001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I'm [Music] feeling you. [Music] Heat. Heat. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Oh, heat. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] feel you. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Oh, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] Oh, hey. [Music] Wow. >> Okay. We'll call the meeting to order. >> We'll start with roll call. Morgan Brown >> here. >> Dave Wrunner >> here. >> Becky Engel >> here. Brian Jones >> here.
002>> Dusty Wear >> here. >> Jan Watri is absent tonight. And Christina Shark is here. Next up is adoption of agenda and declaration of a quorum. >> Motion to adopt. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. Next up is citizen speak. I do not have any green cards. Is there anyone present that would like to address the board tonight? If not, we will move on to employee recognition with Kate. Thanks, Christina. Um Kate's going to join us and introduce our first time uh employee of the month for the start of the school year. And we're really excited to recognize these individuals and and show our appreciation for everything they do for our school district. Um, as a reminder,
003our employee of the month recipients are selected from nominations submitted through an online form on um each month our committee chooses up to five recipients to include those who meet the criteria of continuously demonstrating going above and beyond for our students, staff, and parents. We welcome you to submit your nomination through our form titled employee nomination form found under the quick links on our website at atomoschools.com. First up, we have Rosalie Utterbach. Miss Rosalie is a special education associate at Wilson Elementary School and has been employed by the district for two years. She was nominated by a colleague. Rosalie goes above and beyond to help her one-on-one student, in addition to those around her, be successful in all areas of education. She's my right hand when I am busy helping others. Rosalie shows up every
004day for her shift and works without complaint, enduring whatever comes her way. She stays calm in adversity and always has a smile and a hug to give. And if you're really lucky, she may even share her baking treats with you. I'm grateful for the kindness, calmness, and helpfulness that Rosalie shares with all those around her. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] >> Next, we have Erica Mole. [Applause] Erica is a special education teacher at Pwick Early Childhood Center and has been employed by the district for 10 years. She was nominated by a few of her colleagues. Mrs. Mole is an amazing special education teacher who consistently goes above and beyond for her students and her associates. She makes me feel at home, ensuring I am welcomed, supported, and set up for success. Erica shares resources freely and makes
005her makes sure that associates feel confident in their roles. Without her leadership, many of us would feel lost. She works tirelessly to serve students with special needs, approaching challenges and with an open mind and willingness to rethink support strategies. Erica designed a classroom environment that truly responds to her students unique needs while also fostering collaboration among teachers, associates, and families. Her vision, encouragement, and commitment make her a leader and she and a teacher who truly deserves this recognition. Congratulations. [Applause] Next, we have Cody Kcraft. [Applause] Officer Craycraft is a school resource officer or SRO at Evans Junior High School. He has been with the Atma Police Department for seven years and has worked in our school for schools for one year. A parent nominated him. When my daughter was involved in a scary incident, I
006was directed to Officer Cody. From the start, he was calm, professional, and easy to communicate with. He investigated thoroughly, answered our questions clearly, and made us feel safe throughout the process. He went above and beyond by following up to check in on my daughter's well-being. His calm, caring presence, especially with children, sets him apart as an exceptional officer. Autumn schools and our community are fortunate to have Officer Cody supporting our students and families. Congratulations. [Applause] Next we have Isaac Bennett. [Applause] Mr. Bennett is an associate at Farney Elementary School and has been employed by the district for two years. He was nominated by a parent. Isaac has done a fabulous job as an associate over the past couple of years and has been a tremendous asset to Farney. He is hardworking, dedicated, and has a
007clear passion for working with kids. You can see it not only in the way he interacts with students, but also how much the kids love and respect him in return. Isaac consistently goes above and beyond. Whether it's helping at pickup with a smile on his face or supporting students throughout the day, he truly embodies the Atom school's motto, be the best. The district is fortunate to have him. Congratulations. [Applause] And next we have Amanda Argetta. Miss Amanda is a teacher at our structured academic and learning therapeutic center referred to as salt, which houses students kindergarten through 7th grade at Evans Junior High. Amanda has been employed by the district for two years. She was nominated by a colleague. I nominated Amanda because she is such a compassionate, hard-working teacher. She has gone above and beyond
008to prepare her classroom and welcome students to the salt program this year. Even with the challenges, she puts in many hours outside the school day to ensure her feels her students feel supported at home and at school. Amanda models character and grace for her students and sets a positive example for her colleagues as well. She truly embodies our district's be the best and is tremendous asset to the Salt program. Congratulations, [Applause] Up next is the consent agenda. >> Motion to adopt. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Okay. Next board priority. We will promote and monitor growth in student achievement and all students will be challenged with high expectations that will meet or exceed measurable targets. We
009have oneformational topic here, a Dalma annual school update. Hello. Um we are excited to share some of the celebrations that we've got going on at Dalma. Um and to look at some of the areas of growth that we're looking at uh as we look at our our data from last year and how we continue to serve the the DAMA students. Um so one of our successes uh obviously uh Mrs. Lance Dr. Lance uh talked in August about our our um decrease in um our student or behavior data and um last year we implemented a a regulation room to meet students needs to where um if if they're starting to disregulate uh we have that option. We have a couple associates assigned and they just are able to go in and um you know they take
010set we set a timer for five minutes and and really try and and get them to take a fivem minute break and then they the work that they left in the classroom then um we'll follow them back uh to the classroom and that's kind of their ticket out. Um so definitely wanted to highlight that as a strength um in the building. Um and then um >> sorry Kim Hudson. So what you're seeing here is our literacy data from 2024 25 and it's an area of focus for us a strong area. We definitely need to increase our proficiency scores in our school. You can see the the data has kind of stayed around stagnant. So, one of our goals is to um have 65% of our students proficient at our above in the district reading assessments.
