Ottumwa Schools - Board Meeting - 7/14/2025

001[Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] listen. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] feel. [Music] Let's [Music] go. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] East. Oh, hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] There's a difference. Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. Start with roll call. Morgan Brown here. Dave Wrunner here. Becky Engel here. Dusty Wear here. Jan Week here. And Christina Shark is here. Next up is adoption of agenda and

002declaration of a quorum. So moved. Second. We have a first and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. Okay. Next is public hearing. This is the time and place for interested individuals to express their views both orally and in writing on the proposed continuation participation in the instructional support program for the Atumba district. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to address the board regarding this public hearing? Hearing none, we will close the public hearing. Next is citizen speak. I do not have any green cards. Does anyone want to address the board as a citizen? Hearing none. Moving on. Consent agenda. I move to approve the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion? All those in

003favor, raise your right hand. Next, 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 anformational topic here which is associate support and development report. So, uh, for the board, um, the presentation this evening is I've asked the committee to kind of really, uh, and I appreciate the work that they've done in this is, um, to really look at what can we do to, uh, improve uh, our parah uh, ranging from attendance rates to getting uh, being able to hire parrots with high skill sets. and what what can we do to attract paras, what can we do to keep paras and the committee's kind of got uh some recommendations for the board. Uh and we'd love

004your feedback on it too because it we've had lots of eyes on this. We've had lots of discussions about different things that will will get us to where we want to get to. But it is a very complex issue that you know we've talked to other schools what they're doing and we're trying to replicate some of those. But it is really complex. So, we really want to hear from the board if you have any ideas. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Brad and John. Okay. Thank you. Um, so, as Mike mentioned, we we put a committee together and we were kind of tasked with taking a look at uh the associate position and what we could do to address uh some issues that we're having. uh two of our main uh critical issues

005we think with this group is we wanted to improve recruitment and retention and then reduce employee absenteeism rates because that obviously contributes to shortages in the building. So um also apologize for the slides. I don't have any before and after pictures or nothing fun like that. It's all just text. But um I think we will hit on a lot of good topics here. So uh first part the committee we it was Brad myself um we also had Mike Steamma director of student supports and then the HR team and then several associates joined us so we could get a broad range of input. We also asked uh principles for some of their input. Uh so we had a lot of uh people involved in the process from the start. So um we identified the couple issues

006here. Um and this came up uh with everybody in the group is that the new hires um not having a strong understanding of the job duties and the tasks. Uh we have a lot of turnover that happens rapidly where people would come in they have one impression of the job and then once they get boots on the ground they realize this is not what I signed up for and we lose them there. Um our hiring is not really individualized. We just kind of hire associates without a focus on a spec a specific position. So, um, we kind of do broad-based hiring events and we just get a group of people and then we just plug them in where there's openings without giving too much consideration into those specialized positions. Uh, insufficient training for some of

007the new hires uh, especially when we're covering highne students um, and crisis prevention training or Medicaid billing. We're kind of lacking on that a little bit. We found uh our new hire orientation and on boarding and onboarding uh we felt this lacked a little bit and a a lot of that's caused by the urgency of the employee needs in the building. So when when there is an opening in a building they need it filled right away. They need a body there and there's a lot of urgency to get somebody and um that harms a little bit where we don't have sufficient time to kind of onboard that associate. So they fully understand the responsibilities and the tasks. So uh we think that was a little bit of a shortcoming. And then uh a big piece

008of it is excessive absenteeism uh within that group. So that that hurts when we have the absence levels and we'll go over and share a little data. Um and that just contributes to staff shortages. So if you have a building and there's uh you know 20 associates in it and seven of them are gone, you're you're short seven positions and that and it's it's consistent and it's it's difficult to manage that. So we we've been working a lot on that this year uh to try to improve um absenteeism and and address it a little more and think we've made some some progress but we want to continue that battle uh and try to make some improvements. So we have improved our um onboarding and orientation quite a bit this year but we took from the

009committee uh just some recommendations to make and continue to improve that because as John said that's that balance of we know we have kids that have needs and they need that support right now balanced with yes but if we put them in too quickly and they don't have an understanding of the specific duties of the job and really that deep understanding then uh we may lose them too quickly. And I always told my associates as a principal like you're the glue that holds this all together. uh many of them and most of them as you'll see in the day to work with students with special needs um and it's written into their IEP that they need that support. So um you know they are the glue that makes sure that those services are happening but

