001Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hello. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. like to call the meeting to order. Start with roll call. Brett White. here. >> Morgan Brown >> here. >> Dusty Wear >> here. >> Christina Shark >> here. >> Becky Engel >> here. >> Brian Jones >> here. Dave Wer's here. Uh adoption of agenda and declaration of a quorum. >> So moved. >> Second. >> I have a motion, a second. Any comments? Not. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries. Um all right, we've got public hearings. So,
002I'm going to do both of these in the same shot here. So, we have a public hearing notice of public hearing. Let's get back here on the Evans roof and then the window replacement at Horseman Wilson and Eisenhower. Um, we have anyone that wants to make comments on the public hearing? If not, we will close those public hearings right now. Citizens speak. Don't have any green cards. Anyone like to address the board? >> All right. Moving right along to the consent agenda. >> Make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> I've got a motion and a second. Um, any discussion? If not, uh, all in favor, raise your right hand. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Board priority. We will promote and monitor growth in student achievement and all students will be challenged
003with high expectations that will meet or exceed measurable targets. We have a few action items here. Uh, starting off with the OS and GHS program of study. Good evening. I'll start with the uh Ataml High School program of studies. I know you have the updates in front of you, so I'm just going to highlight three or four of them that I I think are important. One of the things we're really focused on is ensuring that our students are prepared for uh whatever they choose to do after high school, whether that be apprenticeship, the work world, or going to college. And so, we are going to make a change to free periods. So, next year, our students uh all sophomores and juniors will need to be enrolled in seven classes each semester. Uh that's a full
004day. And then seniors will have the opportunity to have one free period each semester. Um this is to encourage our kids to get involved in more electives and work-based learning, that type of thing. the in the agricultural uh department they have added floroculture. So as FFA kids are going out and about and to competitions one of the things that kids are really enjoying is working with the flowers and like doing arrangements and that type of thing. So our instructor has uh responded to that by adding uh flora culture to the program of studies. We're also going to be blocking together some classes that we're going to offer at the A center. So since it's a little bit of a drive and so it takes about 12 13 minutes to get kids out there and back
005um from the a center they have to be out there two periods and so instead of it being one class for a two period block it's actually going to be two different classes they'll still get a credit for each course and so they'll earn two credits while they're out there but that just gives them an opportunity to experience some different things while they're out there. As far as work-based learning, uh just a couple changes with the the name that the Indian Hills course is called and then also our JAG courses which are offered down here at Career Campus, they have also started um using that work-based learning course as well. So, we have more and more kids involved in our work-based learning courses. And then the last one I was going to um just mention
006was we are adding another AP class. Uh so next year advanced mathematical concepts has been a course that uh students that that weren't proficient so they couldn't take the Indian hills courses so they would sign up for advanced mathematical concepts in order to be better prepared for college um as they went and so we're going to change that and that's going going to be AP pre-calculus so just continuing continuing to try to add more to our advanced placement courses. So those are the main ones I was going to highlight on our program of studies >> for gateway. Uh we are just changing so we can match um OS in the science. So we're changing earth and space science A and B to environmental science. That's the only change that we have made. >> Anyone have
007any questions for Shelley or Aaron? If not, be looking for a motion. >> Make a motion to approve. >> A second. >> Have a motion, a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand. Opposed? Motion carries. And moving to the next, the at risk dropout plan. No, no, >> we still we still have our >> Yeah, yours. >> I think before before we turned over to Mike and and John, um they also have some building updates that they're going to give, too. So, >> sorry to cut you off. We started. >> So, we kind of just picked some topics and we're just going to go back and forth. Um I'll start with Atom High School. So on our Iowa school performance profile this past year from 24 to 25, we actually increased
008our score by 28 points. Some of the areas that we were most excited about was, you know, school is all about our proficiency. And it's hard with a large school to change the percent of kids that are proficient um by a by a large number. And this year we were able to increase our proficiency um by 3% in math and four and a half% in ELA. And so we were really excited about that. We thought those were were really important. We were also able to grow from 6% to 42% of our students at Atom High School participating in work-based learning of some format. >> Uh for Gateway for the performance profile, we increased 62 points. Um we're really encouraged that we saw a 41.67% increase in student proficiency in science. We also saw a 23.4