011That's kind of our goal. In order to do that, we've started a really great um thing this year. We started our win time already. It started today. It was a beautiful thing to see all of the kids moving around. It was schoolwide. So, the beginning of this was pretty neat. We screened every student in our school that in either the Hagerty or the letters phonics and word reading survey and so we knew exactly what skills they have and what exactly skills they needed. Then we built a data wall based on that. Our BLT team met we focused an area. We have a lot of students in phmic awareness we're working through. So we started to target that area and we know that phmic awareness only needs like eight hours of instruction really to be able
012to you know knock it out. So we're hoping to move them quickly. Um but the beautiful thing about it is that all the teachers are um working together. We trained on the UFly intervention. We um we have a rotation cycle. There are six cycles in place and everybody knows that it's a five week on one week testing and then the sixth week will be our uh assessment and then the the Friday is always ends on a building PD day. So we're going to do data while sorting on that day. So, we're working as a team and making decisions as a team to move our students forward. So, because we are committed to increasing our student achievement and literacy to be at percentage or above benchmark, we want to make sure that we're keeping an eye
013on those kids who are already at benchmark and maintaining that performance over time. So, the goal is 95%, we're currently sitting at 89%. Um and an area of focus for us is continuing to get that aggressive growth in literacy from our students. Um so we are currently at 20% when the district goal is 65%. Our building has set a goal of 80% of our students showing aggressive growth on our district reading assessments for the year. some of the challenges. Oops. Some of the challenges um as we reviewed our our BOQ or um buildings of quality um we really noticed that some of our behavior still was areas of of growth or or areas to work through. Um so monthly we will assess teachers and figure out areas um that they feel like we need to
014retach and retrain. Um and so we'll we'll do that uh through a tier one survey. We'll also do a a staff concern form um that will come to me and uh I will review that and then uh take that to our building leadership team. our tier one challenges also. Um once again through that that instructional focus we're going to um ensure that that teaching of consistent language. So we at the beginning of the year during our PD or um we we did a instructional piece around our our consistent language for all staff and students. Uh and then if we see an area where we do need to retach um we're able to to retach uh each individual um on their own. Uh we have a Google classroom set up as a training site. So if
015a a staff member or if we onboard new staff members, we'll be able to send those to those Google classrooms and and get that training uh individually. uh if we have identified that another success um I don't know I'm I'm sure you have heard uh we shook the the building up a little bit um a few years ago when second grade did come into the the building um it was more segregated a first grade and second grade so this last year um we interspersed first and second grade uh and I feel like that's gone better. Um, we're trying to look in the future to see whether or not we can keep some of those kids in that same pod uh with those teachers um that they've already created relationships with. Um, but one of the
016big focuses what uh of the the year is a we over me attitude. Um, just embracing that school culture and and climate that that is is fostering good academics for students. some of our celebrations. Uh this is students uh engaged and working uh in the first 20ome days of school. So uh things are going well and um it's it's we're we've started out really well this year. So any questions? Um I'm so glad you shared all that data with us and and realize where you need to grow. So for your win time, Kim, what um interventions are you using and do you feel like you teachers can, you know, pull from their toolbox to use what they know works with students? >> So you know that I'm new in my position and the first thing
017I need to do, we also know I'm a rule follower. So I had to know all the intervention lists that were required or or allowed in our district and I started there. Um when I realized that there were um the Hegerty is an assessment tool that we can use um and we can survey them in letters. Once you you take that information, you can then kind of plug it into the intervention list. And so I knew when we started in the before we even had students in the building that they need that my my teachers need to have fidelity amongst the program that I chose that they're going to use for when. So we're doing Heaggerty for the um phmic awareness part. And then for when we're getting into that actual word reading we're doing
018the UFly. And so I did a fidelity training along the UFly with them to the UFly. Okay. It's the University of Florida Institute for Reading. So basically they have a whole wonderful science of reading based program and it's little prep but it's it's high impact with the students but you have to you have to be taking you have to know the importance of each step inside the manual and how to do each step. If you don't know that, then you may you might just run through it and not realize like articulation of a sound is important and how they might be making errors because of the way they're forming their mouth. So, so we kind of went through and talked through that training and that took us about an hour and a half. Well, maybe
019it was two hours, but they were all okay. They were still awake at the end. And so, that's kind of how we honed it in. And and so, so far it's been going pretty well. And then another thing for those that are reading your second graders or first graders, are they getting into text, are they reading whole books instead of just excerpts? >> Yes. So, um we have a um a resource u varsity tutors and we're looking into how we meet those advancements and um so right now we've got it set up to where um we generate an AI passage and then it comes with with text that um is is generated but then they will eventually get into books. Yep. >> Can I add something to that? Um so one of the things we
020noticed when we saw our data was that the the continuum is all the way back to um phmic awareness and because it's there our building we have very few people here but we have a lot of holes in that that we need to fill in order to get that automaticity for that reading and that fluency part. So we really felt we needed to kind of hone in. So, it's going to be in stages within our building for the win. We're working on those those earliest skills right now to really intervene and get them up and then as we pull them up, we can start extending that next part where the oral reading fluency. But the classroom teachers are doing that work inside their classrooms. The other thing I'll tell you is there's a resource from