010they have to also understand what they're getting into and have that onboarding. So it's that delicate balance and we're going to show some things we're going to do to continue to improve that. Yeah. And to just kind of piggy back on what Brad said there. It is important to note that even though we identified these are kind of some issues and challenges, it doesn't mean that they're brand new and we just stumbled across them today. It is things that we have identified and we're we've been working on. Uh but as Mike mentioned at the start of it, it's complex. It's difficult. There's a lot some of the data shows that we have made some improvements um compared to years past. So there are some positive things that have come from it. But we still have

011some work to do because again these people are vitally important and I think that's one of the biggest things we can do in that onboarding is really making them understand how vital their role is to our success as a school system. So the first data point uh is kind of talking about turnover. So, um, anybody I know several business owners here and several people that work with employees, you know, that turnover is expensive. It takes a ton of time and our turnover rates are not are are poor, I think, with this uh with this group. So, uh, kind of to put it in context, we had approximately 215 associate openings across the district. And that's all the positions that we have. Not not openings, but those, uh, the number of assignments across the district. And

012in 2425, at some point or another, we employed 273 associates. Uh, 74 of those were firstear employees. So, that means that um, they were either hired at the start of the year or sometime during the school year. So, it's just a tremendous number uh, of new employees on a regular basis. Um there were 43 resignations, terminations, or retirements within the pool of returning employees. So if I take out all those first year people and just look at our returning employees, we had 43 resignations, terminations or retirements, and that's a 21.6% turnover rate. Uh there were an additional 20 resignations or terminations of employees with less than a full year of experience. So these are brand new employees that we lost within the first year, and that's a 31.7% turnover rate. And it's just it's it's

013extremely difficult to operate with that uh when you're constantly hiring associates throughout the year and constantly trying to do on boarding and training. Uh so that's that's one of the areas that we want to focus on to improve because this it's just too difficult to manage an employee group with that kind of turnover. So it's just you know a tremendous amount of resources and people's time constantly onboarding and offboarding people that it's hard to improve other things that we need to in our HR department when we're constantly focused on that group. So again some things we're going to do to improve that. Okay. And then the next one is absenteeism. So we we looked uh we have uh four different associate assignments. Uh we broke them out into schedule. So we have A, B, A,

014C, D, and E. Uh A is a part-time u very part-time, like 20 hours a week, and we only have a couple associates there. But uh the other ones are are populated well. And we we averaged out the um amount of sick or unpaid leave. We figured those are the ones that are kind of incidental. uh you know personal days, we excluded those or any kind of administrative leave or anything. So this is just sick time or unpaid leave once they ran out of sick leave. Uh so for schedule A's, there's five positions, they average 26 hours of sick or unpaid leave per employee. Uh schedule C, which is our largest group, there's 186 employees and that average was 80 hours of sick or unpaid leave. Um one thing to note with that is um

015you would think that that's two weeks if they were eight hour employees. They're actually 6.25 hour employees. So, it's actually a little more than two weeks of leave. Uh, schedule D, those are our positions at Pwick. So, those are uh a little longer per day and they have Fridays off, but those positions average 98 hours of sick or unpaid leave per employee. And then schedule E, and this one was was surprising to us. Those are our full-time positions. Uh, we have 28 of those now, and they averaged 102 hours of sick or unpaid leave per employee. So, um, there there are a ton of factors that contribute to this. You've got some where there's some pretty extensive medical things and leave like that and we were just looking at averages um and taking those individual

016reasons aside, but as an average those are really high numbers and they're they're difficult uh like Brad mentions with a with an employee that is very crucial to classroom management. Uh and we just have a lot of absenteeism. So, those are some of the the data points and kind of the lens we looked at this and the things that we're proposing are are all tied back to really fixing those two things uh to to reducing that turnover, getting better employees, and trying to work on the absenteeism. So, and as an HR team, we brought a lot of attention to this area this year and had a lot of one-on-one meetings with folks, especially during that probationary period to make sure um it was going to work, you know, if they were missing already. Uh we

017brought a lot of attention to this and this is still the average leave. Uh so you can imagine what it was prior to bringing a lot of attention to it this year. Yep. So uh now we'll kind of move into uh some of the the things that we're proposing. So these are the changes that that we come up with as a committee and uh with the the different input from the different groups is this is kind of where we start. So the first thing we want to propose and and that we would do is we'll specialize the job categories. We'll develop several job categories that better represent that associate assignment. So right now we do this on a limited basis and we just kind of want to put a little more attention into it. Um