009increase in proficiency in English language arts. Uh we believe key driver of this growth has been the intentional use of Marzano's instructional strategies across our classrooms. Our staff has really focused on proficiency scales, explicit success criteria, frequent feedback, and student engagement strategies that promote ownership of uh their learning. >> So the next topic we're going to talk about was graduation rate. So in 2024, our graduation rate at Atom High School was 94.74%. Which obviously we're really excited about. Now the state hasn't officially released our number, but doing the district level, doing our um own numbers, our own math, we believe are it's going to be right at around 96%. So we're really excited about that growth to have 96% of our kids graduating. Some of the things that we look at is just um continuing
010to track kids very closely, working closely with Gateway to ensure our students are are placed in the right spot to have the greatest success possible. I also looked at some of our subgroups. So, our ELE students have grown by six and 7%. So, like our Hispanic students have grown by uh 6% over the last couple of years. So, really seeing that our e work is is paying off for those students to be able to be successful and graduate. The other area that we're really proud of is our students who are identified as low SCES. Their graduation rate has grown by 7.2%. And I I think some of that's attributed to the fact that, you know, we offer free breakfast and free lunch in our district. And many of those kids have food insecurity. So, I
011think that's very beneficial. We also have a focus on mental health. We have a therapist from River Hills on campus three days a week. Um, we have our brain health uh re retreat room where students can go if they're struggling. And so I think that the some of the supports that uh our district has supported over the past few years have really um helped us increase our graduation rate >> for Gateway. Uh the district's math has our graduation rate at 90%. Um we're pretty proud of our students and our staff for this accomplishment. Uh we see evidence that our approach both academically is sound and is student centered. >> So just a little bit about some advanced placement courses. So I'm at OS we currently offer eight advanced placement courses and that's 313 students that
012are enrolled in some sort of advanced placement course. Now that's not the that's the total number of enrollments. So some students may be involved in multiple advanced placement courses. Um our newest AP course that we're really excited about is for years we've tried to get AP physics and we've never had enough kids to uh offer that class and this year we have 25 kids taking AP physics. So we're really excited about that. That's going very well. and concurrent enrollment classes that we have with Indian Hills. I'm just going to address the ones that we offer on our campus through using our staff. So we have 22 courses um at a high school that are taught by our OS staff and that's 112 enrollments. So again multiple kids or some kids are taking multiple courses but
013112 enrollments for this year um in Indian host classes. And then that um in addition to that we have our new healthc care academy that's here at career campus and throughout the year we will have had in different courses and different parts of the academy we will have had 83 students participate in that which we're really excited about. I it will continue to grow um as as we move along and we we make some changes to how it's offered and get it on our semesters and that type of thing but we're really excited about that as well. >> So at Gateway we have 35 enrollments concurrently right now at Indian Hills. These enrollments include cyber security, welding, how to be successful in college. Our real intentional focus has been placed on these students that they
014just earn more than just credits. There are pathways um to the future for these students, even if they're just to the workforce, uh continued college or maybe in some technical training. Uh we're really proud of our kids and that 35 enrollments are current students are been successful at Indian Hills. We had more before, but right now we have 35 that are successfully enrolled in Indian Hills. >> And the next thing we were just going to talk a little bit about in the fall we gave a culture and climate survey. Um it it goes out to three groups uh the parents and communities and then to staff and then also to students. And so just a couple of things from that that we're proud of at OS. So, one of the things we've always worked on
015is staff student relationships. And you know, you would think that that comes more from the student side, but in the past, we have had trouble with even our teachers reported that they didn't feel like the relationships between staff and students were positive. And this year, 93% of our staff members feel like the relationships between students and staff are positive. And that was an increase on all three of the surveys. this the questions are worded a little bit different so you can't correlate it totally but um it was an increase and showed growth in all three of the different groups and then the other one that we're really proud of is the sense of safety at OS um it's not been as high as we want it still isn't where we want it but 71% of