021Read Works. Remember Reed Works? And >> they actually have a an a a decodable passage section with you fly. And so I'm going to be talking to the teachers tomorrow about that's an idea where we can assign those kinds of things and work and have small groups inside the classroom with something they're familiar with being trained on. So that is the goal. Yeah, >> I know. I'm I'm not picking on you, Kim, but I just You are. [Laughter] >> I'm just very worried about our district's um early reading, the fluency, and how much we rely on using the computer. Um and I just want to see kids have text in their hands. And I want to see teachers intervening instead of being on a program, you know, to learn those things. And I've noticed um
022with some of the um CLA uh the kids going into first grade uh they want to sound out every they did exactly what CKLA taught them in kindergarten, but they're not reading. They're just R every every word. >> They agree with you >> and and that needs to change quickly. I believe I'm sorry. We see that same thing. But the one of the beautiful things that you might be excited about is that with the UFly intervention, it you finish with a text, a decodable text, and you are working through that with the students. And it's it's it's eight steps. It's basically like the general phonics lesson plan from letters. And they really do set up their entire lesson plan based on that. And the very last part is there's writing. So there's that encoding and
023there's that decoding piece in there, too. So, it's a really strong way of um you know, formulating through the lesson and getting them into reading text with support at where they're at right now. But I completely agree with you. >> Can I come observe sometime? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah, we'd love that. >> I'll set that up with you. >> I should Thank you so much. >> Anything else? teach your question. >> That's why I'm here. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next up, board priority. To be the best, we will create a positive learning and working culture for our stakeholders and embrace our community partners through communication and transparency. We have a couple of action items here. The first one is the associate associate tier payou. >> Right. So
024this one uh we talked with the board um a couple meetings ago about some of the initiatives we were taking with the associate group and this is uh kind of the formalization of that some of the increased rates of pay. So we um so just kind of quick recap we went through and and did several things. One of them included uh breaking the associate postings into separate categories based on the unique roles that they have. So theou kind of memorializes that. And then we also attach some additional wages to some of them. Uh the health associate uh would get an extra 50 cents an hour. A special ed special ed associate in tier 2 positions would be a dollar an hour extra. And those are like our special programs or some high need special education
025postings. Um and then the other ones that were already in existence, the preschool associates and the uh safety and security associates already uh get an extra extra dollar an hour. And then we had a first question come up with this. can they stack? So, if you have a preschool associate who works in a tier 2 special education, they would stack. So, um if you've got a a three or fouryear-old student that's got really high needs in a special education, that would increase it even further. So, this is just the formal approval. This is what was worked out with the associate union. Uh they've signed off on it and we're just presenting it to the board for approval. >> Hey, John is I think also that it's level two and level three special ed associates, right?
026that get >> we call it tier two but it it it would deal deal with those higher needs which would be level three students correct >> and uh we're going to make it retroactive to the beginning of the year as well. Okay. >> And I remember when you presented on this so forgive me for the question but um is this the way these associate jobs will be posted moving forward too? So if I want to be a specialed tier 2 teach associate it'll be posted that way and I can apply for that. >> Correct. Yeah. And we're hoping that by having a lot more transparency and description on the front side for the postings, we, you know, can then tailor the interviews for those folks and there's not as big of a hurdle knowing what
027they're getting into as before, which is like general associate. But there were so many different classifications under that umbrella. >> Yeah. >> So the one the ones that don't have anything don't get anything. Is that correct as far as a raise or as far as extra? >> If it's not denoted on that list on theou, correct? That'd be the the standard uh hourly rate. >> Yep. So I guess my opinion on this is I mean obviously I'm in favor of it but I I I'm always going to think we need to probably look towards especially if we go back and look at and I know when we look in the whole realm of things I don't know the number of assoc associates we probably have. I'm assuming a couple hundred at least probably >> correct
028>> but we still have several positions listed um I think along the uh special head associate lines I think for different ones. I don't know if it's C or whatever it is. Um I just think that we need to do whatever we need to do to to get those people in here. If if it's more, it's it's more. But I don't know that if what we're doing is going to be enough. I mean, that that's just my opinion. I don't know how everybody else feels, but um I think we rely on those associates a lot. I I think teachers um they're very helpful to teachers and I think um you know when you get when you get the good ones and we need to recognize them and make you know make sure that we're doing
029whatever we can to retain them. I know in the whole money scheme of things it's kind of hard to say well you get this and you get that but I don't know. I just think that maybe, you know, my opinion would be I think that some of this might be probably a little bit low, but if it works, it works. Um, if we get the people and get the positions filled, I'm okay with it. But if not, I think we just need to keep looking at at going up because I think when you look at things, a lot of people do it because they want to do it. But also, I think when you look at it, it's money becomes a number one factor. And we had a committee that started uh even in early
030summer that really looked at these things and we'll continue to meet with those folks and and uh the the union throughout the school year and our labor management to discuss those concerns. But yeah, a lot of the concerns you're bringing up are things that really was what you know we wanted to form this committee for. Um and then we also have a couple of HR folks that are going to really study um the associate pool culture to make sure that if we're missing something with how they're feeling valued or if there are other concerns with our our turnover rate. Uh right now we're monitoring our associate number weekly. We look at IEP data um to constantly monitor where are we at in services to our students and actually we started the school year with uh
031more associates than we ended the school year with last year. Um so it always feels like we're a little bit tight um and maybe um short. A lot of that has to do with attendance rates too. So we keep a close eye on that and monitor that as well. But you're right, we um watch that closely and if we feel like there's a need or if we need to shuffle folks, we do that as well. We have a a good partnership with our associate union and open lines of communication. We want to see that continue in service of our students. >> I was saying because when I went back and looked like postings, there's 10 or 12 postings posted. And like I said, in the whole scheme of things with how many we got, I