018those are the categories we have. You got at risk associates, excuse me. Uh English language learners, uh health associates, they help in the office and with the nursing sometimes. Uh homeschool, uh media are associates that serve in the libraries and the media centers. Uh regular education, we have some of those, but they're they're somewhat limited. Uh and then we have special education tier one and two. Tier one would be special ed. uh just any kind of assignment. Tier two would be when they go into one of our special programs. So, your salt programs or your uh therapeutic classrooms or or a high need student that's a one-on-one associate that has uh physical disabilities that you're following around on a one-on-one basis. That would be your tier two. Uh then your preschool associates and then uh

019we current we called them hall monitors this year, but we're going to expand a little bit on that. and safety and security. So, associates that are and as part of those categories, what we'll also do is we'll update job descriptions to reflect the duties and qualifications that we want for each one of those. So, instead of kind of doing the blanket approach where we just hire associates and plug them in where we have openings, we're going to try to put the right people in the right position. So, we'll we'll craft those descriptions a little better, uh, tweak the the qualifications, and make sure that if we're hiring a special education tier 2 associate, that we ask a little bit more of them, that make sure we have a little better experience and and at the

020same time give that applicant an understanding of what the job is upfront, so that their requirements and duties and tasks will be a little clearer so that when they come in, they understand this is what this job is. And our hope is is that if we have a better understanding on the front end, we'll cut down on that those 20 new hires that came in and left right away that didn't have a good understanding of the job. So that's really kind of designed to affect that. Um and um the other piece would be uh existing employees. um for some of those tougher assignments, a special ed tier 2 um or the the health where you got a little you need some specialized needs, we were going to attach um attach a stipen to it or

021increase the wage. I think we've got that there. There you go. So, premium pay. So, for health associates, we propose another extra 50 cents an hour. Preschool associates and safety and security, they already have that additional hour. And then we would expand that additional dollar an hour to specialed tier 2 associates. So, um, there it's not a ton of money, but it's something. And this is just kind of our starting point that we want to see. Um, because we've tried to to use money as an incentive before, and that's when we talk to all the groups, that's not the big piece. It's part of it. It's definitely part of the equation, but it's not the only thing. So, we want to kind of put that together with these other things. And, uh, as John said,

022this will also help us with those more specific job um, descriptions um, hire better because we'll know, the people will know what they're getting into. we can ask better questions in the interview instead of the general open-ended questions that we ask now. But it'll also allow us to kind of tailor that training and mentoring and uh job shadowing um that the committee recommends we do with folks as well so that they're not just thrown into a program with little to no understanding or support, but they're actually going to have a mentor and some job shadowing experience, which may slow down a little bit them being actually placed in there. So, we may need subs to leverage until we actually get them hired, but we think it'll overall um impact our students and the quality of

023experience that they have and ultimately again the student outcomes uh with having more qualified people. Yep. And and Brad touched on a little bit here, the training and mentoring. So, uh we talk about that on boarding when a new associate comes in um we there's a lot of urgency and they just kind of get placed and and and we've tried to slow it down a little bit this year. Uh but I think we want to be more intentional with it. So, um, if we're going to spend the time to create those categories and and update their responsibilities, then we have to make sure that the training is designed to support that. So, when we put somebody in a tier 2 specialed position or a safety and security position, there should be some training that is

024specific to that. Um, so tier 2 maybe spends more time talking about your Medicaid coding because that's going to be a big part of that job. Um, or has some uh training with the special needs students. you know, some of the needs they're going to have with a disabled student that we're just going to try to to update that training and uh Mr. Steam uh director of student supports is already already kind of has some of that and already has some of that in the works. So, we're just going to keep going with that and expand that and tailor it to be those uh specific positions we talked about at the start of it. So, um with that, uh the training with the employee mentorship program. So also with the training is uh we were

025going to do mentoring and that was a popular thing that came up with the associates when we talked with them. They like this idea that when you're new to a building uh first off you're going to have a little bit of job shadowing. So we're not going to, you know, uh metaphorically throw you to the wolves. You're not going to go right in there and here's your assignment and good luck. We're going to we're going to slow it down. We're going to have you shadow someone in the building that's already doing a position. And it might not be exactly what your position is, but it's going to be somebody who's been there and can show them the ropes a little bit. So, they'll spend a little bit of time here. This is the building. This