016our parents say that their child feels either quite or extremely safe at school so we're really excited for that again still room for improvement but it's showing growth >> so for our culture and climate. Uh we had the same surveys as the high school. So 84% of our students responded favor favorably when asked how often teachers give them feedback that helps them learn. Uh for safety, 88% of our students stated that violence is not at Gateway High School is not a worry and 90% of our students reported they care about other students feelings. And I think that speaks directly to the culture we are trying to build uh rooted in respect, empathy, and accountability for all our students. >> And we're each going to just uh wrap up with kind of a vision for the
017future for our buildings. So at OS, we have been working hard through professional development on our journey towards standards reference grading. Uh we are working with Dr. Townsley who is one of the standardsbased grading experts in the state of Iowa. He's out of you and I and uh we we got the opportunity of this through a grant that I was able to apply for and and get. So he's really helped us with our transition. Um we created a purpose statement for grading at OS and that purpose statement is the purpose of grades at Atom High School is to communicate this current level of a students learning on essential standards. And that's just uh to keep us focused on why we you know why do we grade students? Why do we assess them? And so we're
018we're working with that. Um, we have given a survey to our staff. This was just last week. Um, was what we call a fist of five. You know, a fist meaning nope, I'm I'm not there yet to a five. I'm ready to champion it on where they felt they were in their journey towards standards reference grading. And about 90% of our teachers either have minor concerns or reservations or are ready to go. And so, we were really excited about that because we still have several months left in the school year. So, we're going to be meeting, Mr. Brooks and I are going to be meeting individually with some teachers to just say, "Hey, how can we help? What supports do you need and and make sure that we can find those and provide those for
019teachers." So, we're really excited about that. Um, we feel like our our work is is going well. It's it's a big change. Um, this is this change in grading is definitely second order change for a lot of people. So, it'll it'll be a challenge, but I think we're well on our way. So, we're really excited about the the future of OS. So, we're really proud of some of the progress we made, but we know that there's uh some work to be done, especially around attendance. Uh we're excited to continue partnering with our student leadership group called Present for Success. We can so we can work to improve attendance and student engagement. This group gives students a voice to identify barriers in attendance and helps us design solutions that are realistic, supportive, and student centered. We're
020also going to continue to work with the Department of Education and collaborate with alternative schools across the state to address the challenge of chronic absenteeism. This isn't a gateway problem. It's a statewide problem. Um, so we are we believe with all these collaborations with our students and across the state, we can come with some long-term solutions to chronic absenteeism. But I want to really close by thanking you guys and the district for continued commitment to prioritizing at risk and alternative learners. Your support sends a powerful message to every student that matters regardless of their path or challenges. Because of that commitment, we are able to create opportunities, build relationships, and help students succeed who might not not thrive in traditional settings. We truly appreciate your belief in this work and the students we serve. >>
021Any questions? Yeah. One one thing, uh, Shelley, I don't want to put you on the spot, but when you talked about AP, >> um, I think there's like 317 or so courses taken now. How many probably five years ago uh, were taken just roughly? >> Well, we've added Yeah. Oh, so many. >> Um, >> if I had to guess, I would guess probably 90 to 100. >> I was going to say at least half. There was I mean, we have at least twice as many. >> Yeah. >> As we did and may and maybe even more than that. So we've added them all and plus just encouraging kids to take it, showing them the value and what it can do and preparing them. So they get so focused on the credit piece and having to
022test for the credit, but it's really about the rigor of the course itself and the preparation it gives them for college and and those types of things. >> And then I think what's exciting is the number of uh courses postsecary dual college credit courses. Um that's really exciting to have the combination of both of those and there aren't many schools that have that many uh courses taken. So it's something to be proud >> that's just on our campus. I mean there's still a lot of courses that kids go to campus to take and their discoverymies and that kind of thing. So that was just the courses taught by our high school. So yeah I I was I knew we had a lot but until I actually was doing the math it was like wow I