032know that's a small number, >> but if we need that many, it it's still very important. >> And I know you guys know that, but we have that many people or that many kids that >> that need those associates with them. >> Yeah. and we have uh interviews happening weekly as well. So when we have good applicants come our way again when we're monitoring our minutes and we know that we're short different places we're um constantly hiring and onboarding to to fill the need. Um but also again like I said internally moving folks as needed too if we get heavy in one building we monitor that also. >> And the only thing I'll add is when you talk about the money part of it is uh it's it's a challenge for a position like this
033since it is a it's a nine-month posting um and then we spread it out over the school year. So sometimes the money um you know it's 17 or 1722 even some of these that could be $189 an hour once you try to take nine months and pay it out over 12 the checks they get a little smaller which is one of the things uh we're trying to resolve with the schedule E where we offer uh full-time positions so there's greater hours and those checks would be larger and it also gets an allowance for uh health insurance and that would continue over summer too. So that that adds, you know, $10,000 to a position and we're really trying to focus on filling those too because they're a much more desirable position when you look at that
034annual pay and we've got all those posted. Um it's just a difficult it's a difficult job to fill. Um and you know we Brad mentioned the weekly interviews is we we had one week where I think we had seven or eight candidates and and two showed up. Uh you know so we go through all that work and we get them there and then we just get a a you know that kind of turnout. sort of challenges, but uh no, they're always open and they're they uh are constantly interviewing and we've had quite a few. But the schedule E one is uh we're doing that pushing that internally and then we're also pushing it externally because like we've said, we've had a little trouble filling it internally. So, we're putting it out there and it looks
035like a a higher wage and a little more uh annual earnings for it. So, we're hoping that we get some good external candidates also. And is that part is that part of it optional, John, where do they do you have to take it and spread it out over the 12 months or could they get it? >> It's a good question. We um we had a couple people inquire about that a couple years ago. So we we pulled and we asked everybody and and we got a really good response from the associate group. Hey, would you rather have over, you know, just 10 months or over 12 months? And we only had two people say that they wanted just over 10. Uh they all like receiving those checks over the summertime. Uh we just didn't get
036anybody that said yes, I want that. Um cuz yes, the checks are larger during the 10 months, but then two months you don't get anything. And that was that was just something that that we thought we'd get better response on. Uh but but it >> is one or the other. Correct. >> Right. Yep. >> Okay. >> So, um associates are really the unsung heroes of our school district. I don't know that they get uh the respect and uh what's the other word I'm looking for? But >> just appreciation I think. Exactly. And that's one of the things that Mike tasked us with in that committee is to make sure that we keep a pulse on that throughout the school year. So McKenzie and our HR department um Mackenzie Bomb is leading leading the initiative to
037make sure that we are attending to that throughout the year. We started with a survey at the beginning of the year. they were analyzing that survey today and we're going to um respond to that survey and make sure that they know how much we appreciate them and and want uh if they're if they're feeling like things aren't going well, we're going to do something about it. >> I'm glad to hear that. >> Y >> I'll uh uh echo some of that. I I agree with a lot of that. I've got a pretty strong uh appreciation of AIDS. Um I do have to go back to a meeting we had like three months ago when you guys presented all that data on absenteeism and turnover and things like that and and uh I had asked about
038you know if you guys have like data on the demographics of the turnover you know are we seeing higher turnover and you know 20 to 25 or 30 you know whatever that may be but I see these different tiers of associates I mean there's a number of them here I mean is there also a way to I mean compound that data with the turnover within each tier. You know, if there's a tier or two that we're seeing much more turnover in, maybe that's a tier that we need to give a little extra attention to. You know, if we're not seeing a lot of, >> you know, a lot of turnover in special ed tier one or tier two, but we're seeing a ton of turnover in just general, you know, I mean, that that data
039is going to tell us a lot, but we need to we need to provide it, I guess. Um, >> and John, the you the the comment about the 12 the month, you know, that they get paid throughout the year, which is awesome. Um, but with our high turnover, that's only that's to me that's only a benefit if they make it long enough to see it. So on the front end when we're hiring and going over the job, are we really hammering that to the aids that you know, you know, some of these some of these people are young and I mean you almost got to draw it out for them, but you know, it says you make 16 an hour, but you know, your first paycheck when you do the math, you're going to make
04012. >> But these two months, you're still going to get 12, but you're not going to work. You know, if they're not working, staying on board long enough to see that benefit of getting paid and not working, you know, that that doesn't help. We and we actually wrote it up. So we've got a one pager that we talk about annualized pay and then we also give some examples. So we kind of spell it out. We give that to all the new hires. >> Um it is something that gets forgotten, you know, in the shuffle of paperwork. I think some of them end up forgetting about it. And the the note you made about which tiers we have the turnover. It's um it's interesting for us. I would say probably 80 80 to 90% of our
041associates are special education. That's the main reason we have them. So um the tier one and two are new this year. So we'll be able to do a little more data collection as to what those those second tier are. What but but that's new this year. Before we just had special ed and it's probably easily eight out of 10 probably nine out of 10 that are those positions. So that that's the bulk of where we see our need. Um so you know we are splitting it out a little bit this year but we just haven't we haven't seen much yet. So this is definitely a data collection year to see >> uh if we still see that same level of turnover in those tier 2 positions or if it's higher because they're ch more challenging
