of members of our black community in countless professions and fields including education law government business science sports the arts brave service the united states armed forces and countless others now therefore i kate parks on behalf of the dubuque community school district board of education do hereby proclaim february 2022 as national black history month signed this 14th day of february 2022. i move the board of education approve the black history month proclamation second it's been moved and seconded that the board of education approved the black history month proclamation all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries it's another motion i moved at the book board of education to go for the
035disciplinary action related to student number 827656 at this time second it's been seconded that the board of education take no further disciplinary action related to student number eight two seven six five six at this time all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed that motion carries are there any board member or administrative issues that we need to discuss not on the agenda maybe just a quick point of clarification i know people utilize next uh in different ways but by next friday nc this friday so this friday next friday so the next friday which is this friday the three finalists will be announced for the superintendent search thanks for clarifying that with great reluctance to let our superintendent any other issues or items seeing none we are adjourned [Music] you