023didn't know it was that many just on our campus. So it's really exciting. >> It is it's impressive. And um uh one thing for the board is that uh what's being looked at right now at the legislature uh level is allowing um uh community colleges to offer four-year degrees. And if that were to happen, uh that opens another door, particularly proximity-wise for for our kids, I think that will be a huge benefit to them if they can uh have that opportunity for four-year degrees right here in Indian Hills. So we should know that by the end of this session. So, any other questions? Thanks a lot, Erin Shing. Appreciate it. Thank you for that. I now we will move on to the at risk dropout. Looks like John and Mike. uh you all have access
024to the at risk plan that we have built for Toma schools. It's a district-wide systemwide system for dealing with things like attendance um and other at risk factors. And you can see that um at the building level through their student assistance teams all the way to gateway like uh Mr. Ruff was talking about the comprehensive plan that we have in place for our atrisisk students and the actions that we take once we start to identify who those students are. This is a plan that's required by the state for board approval and that's why it's coming here today. >> Yeah. And I I'll talk a little bit about that piece. It's just um the Department of Education uh several years ago legislators kind of gave school districts more authority over their at risk and dropout prevention
025plan and said that the local board can make the decisions about how best to spend those funds. So we developed a plan and as part of that plan uh annually we have to get the board to reapprove it. So um I asked Mr. teams are here to just get that plan going and they tweaked it a little bit. And what the DE is reviewing a little closer this year is there's a code section that says nine certain things have to be in the plan. Uh so we just went through ours and verified that those nine things are and it's like the program goals and objectives, how you identify students, what the budget is. Um so we just wanted to spend a little more time on it this year because the Department of Education is spending
026a little more time on it that we're just making sure our tees are crossed and our eyes are dotted and our plan uh matches what we're doing in the district. Um, the second piece that's right after this is tied to it. So, I'll just uh give that. It's the SBRC request for MSA. So, I just wanted to see how many acronyms I could get in a short sentence. Um, school budget review committee is the first one and they uh kind of give districts authority to spend money. Uh, modified supplemental supplemental amount is uh is the MSA. That is basically just spending authority. So what we have to do is there's a partial calculation where they take the number of district students and run it through a calculation and that generates uh an amount um that
027comes through state funding and that's only about 230. Uh this last year it was about $212,000. Uh we have to request authority for the large chunk of it. Um and that is funded through local property tax dollars and that is what uh this request is for. So this year that that formula generates a number that we are requesting authority $997,322 and then there's also a local match that goes through um which is 25% for 332441. And you put all those together and we we get about a million and a half in funds to spend on our at risk program. And we always like to highlight this the formula they use has a little bit of inequity in it. Um they they have a percentage and ours is 2 and a half%. So they they take
028all the numbers your district enrollment uh times 2.5% and that arrives at this 997 number. All the districts surrounding us that percentage is 5%. Um and it's just because several years ago the Department of Education made a change and they said hey wherever you're at that's the number and they've just left it there. So for whatever reason several years ago at a lower percentage that they asked for and we're locked there forever. Um, so you could have districts with half our enrollment that generate uh the same amount to spend on at risk and dropout prevention as we do uh with half as many kids. So it's just it's a it's an odd thing and we asked the legislator to look at it every year. Uh every year they've said, "Yeah, that seems like it could
029be a problem." And then they don't do anything. Um and it's mainly because it's property tax funded. So their concern is that uh that would give districts the ability to ask the community to support their atrisisk program. Um we can't. So, uh, we'll continue to ask, but that's kind of how that that goes. So, the two pieces that we have is just to approve the, uh, at risk and dropout prevention plan and then approve that SBRC request for modified supplemental amount. And we'd open it up to any questions on the plan or the the funding mechanisms. >> The at risk and dropout plan, is that a secondary only thing or does that apply to elementary? Also, >> it applies districtwide. um it changes a little bit as kids start to to get older as we
030look at um their approach to graduation and that intensifies but if you are a student who's showing some of the at risk factors in first and second grade there are actions that are taking place as a part of this plan. >> Okay. So uh said that there's building level groups that analyze the data that happens even at the elementary level also. Okay. >> Any other questions? >> You guys are done presenting >> before I ask for >> unless you want to know more. >> No, that's okay. >> Um, so we can uh approve both of these at the same time. BNC, >> that'd be fine. >> Okay. All I need is a motion. I make a motion to approve uh BNC, the atrisisk dropout plan and the request for modified supplemental money amount. >> Second.