042positions. And we've really worked to boost and improve our onboarding processes just like you described, making sure again with the descriptions, but then beyond that knowing what level of support that they have and we've implemented mentoring uh for our associates as well so that if they have questions, they know who to go to in their building. We've given additional stipens to those mentors throughout the district. Again, just to make sure they know what level of support they have and that we're here to support them. We know the our district would not operate without them. They are the glue that kind of holds us all together. Um and and we know that. So, we're really committed to making sure they know how much we appreciate them and are going to study uh the turnover really closely
043and uh take some steps to help improve that. >> Thank you. >> Y >> this has been kind of an ongoing discussion. So, I appreciate the district continuing to relook at this. It's a it's an issue that's never really arrived. So, any other questions? If not, we'll be looking for an a motion to approve the tiered pay for associates. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Thank you, Brad. Up next is the fiscal year 2025 financial reports. >> Okay. So, uh the everybody should have a couple of reports attached and um I'm not doing a line by line on any of them, but I kind of I kind of give an explanation so
044you know what reports there are there. Uh so I the first one um it's called treasury report and all that lays out is it shows each of our funds. So we've got our general fund activity management all the funds that the school uses. It'll show you what our beginning balance was at the end of the year. It summarizes and rolls up our total revenues and then our total expenses for each fund and then what the fund balance is um for each one of those. And the there's not a ton of change year-over-year other than a couple of them. the general fund we had a surplus um of about 1.1 million and this was expected because as we said we've kind of drawn down as we came out of co and esser and we draw draw
045down those funds and now we want to maintain a solveny level um in that target uh ISB recommen recommends between seven and 17 and we're right about in the middle of that at 12 and so that's kind of where we're holding and then the other one is the save or the capital projects fund we had that balance go up from 6.1 million to 9.2 too. Last year we did a bond issuance. Uh we received those funds and those are what what's being used uh to do most of the high school projects. So those are coming down, but we still have a balance of those as we finish up those projects. Okay. The next report would be the balance sheet by fund. And this one's a little longer, but it it lays out the same thing
046where it shows each one of the funds. And uh it gives you the same data basically where the fund ends. Uh so you've got the fund balance you can trace between the two but it gives you uh details on what makes up that balance. So the assets and liabilities um for each fund and kind of what our fund equity is. So it's just a little more detail that shows um you know in our general fund we count some liabilities for our prepaid expenses. The biggest one that I pay attention to is we prepay curriculum. So we buy a software subscription for five years. We book one year of it as an expense and four years of it as an asset because we're going to use it over the years. So things like that. And this
047this report gives a little more of those kind of details. Um the next one would be our uh special education supplement. So out of the all the funding streams we get, special education gets its own special report where we have to summarize uh all those expenses. The district runs a deficit. Almost um almost every district in the state probably close to 80% or more run a deficit. And it's just to highlight that the waiting system that the state provides for special education students has not kept up with the needs. Uh but that being said, last year we had a special ed deficit of about 1.6 million. This year we are at about 512,000. So we saw our deficit shrink and I try not to bring too much attention to it because that will vary from
048year to year. Um the waitings of students uh our student count will vary. Uh last year we received about 500,000 more in state aid because we had more special education students and we also had several students that moved from a lower tier of one or two up to three. So we get more money for those students. The other thing that we will take credit for is that our Medicaid reimbursements went up. So we rely on Medicaid reimbursements for services provided to special education students to provide additional revenue above and beyond what the state does. And we um always aim for about a million. We came in just a little under that at 912,000, but that was 400,000 more than we'd received in the prior year. So, um, we came out of CO there were a
049lot of rules that made it easier to get those co or uh Medicaid reimbursements. Those rules went away, so it became harder and then we kind of adjusted and and we've been putting a lot of work into trying to pump those numbers up because it's just revenue for the school and anything we can get uh to support the special education program is is warranted. Um and then on the expense side, we pretty much ran ran very consistent. The one area we saw is that we have to pay other districts when our special education students go to those districts and we pay them their actual costs and we saw those expenses go down about $300,000. So either some of the schools uh did not spend as much, maybe didn't apply as many one-on-one associates um or
050we did have less uh students open and rolled out, less special education students open and rolled out. So that saves us a little bit of money. So those three factors kind of contribute to that deficit swinging from 1.6 to 500,000. >> Hey John, give the board some sense of the range of deficit across. Yeah. >> Yeah. And this is I don't have this data but we we do a little collection in the UEEN. Um so the top you know 20 or so schools in the state and asked what their deficits were and they were they were staggering. Um we had several districts uh well De Moine public schools runs a $27 million special education deficit. So that means all the special ed money they get from the state, they spend all of that and then
05127 million more. Um I think we had some Waterloos and some uh Cedar Rapids that are 8 to10 million. Um Mason City, which is about a thousand less students than us, they ran just under five million. Um so there there's some huge numbers and out of that list only one school had a smaller deficit than us. I think it was Burlington and and they have traditionally they've run surpluses. So uh they've kind of swung it around. uh they have a pretty high special education student population surprisingly for the size. So uh yeah, you'll see deficits in the schools our size um that are between four and 8 million and it's it's just it's crazy and we've never reached that level. So I think I give Mike Steamma credit. He does a really good job allocating
052those resources but um in the end it still generates a deficit because we just don't get enough um through that state aids uh formula. Okay. And the last report would be the transportation report. And this one we just give a summary that kind of goes over our total spend for student transportation. Um, and this one we we didn't see um any real big savings in the numbers. Uh, but one thing to point out is when we did our our RFP for transportation services last year, the rate uh per route, so that's how that we get charged is per route went up 18.5%. So, um, if if we would have just continued as usual, we would have seen an 18 and a half percent increase to our transportation cost, which would have been a couple hundred,000.