026is where we clock in. This is how we do our paperwork. That kind of thing. Uh, and then to expand on that, they'll be a mentor at the building. So, uh, we're still working on the development of this. We worked with the associates to get some baseline ideas. And I think we'll we'll definitely have all of these things in place for the next school year. Uh but it would be um an experienced associate in the building that is familiar, has been with the district, a good associate. We'll go through and and work on selecting those, look at who's been here a while, uh who the principles recommend, and that person is going to be the go-to person for uh a number of associates. And we're we're kind of working on it where it would be

027like uh no more than three people would be assigned to a mentor because then it gets a little more. Uh but we'll attach some uh meetups. So maybe weekly they have to check in with this person, uh, spend a little time going through some questions, and it'll be a formalized process, and we're still working on some of the details about how long it'll last and how much they'll meet. Uh, but they'll there'll be somebody there for these new associates to uh, bounce the questions off of right there that's in the classroom with them. Uh, right now we kind of say, well, if you have any questions, let us know. Well, who who do you ask? You know, you can work you can work with your teacher and they will definitely still continue to help them.

028uh but having someone in the associate in a similar role uh we think that would be very beneficial to them. Um and then uh you'll also I think even after the mentorship program ends that relationship would continue. Um we think that uh as you get to know someone over the first couple weeks that they will be uh the communication among the groups and among the employee would would improve. So we could kind of have a little more instead of somebody getting caught off guard or somebody comes in and resigns because they just can't handle it. will have a little more knowledge on the front end that hey, they're struggling a little bit. We need to get some more resources to somebody. Uh we would also attach some money to that. So, we're not going to

029ask an associate to be a mentor and here's more work and thanks for your time. We we'll we'll throw some money to it and uh and we're working on that, too. So, and then the the last piece probably is a expansion of full-time positions. So, um we have schedule E positions. Uh there are 28 of them right now and they are 37 and a half hour a week positions and they also receive uh monies to help pay for uh insurance benefits. So it's a higher paid position that that works a little more. Uh it makes it easier for us and for building principles that they can schedule these employees without h without having to try to keep them under uh full-time hours. Um and we've like I said we've gone up with just three years

030we've created 28 of these and we're willing to allocate 108,500 which is about 10 uh additional conversions of schedule C positions into E positions. So um it costs more obviously to have somebody work uh additional hours and then attach benefits to it. But we we see value in that uh and it allows us to recruit uh more employees. It makes a job a little more attractive when you're out there trying to compete with uh other businesses. So um that is the kind of the last piece that we would attach attach to it. Um so just comprehensive is the way we're looking at this is all of these things combined. So the unique categories uh better reflecting the job descriptions better informing the applicants upfront. Uh specialized training for once we hire them and put them

031into their positions. Uh including a mentor that they can rely on on a day-to-day basis. Uh that job shadowing premium pay for assignments that require that additional training. uh additional full-time positions that offer higher wages. Um so we're hopeful and confident that these would help in improve our recruitment uh work on improving retention, reduce the turnover, and reduce the absenteeism. Um and that absenteeism part is kind of we feel that if we uh do a better job of onboarding and and kind of selecting employees on the front end that we'll get uh employees that that are are going to be on the job a little bit more. We think some of the stresses and the the troubles with maybe new hires coming in that just contribute to increased absenteeism. Uh the other piece that's not

032on here is we uh we talked about unpaid leave. So uh education's kind of unique I think with unpaid leave. I think in the private sector if you say well I'm just going to take unpaid leave. I don't I don't know that any place let you do that. Um we have a little bit too much of it right now. So um after an employee exhausts their leave balances um it would kind of be a discussion about if this position is the right one. Um there will always be exceptions. So if there's a severe you know something medical something FMLA related that would definitely be a situation where that that employee can have a leave. But if if they're you know running out of leave uh and it becomes to the point where there is no

033paid leave for them to take. It'll just be a discussion about um either kind of monitoring that attendance and then and then just seeing if that's not the best fit. Uh and that's that's kind of something that goes along with all these other things is we just have to be vigilant and watching employees that um you know if we've got an average of 80 and 90 and 100 an 100 hours per employee um we've got to look somewhere to try to reduce some of that and I think the unpaid leave thing would uh would definitely be an area to look at. So and we brought quite a bit of attention to that area this year too and had one-on-one meetings to really find out why that request was there and that's an area we're going