031>> Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Further discussion. Not all in favor raise your right hand. Post. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Okay, just a couple more action items. Uh, the board priority to be the best will create a positive learning and working culture for our stakeholders and embrace our community partners through communication and transparency. Um, looks like action annual assignments and appointments is the first one. Then we have a board policy update first reading. >> Yeah. So, the annual assignments and appointments, there's there's a couple uh on here. There's board secretary, treasurer. Um that has been me historically and um usually is the financial officer. We've got board recording secretary, which would be Ashley Hopkins. That's the minute uh recording takes care of the board meeting. And then we've got the
032next four that are uh statutory things that the district has to have somebody in these positions. So, we've got a level one investigator and that's currently Brad McCloskkey. And that's mainly deals with like um how the district who who the reporting person is a coordinator for harassment uh claims like that. Uh the 504 coordinator, that's Maria Lance. So that would be related to federal um special education disability. Equal rights coordinator, that's also Maria Lance, and that's a compliance lead. So making sure that we're following the federal rules for that. And then the Title N coordinator is also Maria Lance. And that's the same kind of thing. Those last three are all federal. Uh, and then a level one investigator, I believe that's state. So, this is just something that we plan to bring to the
033board just so we annually appoint them. Um, we have these located in board policies and in the policies, but the Department of Education's dinged us on a couple and said, "Hey, you really should have it as a meeting item once a year." So, uh, we're transitioning to that model. So, happy to answer any questions. >> Make a motion to approve the annual assignments and appointments. >> Second. >> A motion and a second. Further discussion? All in favor, raise your right hand? Opposed? Motion carries. We have a board policy update. >> Yep. The next one is the board policy. This one came up uh during during a review. Um and it was actually something the Department of Education talked about at one of my last conferences. It's how the district reviews administrative regulations. So board policy
034has board policies which are the big overarching um uh well policy and and then there's administrative regulations. So when you have different forms that need to be filled out or how the administration is going to exercise that policy and those are um a little more they're they're a little more fluid. So you'll tend to update those once in a while when you have name changes or when you want to change a policy. And our policy read, it was kind of clear that says the board approves policies and then administration creates the regulations and we don't have to come back every time that they tweak a regulation. And our policy read that, but then it also had a line in there that seemed to kind of make it a little more confusing. So, we weren't sure.
035So we asked for the IASB recommendate recommended language and looked at some other districts and that we basically just clarified it to say um it's the responsibility of the superintendent or designate to develop those administrative regulations and where necessary to implement board policies. They may be so the board if they want to look at one and approve it you can always approve it but are not required to be rewarded by the reviewed by the board prior to their use in the district. So it's just a clarifying thing. Um, like I said, our policy kind of read that way and that's how we've operated, but it was the language a little unclear. So, we we brought this one up to fix it. So, happy to answer any questions on that one. >> Hope we don't have
036any questions. Looking for a motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second for discussion. All in favor, raise your right hand. Opposed? Motion carries. >> All right, one more action item we've got here. Board priority through the board's financial stewardship. We will provide operations, technical, and curricular resources to staff, teachers, and administrators so that all students have consistent and sustained achievement. And we have some windows project. We were excited um with this project uh as the board knows um that um the bids came back uh very favorably. Um and one of the questions that I think would be fair for a board member to have is like there there was a significant difference between the low bid and then the next bid. So there was probably 450 uh maybe
037$500,000 difference. And so we really looked into why that difference and and I think what we came out of uh what our findings were is that it was probably tied to a local company getting the bid where they wouldn't have to pay for all the things as far as transportation, meals, bringing a lot of people in to put in the windows, hotels, those type of things. But also um the individual company that got it is using non-unized uh and that made a big difference. said as well. So, we were really excited uh at the amount of the bid that came in. It was significantly uh lower than what we had projected. We had projected a 1.3 million. Um and I'll kind of I've asked John and and Don John to go in to kind of
038say the financial and then Don to answer any questions that you might have on the schematics of of the windows as well. So, I don't know John if you want to. >> I I didn't have much other than what Mr. Mgory spoke about just that we had budgeted about 1.3 million. Um and anytime it comes in $300,000 less, I'm pretty happy about it. So, um it's we were we were on board to fund it at that higher level. So, with it being lower, um we just make sure to review the bid to make sure they're doing everything we wanted them to do and I think Don had done that. So, we're happy with it and it fits well into the capital project budget and helps um just make it a little better. Anything else that