053Um, we came in almost flat. Um, and we actually saved about $50,000 uh, transportation year-over-year. So, we've we absorbed an 18.5% increase in the rates through some of the efficiencies we we found last last year. So, um, another thing we're noticing is we have several schools that are going out for, uh, transportation quotes. Um, you know, they're doing their RFPs and there there are some very big increases. Uh, the transportation costs, whether through staffing or the the the fixed equipment cost, the busing, um, and the wages they're having to pay is is way up. And so, we're kind of thankful that we have a couple more years. >> Uh, well, this year would be our last. Yeah. >> So, we have one more Yeah. one more after this year uh before we have to go
054back. But we're not expecting it to be something where we go out and we get better quotes just because of the the costs continue to rise. But we're we're locked in pretty good and and fairly stable even with that rate increase we saw. So um so those are kind of the the four reports that kind of sum up some of the annuals. Um I would welcome anybody to look into these. If you have questions, you know, please let me know. I don't expect you to digest everything right now. uh but always like to present it and just kind of give an overview of some of the things we're looking at and and uh yeah be welcome to are happy to answer any questions um for this when the action board does take action um when
055you make the motion there would be two things kind of to accept the report but we're also requesting spending authority for our special ed deficit. So, we just make that note or that's that is one thing we're doing with the action is that $500,000 we asked the state to grant us the authority to spend the money we already spent. >> With that tea up, does anybody want to make a motion? Thank you, John. >> Make a motion to approve the financial reports and the spending authority for the deficit in special ed. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next up is the Alvia Boys and Girls Bowling Sharing Agreement. >> Yeah, I'll give
056the board a little background on this and kind of how we normally try to we try to be good neighbors and uh when we get asked if we if we're interested in a sharing agreement, if we can do it, we try to do it. And um uh the first thing we ask is we always ask the head coaches if they're okay with it. and both uh head coaches were were very okay with this. So, um I'm recommending to the board uh that uh to approve this >> motion to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion to second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next up is board policy updates, second and final reading. There's no questions. I'll make a motion to approve. >>
057Second. >> We have a motion in a second. Is there any other discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Okay. Next. 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 We have one action item here. The Farney Elementary final completion and acceptance. >> And this you may be wondering going, "Hey, we've been in that building for a year. Why are we doing this now?" But um on any of the construction projects, they withhold some retainage. And um I was actually surprised that we hadn't finished this either. So I got the final pay app uh from Bystate. They've gone through and they they had a couple uh issues they were still
058working on, a couple little warranty things, and those are done. So, uh, we like on the larger projects to just have the board do a final, uh, acceptance and this kind of starts the timer on the warranty, uh, for several systems in the building as well. Uh, just a quick overview just of the program. We started this um, it's crazy to think we did a feasibility study in February of 2022, so over three years ago is kind of when it got started. Uh we approved the design in November of 2022 and um at and then we moved forward and had that design and got it ready for going out for bid in January of 2023 and the estimate of probable cost of the pro project at that time was $19.5 million. So that's where we're
059at when we went for bid. Uh we went uh out for bid and we had those the board approved them in February of 2023 and the bids actually came in at just a a hair under $16.8 million. So, we had a bid come in lower than expected and and at that point we needed one of those because we'd been on a run with everything else. Um, just crazy during those COVID times or postcoid times. Uh, the project finished up and the final uh cost of it is actually just a hair over 16.4 million. Uh, so we actually came in under what the project was budgeted for. Uh, that was result. We always build in a little bit of contingency and this project needed very little. Uh, it went fairly smooth over there. Uh we just
060had a couple issues that they worked down and and we've got that final release of retainage. So we're asking the board and and recommending final acceptance and release of the retainage on the Farney Elementary project. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> We have a motion in a second. Any other discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next up, a superintendent report. Thanks, Christina. Uh, first thing I have is Brad's going to join us. You got to do this quicker, Brad, than last time. Last time you didn't get up here, on the school performance profile. Uh, we thought the board would be interested in a little more information on uh the recent scores that we got from the state and Brad and Maria's going to go over
061that. >> Yeah, I invited Marie to join us as well because we work very closely uh in tandem on all all things learning and monitoring our learning. Um, and I know I think the board got kind of a high level overview a couple weeks ago on our school performance profile. Uh, but just a little reminder, it used to be called the school report card. Um, and what it does is it just kind of tracks uh year-over-year how schools are doing. Uh, primarily it emphasizes uh the Iowa assessments. So, uh, growth and proficiency are really heavily weighted. U, the elementary and middle school report card looks a lot different how they calculate points compared to like the high school. So, uh, anybody that's kind of a data nerd like we are, u feel free to dive
062in. All those tools are available on the school performance profile. Um, but some things that were really exciting to see, you know, we monitor, uh, from year to year how we're doing. Um, and we saw some pretty impressive growth in our in our school building. So uh and again when you look at the front page it's not completely obvious because they don't show that metric of growth over time unless you click around and and see previous years but uh 10 of our 11 physical school buildings saw uh growth this year and really pretty impressive growth um and all the things that they measure in uh the school performance profile. Uh two of our buildings Eisenhower and Horus man uh received commendable recognition. So again, just kind of highlighting some of their work around their school
063improvement goals and a lot of our Marzano um high reliability schools work. Really seeing some impressive gains there. We've learned some of the things that they're doing and are implementing some of those strategies um districtwide. So we are seeing gains uh districtwide from some of the things that they've been piloting over the last couple of years. So kudos to their uh building leadership team and their principles. Um academic gains. uh you'll see if you if you look in at previous year's report cards, we are at uh the same level that the state is seeing in terms of growth year-over-year in English language arts and math. You'll see there is still some discrepancy in our proficiency, you know, compared to the state, but our kids are growing and accelerating their learning, especially in English language arts