034to continue to really focus on and bring those employees in and get explanation on what what's going on. what do you need leave for? Because it may be like John was saying, it may actually be an FMLA thing that they don't know about or it just may be no, we're not going to approve that and if you go well then you're going to have to go back into the subpool type thing and we'll terminate your employment because that's not allowable. And that's that's something that has come up with negotiations with the group. Um it's always frustrating to the associates that are here when there is a lot of absenteeism because I we ask them to fill the gap unfortunately. So it has is something that has come up. Um, so we're hopeful that uh the

035combination of these and working on that unpaid leave would pay some dividends and and like Mike said and and Brad, we're we're ready to roll with this this year. We're still uh working out some of the details, but um yeah, we're we're ready to go. We're hopeful that this helps helps address an issue that uh is definitely uh affects every building in the district. So, yep. And I just before we ask any for any questions, just thank McKenzie and Sarah and our HR office for all their work in the committee as well. And then all of the committee members that joined us. We met several times and they took time out of their summer to help us bring these recommendations to you. And with that, we'll open it up for any questions. I know um

036sometimes associates get frustrated if they've been with um their special needs child, for example. You know, they started with them in kindergarten and they're first grade, second grade, and then all of a sudden, for some reason, and they're successful with that child, and then for some reason they might get switched to a different child, and then that child has a new associate. Um I know um at least when I was teaching that happened to several associates and and that they didn't understand why you know they were being successful the child was being successful why do that to someone because then that makes them unhappy you know they like to go through and I think it's good for both of them you know they know the child and everything just an observation I made kind of

037piggyback off of that I have an actual question once you're categorized into one of these specialized job categories like special ed 2, what Becky's talking about, or something like that. Can you stay in that? Like, is that your position next year? So, if I got really good at being a health associate, I'm not going to go in next month and get put in a classroom. I would think that we would not want to do that. We would. Yeah, it's okay. I think that's kind of what Becky's getting to is like some predictability after year. Now, I know all too well as a principal some days you just have to make the trains run on time. So, you have to beg and borrow from some category sometimes because you have to prioritize this child. absolutely cannot

038go a day without somebody. So sometimes you have to have that flexibility um just to make the building run, you know, and make sure that we're meeting the needs of that IEP that has to come first. But as much as possible, we want to make sure that people know the position that they're going to be in so that we can evaluate that position better and make sure people are happy in their positions. Yeah, I think a good example of that is um we try to whenever we can is to keep them in the positions they want to be in. And and a good example would be uh with preschool, the changes we're making with preschool. We're going to have certified teachers, but we'll have less paras. Um it was really important to the paras that

039they wanted to stay in the building. And so we we're trying to work that out so they can remain at the preschool in a position um because they really want to. And we try to do that. Like Brad said, sometimes it's it's not plausible at times, but we always try to do that. the I I like all the ideas you've come up with. The one thing I thought about was years ago we had um time before school started to visit it. So I know you have a mentor, but once the day starts typically everyone has their students they're helping and the day just goes and it's really hard to help the new associates with what they need help for. So, I know in the past I know that's an expense, but getting to work 30

040minutes before, 15 minutes before, just to look into that to see if that's an a possibility. Um, they don't need a lot, but that could give them some reinforcement on what they need because even a mentor has to do her job, too, or his job. And there would be a little bit of that is in there. I I like your idea of maybe maybe expanding on it. Um we had kind of thought of that with the mentoring is that um they would have some additional time like at the start of the day or the and we were going to kind of leave it to the mentors to try to work into their schedule to say oh you know Thursdays let's come in at 7 o'clock and meet for half an hour and do exactly what

041you're talking about kind of get started. Um but uh we were just kind of looking at as once a week but it could be more than that. Um but no we would definitely be open to to giving some additional time uh so that they could talk about the position instead of just being in it. And that would be paid if if that would work out. Yeah, I think that would be important. And Jen, when we've talked about this before too, we we are keeping um we've added, you know, the day of in service before school starts and then throughout uh the year, we've actually added some Fridays for inservicing, too. Um and our associates really appreciate that particularly. I think the other thing we strive for is is training in the areas they want training

042into that they feel strongly about too. So, we try to focus on that. So we have more time with Paris for professional development than we've ever had and we've increased that. So I think that's paying some dividends. Um the the stats you put up about the the turnover um and these numbers were better than they were the prior year. You said these were kind of after some things were improved or they um I would we we looked at just the last year. I know a couple years ago we looked at data and uh the turnover is is always it's been pretty high for a couple years and the the absentee times um they fluctuate but yeah they they've been worse um which you know seems crazy but so my my question would be and and