039add? >> I don't think so. I think everybody's, you know, like we said last board meeting, everybody's getting what they wanted, a sliding window in one room and tops will be tinted and and almost a dark out and then the bottom lower shades will be slight tent. And I think one thing I'd add too is that uh which would be a fair question from staff is does it include all windows and it does include all windows in all buildings. So it covers all all windows. >> Any questions from >> it'll be a 45 day 45 working day turnaround. So >> yeah I think sorry >> no go. I think uh for me I and Mike talked about the money part of it because there's a lot of money there between those bids, but then and
040I'm all about giving it to a local company. I'm I'm gra glad that Yates and Yates got it, but when you look at the days, there's a lot of difference in the days that it's going to take for each between the companies to to do it, too. And >> I don't know that seems like a I don't know. That's a huge >> Yeah, there there is. We we kind of looked into that too, Brian, as um uh Yates and Yates kind of mentioned that there are some other uh bids going out this summer that they could bid on, but because they got our bid, they aren't going to bid on those to ensure that they have enough people to do the project and the timeline. >> And what's the what's the money over to the
041right, the ALT1 or whatever? What's that for? That was a uh we did an alternate bid for the uh insulated panels like we have now. >> So that that was the upart. >> We went with the tenant windows instead of the insulated panels. >> Okay. So that's the >> So we're not doing we're not doing alternate. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. >> We thought they may have created some savings, but the insulated panels cost more than the glass, so it ended up being an ad, so it kind of negated the reason for doing the >> honestly. I think the staff preferred tenant anyway. >> So, Yates will plan on having all three schools done during the summer. >> Yeah. And that's one thing we were excited by because we didn't know if they
042could if a company could do it within the summer and and they they indicate they can. >> Guess we didn't realize they had that many employees. But >> any other questions? Yeah. And I'll make a comment, too. Yeah. And yeah, I'm glad it's local. I mean that's and obviously the bid them share your savings John that's nice uh but they've done a great job for a lot I mean they've gotten a lot of our bids on our other projects and schools over the years and they've always done a great job so it's nice but it is an action item so we are looking for >> I'll make a motion to approve second >> all right have a motion and a second any further discussion all in favor raise your right hand opposed motion carries Thanks,
043John. Thanks, Don. Uh, moving on to the superintendent report. >> Thanks a lot, Dave. Uh, the first thing I have is uh earlier you approved uh our personnel report and I really wanted to take this opportunity to point out and and thank these uh this group of individuals. We had 24 uh individuals that will be retiring, took our early retirement uh package. uh 13 certified, 11 non-certified for a total of 24. And um the thing that is just astounding to me is that uh out of those 24, they have 610 years of service to to our district. And uh so it was really nice to um honor individuals that have given a lot to our district uh with this with this plan. And uh John's going to go into a little detail as far as
044what is the rollover savings and so forth and give you an opportunity to ask any questions. >> Yep. Thank you. Um yeah, as Mike mentioned, we had 24 individuals take it. Um we focus uh most of our savings calculations on the certified staff because that's where we get the the largest savings. Um you know, with associates or food service positions, we don't save a ton there because their their salary schedule is a little tighter, but with the teachers, it can be quite a bit when you've got a long tenure. um uh educator on that salary schedule. So, we have a calculation we use where we take their their current salary and then we figure we're going to replace them with someone as a a BA step six. And that's worked well for us over the
045years. Kind of an average where people land when we replace them. And with these uh 13 certified positions as well as four, eight, 10 others that uh we know of that are uh that took the early retirement or early resignation incentive where they they didn't qualify for the retirement, but they qualified for letting us know early. Um between all of those positions, we're looking at saving just a little under $670,000 a year in certified uh salary costs. So it's it was great. Um, we had planned on assumed about 20 people would take it. Uh, as Mike said, we had 24 in total. Uh, but the biggest part is with those 13 certified plus another 10 that we know of, the roller roll rollover savings, uh, about $670,000. So, um, it's a a good number. What
046that does is it takes a little pressure off the general fund in a year where we we had a small enrollment decline. Um, and we also aren't expecting much in the form of state aid. So, anytime we can save this um it helps and and we'll just uh take yeah like take a little pressure off the general fund budget. So, happy to answer any questions on that. >> John, I'd just like to ask so and I don't care how we break it down, but certified or non-certified out of those 24, how many of them how many of them will we replace or or how many will we not replace, I guess, >> right now? >> Yeah, we assume we replace them all. Um, so we'll we'll review it. I know we spend a little bit