064and math. And that's been a major emphasis. So, over time, we'll see that uh proficiency shrink between us and the state. our kids are growing and actually growing faster than um other kids around the state. So that's exciting. If you look at previous years, there was quite a discrepancy, especially in ELA and math in our growth and we're catching up. So again, a lot of our curriculum work, a lot of our instructional strategies that we've been working on over the last several years with the Marzano group are really starting to show um in especially in the ELA and math. So we're excited about that. uh work-based learning been a a newer component to the work uh to the school performers profile and web is a big point of emphasis for us that um we don't
065want kids just to graduate with a diploma. We want them to graduate with a pretty good idea on their pathway um and their purpose in life and so we've provided a lot of opportunities for kids to explore um work-based learning. So we are still a little bit short of where the state is at but we grew from 4% of those experiences to over 30 or right at 30% of our kids. So about a third of our high school graduates are having those experiences and so we are making significant gains and um we actually found some where they pull from is uh winter state reporting. We have to code our courses correctly to make sure we get credit for those. So a lot of our discrepancies actually we just have to fix a couple codes in
066our winter reporting and we'll get that cleaned up uh because it was actually higher than 30% we're finding. Uh, and again, feel free to jump in if I miss anything. U, one thing that we're really excited about and that, um, was highlighted in the message to the community and I know to the board is our graduation rates. Um, especially at OS and this was not from our 2025 class of graduates. This is actually a year old from 2024. We actually expect even more significant gains in graduation rates, but we were well above the state average um, at OS in 2024, what you'll see in the in the profile. Um, and really really impressive the work that they've done there. And then when you pair that with, like I said, the work-based learning score, it it's
067exciting to me to see the kids aren't just graduating, having success in our buildings, uh, but they're also graduating with a really strong sense of purpose and having some of those work experiences, uh, which we're always looking for new opportunities. So, if there are audience members listening out there and you have a need for, um, some shadowing of students or internships or apprenticeships, we're always looking to place students because, again, uh, we kind of take a no wrong door approach. If a student or a group of students wants to uh investigate a certain pathway and see if that's a viable career for them, we'd rather them do that now before they go to college or go on to um a post-secary institution and take on a bunch of debt. We we'll take that with them
068and make sure that they have a good experience. Um >> I think just to add when we think of the work that we've invested in um as a school board, as a community over the last several years, to see that 10 of our 11 schools made really significant growth to their whole system. It really speaks to the work that we're doing at that core level or that tier one level. Um, I know earlier we talked about interventions. I think some of the really exciting work moving forward is we've been studying what interventions are the most effective, which ones have the most leverage, and how do we target those groups that are not making the growth that we want to see at the rate that we want to see it compared to their peers. And so,
069um, we're really proud of some of the work we've seen at our schools, but really making sure that our schools are consistent in those intervention systems so that we're meeting the needs of kids with those high leverage strategies that work. >> And and what Maria's alluding to as well is like we we recognize there are still some discrepancies and we we know that all too well. Um, I I'm very passionate about making sure we keep academics and, you know, our existence as academics and education um, and keeping that at the forefront of what we do. So, there's some things that are really uh were glaring to us and making sure we're going to continue to focus on them. As Maria was talking about, our are some of our subgroups are underperforming uh compared to uh
070peers around the state. Um and you'll see some of our buildings were targeted for um especially our EL populations and our um South Pacific Islander population. Uh so, we're going to leverage one of our committees to really study those discrepancies more closely and really figure out how we can connect with those communities and strong uh form a stronger connection to serve those populations. as well because we're seeing a couple years now where they've been discrepant uh from their peers and that's a a population that we um are are proud to serve and they bring a tremendous cultural richness especially the South Pacific Islander population. uh but we need to figure out why they're not making the academic gains like their peers and we're really going to study that closely. >> And one thing that I
071would mention on that is for the board is that uh part of the reason I we are discreet and that's a focus of ours but the reality is there are schools that we don't know what their scores are because they don't have enough for a subgroup. >> That's a good point. >> And so there there aren't a lot of schools that have that subgroup. And so we don't think we're necessarily discrepant from other school districts, but they just don't have enough to have a subgroup that it even shows up. So >> So you have to have 20 kids in a subdemographic group for that to count as a a group. And and the interesting >> that's at the school level. >> Yes. >> 20 at the school level. >> And that if you're if those
072each of those groups that has an end size of 20 or higher, if any one of those falls below a certain standard, then your whole building um status drops. And so it's just something that we we don't want to allow to happen to our buildings. And so we're going to be targeted in some of those groups that we really focus on moving forward because we know as a whole district we've made so many gains. Um but sometimes that's you don't see that with just the words or the status updates. >> There's a little bit of a punitive nature u for lack of a better word to the report card which changed. That's the other thing that these report cards continue to change. This is the second sorry this is the second year in a row
073that it's stayed somewhat consistent but the metrics change have changed on us several times over the last several years. um as the Every Student Succeeds Act, you know, continues to change uh and we adapt to that. Um but there is a little bit more of a punitive nature to this report card system. So again, as Maria was pointing out, we have some groups that are targeted for underperforming compared to their peers. Well, they drop your entire category because of that. So they don't just go off of straight points. If we went off of just straight points, like in my opinion, they should. Um I can say that Mike maybe can't, but I will. If they just went off straight points, we are a lot of our buildings would be an entire rating category higher. So,
074there's a little bit of a punitive nature to that and we're not exactly sure why. They didn't take a lot of input from schools when they designed these report cards. But, we see the results. We're committed to making sure that all of our kids have great experiences in our buildings and uh like I mentioned, we're going to have a committee really study some of those targeted subgroups more closely and see what can we do better to serve them. And we're always focused on academics. And again, we don't talk about it enough in my opinion, but I'm biased. Uh, but we're going to make sure we focus on proficiency for all of our students and growth for all of our students. Um, rigor in all of our classes. We have committees at the high school. Uh,
075and our secondary level in general, studying, how can we make our courses more rigorous and make sure that, uh, if we say we're teaching to a level of rigor that the standards require, that we actually are designing our courses that way to hit that high bar. Um, and we're going to continue to focus on work-based learning and post-secary uh, readiness. Well, and I would say we've also challenged all of our principles to really think about bigger goals. Um, we're not okay saying 60 65% of our kids have made proficiency. Like that number should be far higher. And so we've really challenged our principles to that and they have taken that um and set really what we call like big audacious goals for uh their buildings and for across the district. So, we're excited to see