047of time here um when they get kids signed up for classes next year. Um, what the schedules look like, we review to see what class sizes are. But as of right now, I assume that we replace everything. Um, that's what the savings are based on. So any any additional uh opportunities where the class sizes have dropped or you know, anything like that, that would be an addition to this. So, but yeah, we we start off assuming we're going to replace everybody. So yeah, we're we're planning on replacing all what we the money we're saving is the rollover savings of replacing those positions, but we're planning on replacing them. Any other questions for John? >> If not, um I think the next logic will probably update the board for the board would be a hiring update
048because when you have that many individuals uh retiring, uh where are we at with hiring? So, I've kind of asked Brad to give an update uh of where we're at hiring and and give you a chance to ask any questions you have. >> Yeah, thank you, Mike. Um and as uh John was pointing out, we're our kids are just now starting to sign up for courses and indicating what courses they want to take next year. So, that'll that always kind of guides us too on um do we need to add any sections if we're not currently offering those courses? And um you know, we always watch enrollment numbers as well. So, if we have the opportunity where there's students not signing up for courses um and we have a teacher retiring for instance, we may
049look at, you know, do we need to fill that position or or um go to Indian Hills for instance. But, um hiring season gets earlier and earlier every year, you know, as uh seems like the competition between districts to gain and keep really um solid uh candidates that are out there, student teaching. Um we had a hiring fair in December 19th before winter break down here at Career Campus. So, we're always actively um searching for um great student teachers and and uh to fill all of our positions. Uh we had a decent turnout. Uh it's kind of early in in the school year, but we actively throughout the year reach out to um all of our local schools uh institutions and regent schools around the state trying to get um student teachers and hosting them
050so that we can keep tabs on them. So, we we had a decent turnout that day. We had nearly 20 people come down from all classifications of employees. Um and uh eight of those were teachers or subteers. Um and from that day, we've already offered uh letters of intent to four of them to start filling some of the positions that we're forecasting for next year. Um and since then, we're we're already actively starting our um interviews to fill positions for ne for next year that we know we're going to need to fill. And then we'll watch really closely um student enrollment throughout the district um to know again, do we need to add teachers in certain areas that are, you know, really hard to fill. for instance, we've had a really intentional effort to try
051to grow our applied tech program. So, if if those numbers look really good, um those will be um opportunities where we talk as a cabinet team where we may need to add. But again, it seems like we get earlier and earlier with our hiring season, but we're uh well underway and have a fantastic human resources team um that's actively trying to retain and recruit u the best employees. And with that, I would entertain any questions that you might have. The board may have seen that uh that recently they came out the state came out with that uh less than 1% of the positions have been uh were remained unfilled in in public schools. Uh and that's that's really good news. It it's a little bit misleading in my mind from the perspective that um some
052of those positions never filled. They advertised them and they just never filled them. Um, so I think it's a little uh and and then you have some districts that I know have up to 5 to 10% um o of their opening still open, the larger districts. Um I think what school districts are really concerned right now is that they're projecting that uh there will be quite a a glut of people that qualify for retiring in the next 10 years. And that's going to be the real challenge for school district, public school districts is is when that number really starts getting really high of filling those positions. But like Brad said, our HR department's done a great job of being proactive um getting our positions filled. So we feel really good about where we're at right
053now. So um thanks guys. Appreciate it. Next thing we have is Jeremy's going to come from beyond the screen to give you an update on our live streaming. And uh as Jeremy kind of comes up, I know we we had some issues uh a few weeks ago with our live streaming. Uh one of the things we're really proud of with this is that um and this has really been I think huge for our community is that uh we do so many more activities now. We cover so many more sports. um we do so many more away games. We never used to do any of that. Um and the quality has been really high. And so we're really proud and Jeremy's a big reason why we've had the success and and so he wanted to share
054out some of the things he's done to be proactive to address those issues we were having. >> So once we started having issues here recently, we reached out to Joe Millig with Thunder Country and MCG and figure out what type of options that we have. Um what we decided was for then right now we purchased a brand new 5G router um that can give us a little bit more capability. Um along with we purchased a tripod with an antenna to get us up above the crowd to get a little bit better signal closer to the windows. Um we're consistently we're working with the schools the host schools to figure out if there's any type of network connection hardwire that we can do at the schools. Those are somewhat limited and also filtered. So, we're, you