076where um having that level of rigor in our instructional practices, those high expectations for all students with the supports embedded in the removal of barriers and where that's going to take our district next. >> Brad, you talked a little bit about school to work. Would you want to just update the board on the new internship that we are starting here shortly? Yeah, like like I said, we if there's a student that um has a desire to explore an avenue, um we have um Colby Mercer, who's our um coordinator for making sure that if again if we don't have a current partnership with that pathway for a student, she will work to um form that pathway. So, we were visiting with a a hair salon here in town and we have a student that wants to
077be a cosmetologist or at least explore that as a as a possibility. So, we've been working with a local uh salon here in town to kind of set up some field experience and an eventual internship. Um, and we've received a grant here recently from the Legacy Foundation to kind of support that work. Um, just to make sure that all students have the supplies and the tools and the um stuff that they need to be successful while they go explore that. And she's our Coly's our youth engagement coordinator and had worked with Mike and Maria and I to establish a new pathway in cosmetology. And we're not going to stop there. We're really working on like well, how can we get a post-secary connection to this? So, we've been looking around the state um at other
078schools uh that might be out there, even online to get uh her not only field experience, but possibly post-secary credits while she's exploring that pathway. So, again, we're committed to finding pathways for every single kid, and there's no wrong door that we won't help them explore. And I'll give a shout out to Colby and her work um in partnership with our JAG program to find those connections and work hard for our kids. >> Any questions from the board? >> Right. I just have one. So, I know over the past two or three years or four years, we've hired several uh people um marshalise and people from other that can speak the multi- languages. Have we ran into really anybody that that um I say with a with a four-year degree or that can teach? Have
079we had any of those? I know Pastor William from my church speaks to some of your teachers from time to time and he really enjoys that. that and I know we've hired several of those of the Marshall people and other people for just because of the language barrier, >> but have we ever really anybody that can that can just we can hire as a teacher? >> No. And if you're out there, we want to hire you. So, come find me and we'll we'll figure out how we can get you on on our team. We're really trying to grow our own. Um if and so if there are students that are interested in becoming teachers um we we have brought in some of our education like teacher pathway programs into our high school. We have our
080own teachers teaching them and then also associates if they're interested in or pair educators or interpreters if they're interested in becoming teachers. We have ways to do that. So we're trying to kind of grow them from within. But no, if there's a teacher out there who uh is interested and and uh of the Marshall or South Pacific Islander population, please find me and we will figure out a way to get you on on boarded and part of the team. >> Anything else? If >> not, thanks Brad and Maria. Appreciate it. >> Uh a couple other announcements for the board is October 6th, uh at 6 PM and at career campus will be the school board debate uh for the November election. Uh we actually have five individuals running for three open seats. Um also we'll
081be having our baseball softball update uh um or meeting I should say September 30th will be our next meeting. Uh that will be a meeting where the group and again Christina's on that and Dave's on that um where we'll walk the grounds of of by the baseball field and we'll do that uh with an architect and we'll start getting feedback from the committees as far as what they would like to see in those facilities and so forth. Then that will be September 30th. Um the next thing I have is um been in working with you know I one of the things our district's really proud of is starting an a program and uh one of the things that we would like to make happen in somewhat the near future is adding to our program a
082barn out there in our facility. Uh what we're looking at doing and I'm intrigued by this because I think it will work out really well is and it'll be a very coste effective is um taking half of our our greenhouse because we don't need that large a greenhouse. It's just huge and taking half of that and making it into a barn. And everybody that's kind of looked at it thinks that's uh the way to go. But I'll be coming back with the board to the board, you know, in somewhat near future with an update on that and and hopefully a proposal. Um the next is uh we're really close to having uh our old central office completed. Um again, it will be four basically apartments, condominiums that will be threebedroom. Uh they they're each almost
0831,800 square ft. Um we're in the process right now one the top floor is basically done. Uh we're going to have our realtor stage uh some some of the apartments so people can see that online. Uh so we're we're hoping in the near future we have a lot of interest and and we're able to get it sold. Um next thing I have is uh enrollment. Just a update on that is, you know, I watch enrollment really closely and try to figure out where we're at. And it's always hard this time of year to figure out where you're at with enrollment because there's so many moving parts still because you don't have count day yet. But I I knew going in that this would be a tough year to be up just because we had such
084a large outgoing class. Um, we had the largest that we've ever had and and I shouldn't say ever have, but but have had probably for the last two decades. It was about 435 kids. And we have a really good uh incoming kindergarten class, but it's still 85 students. So, we have about 342 incoming um uh 5-year-olds, which is great. That's a good number, but it's, you know, it's trying to make up that difference between the two, I think, is going to be uh tough or a challenge. And so, I I don't necessarily expect that we're going to be up this this year because of that. Um, and then lastly, I have I think it was the perfect Bulldog weekend. So, we won the homecoming game Friday night, um, which was great. uh we had the
085Hall of Fame and we were re really able to honor those individuals that have really uh done a lot for our school. Um and then the next day we had our first event and um our new gym uh a volleyball invitational and we won that. So that was a perfect outcome for that. And then that night um and boy it is a really special event is uh a night cross country meet um boy it's you know I'm so proud that we do something like that and um and because nobody else is doing that and and it's just we get we get schools from four hours away that want to be in this now. We had 12 teams, varsity teams want to participate this year and it's just really exciting to see how much uh the
086kids it's it's experience that they want to have and so we're talking about you know how can we continue this uh because it's just such a neat thing. So yeah, it uh was kind of the perfect weekend for Bulldogs. So that's all I have Christina. >> Okay, up next is board member topics. Um, I'll just kind of piggy back on that, Mike. The, um, Athletic Hall of Fame event was very, very well put on. I'm impressed every year. Um, we've gone to that now for three or four years, and Brandon and his team did a really good job. So, that was really nice. Anything else to add? If there's nothing else, I will accept a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. Second. >> We have a first and a second. Any other
087discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. >> We're ajourn.