055know, pursuing other options as well, but anytime that we can hardwire in or get connected to their network and stream, we're definitely going to do that. Um, January is our busiest month of the school year, so um it gives us a good test over the next few weeks to make sure that our stream is going to be um up to what we want it to be. Um we're all consistently looking at other things. If there's other options that we have, we we pursue some of that as well. So, we have them in our back pocket just in case this doesn't fix our issue. But with speaking with Joe Millig, he feels that this will um should fix everything and then we'll go from there. Um like I said, we're streaming three events tonight, including girls
056wrestling, basketball, and obviously the board meeting. Um so, like I said, this is going to give us a pretty good test over the next few weeks. Um anything, any comments that you guys or any suggestions you guys have, please feel free to reach out to us and let us know. Um, obviously your guys, you know, the public's eyes and your guys' eyes, um, helps us, uh, to make this street better. So, any questions? >> I just have a comment. I just want to commend Jeremy and the IT team for the job they've been doing. I was at the wrestling tournament the other day and hopping back and forth all the time, making sure stuff was running good. So, and he wasn't the only one there. He had some other guys there, but just a great
057job up there keeping things running. So, it was it was a hopping hopping place. I think Brandon said 1,00 to,500 people there on on Saturday. So great job. >> Thank you. >> I think one of the things Jeremy does a great job with too is always looking for ways to improve. We we we've identified one thing at our home uh basketball gym is maybe upgrading the camera that we have there to a 4K. And so we're going to look at that so it improves the quality. um really the um the number of activities like Jeremy's saying that we're doing now compared to what we used to do is just it's not even comparable. Yeah. >> And so but that takes a lot of work and a lot of dedication. >> That's why a lot of
058a lot of other schools don't do road games or they'll just do audio on road games. Um especially with the network connectivity with audio you don't have to have as good a signal as you do if you're pushing video. So, um, but we definitely want to be able to produce the best broadcast that we can. So, we're going to try everything that we can do. >> And I think it would it be fair to say, Jeremy, that the one thing we've kind of overcome is that our biggest issue was really going to away games where we didn't have a good connectivity and now we've found a way, a workaround because a lot of the schools um, well, maybe weren't playing nice or they weren't, you know, as helpful as they could be. And now if
059that's we run into that, we have a workaround to that. So I think that that will address that issue. So >> most definitely. >> Any other questions from the board on that? >> Hey, thanks a lot, Jeremy. >> Thanks, Jeremy. >> The last thing I have for the board is uh just a reminder, tomorrow's uh a big evening uh for most superintendent now because uh the governor's state of the union address. Um really that's become a form where you find out a lot of information about what's going to happen and uh during the the legislative uh session. But more importantly for probably schools is you get a sense of how much new monies school districts are going to get. Um we're projecting, you know, talking to superintendents, talking to our advocates, um that it is
060going to be pretty bleak this year. I think most uh school districts will be surprised if it's more than 1%. Uh they'd be probably ecstatic if it was 2%. Um so it's going to be a tough year. Um everybody's kind of expecting that for a variety of reasons. Uh the one that will potentially add to that will be what uh legislators decide to do with property tax reform. A lot of people are watching that closely. Uh some other variables that um have, you know, led to probably less funding for public schools is is the amount of funding going to private schools. Now, um it's about $400 million and the question there is how will you fund that continually to fund that? And right now there hasn't been an answer to that. So most public schools
061are assuming they're going to take it out of the the public school funds that fund that. So that's a concern school districts have as well. Um so really important uh event tomorrow for for school districts is to get some sense of what uh is going to take place is particularly new monies tomorrow. So wanted to make the board aware of that. And uh I think that's all I have. Dave, >> thanks Mike. Uh moving to board member topics. Does anyone have anything they want to share? >> I do. Just real quick, I see Brett's shirt over there for Chad Willis. And I've seen on Facebook where some people um say, "What can I do besides buy a t-shirt or whatever." Um today I went to Meridian and just did a deposit right into an account
062for Chad for their family right at Meridian in case you don't want a shirt or you want to do more than a shirt. >> They also have uh Venmo that you can >> Well, not all of us have Venmo. Come on then. That's for those people who don't have Venmo. >> Thanks for that, Becky. Yeah. Um and I would encourage Yeah. any and all to do. Yeah. Venmo if you have it or visit the credit union. Um if there's nothing else, need a motion for adjournment. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion a second. All in favor raise your right hand. All right. We're adjourned.