043I don't know if this is a again someone someone uh cut me off if this is an appropriate question but you know do we have couple years three or four years of like historical data of the the demographic that's that we're hiring. You know, is is are we 65% female that's 24 and under? You know, are we, you know, 20% male that are between the ages of 21 and 27? I mean, and where we're seeing that turnover, because I think, you know, some those numbers don't lie, but if we have a say 65% of that workforce is say a female that's 25 and and under, and we're seeing a lot of turnover in that age group, okay, there's a different way to recruit and retain an employee that age than there would be someone in

044their middle 30s or their 40s, right? So I think to to if that information could be provided um I think that would help the district look at at okay we're seeing a ton of turnover in this age range you know or this sex or whatever it is and you know then we can how do we recruit or how do we retain what do we need to do to keep this age group this demographic in in in this workforce you know in their job you know what because everybody has different needs at once. And um I like that. Just breaking down that data more in those subgroups to determine which you know they have different needs you're saying. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Thank you, John. If I'm a first year parah today, what do I

045start at? uh 1622 or 1722 if you're in the preschool or safety because they got that extra dollar. Yeah. Okay. And Morgan, to give you some idea, comparatively we would be I think on the higher end, but there are districts that offer insurance too, you know. Um, I like we'd be at We used to be really on the high end, but uh with the shortages for all districts, a lot of smaller districts have really increased their pay rate for Paris. And so, and that's why we've tried to have that concerted effort to make more of those schedule E that John called them to move more folks full-time. Believe it or not, last year we had very little interest in our part-time employee group moving to that schedule E because they wanted the flexibility and the

046really the hours and and Some of the feedback we got from the committee was because most of these individuals in those roles are the ones that can take off need to take off for their child. Maybe they're not the primary um earner in their household. They needed that flexibility in the hours. So they they don't want a full schedule. Um and we had very little if any interest in our pool last year to go to those schedule E. So we're going to try to convert more of them this year, 10 more to those schedule E, those full-time with benefits. But um it doesn't seem to be right now that's a big issue. That kind of goes against what I liked about your plan, opening up those full-time positions and saying, "Look, if you prove that

047you're a good employee, you're reliable, you're here on time every day, there's a path for you to go full-time, then you get benefits, expanded pay, and more hours." Exactly. That's what we're hoping we've tried to do. The carrot that you could dangle, but if they don't care, then Yeah. I then I think it's kind of like Dusty. You got to go back and reevaluate who are we attracting and what do they want? because if they don't want full-time employment with health insurance, what are we doing here? You know, we got to think about what we're doing because we're we're incentivizing the wrong things at that at that point. And that's again why we hope this mentoring and and the job shadowing component. That was the biggest missing piece for a lot of them is that

048they were completely overwhelmed when they got into it and within a couple days they're like, I'm done. This is not what I thought it was going to be. Yeah. And I think the the the recruitment or Yeah. the recruitment piece is like uh as Brad mentioned mo mostly we've tried to turn internal people into the full-time positions to see that's where we thought the interest would lie. Uh but if we're not seeing that then maybe that's something we that's what's advertised out to the external market and where we're going to find people that are looking for more of a full-time job and uh whereas right now we're just trying to do it to our internal staff. But if we if we continue to struggle there to do it, I think we'll put that out externally

049and maybe there's more uh people out out there looking for a position that is full-time that typically we haven't gotten because we've been trying to fill those internal positions. So, it may be a shift there, but no, it's it we're always a little surprised um when we roll something out if it doesn't go exactly like we're think we thought they would be snapped up and the absence uh rates would be much better and it just didn't play out. So, we'll continue to try to work on it and improve it. um and see if we're getting the right people in there. And and that's the other thing is just recruitment is an associate is a tough job. Um we have a challenge recruiting anything at all. And some of what you mentioned Dusty is just looking

050at the demographics is we've we've tried to just anybody in the world that could come apply to be an associate. We've just tried to reach and we get a wide range. Um but we're always short. Uh we never get as many applications as we want. Um, so we're hoping that developing better job descriptions and kind of just making it clear, hey, this is what the job is because I think a lot of people just have a misunderstanding of what it is. So we hope that maybe that improves, but I think we're definitely dig into the demographic data a little bit and see if there's something we can pull out from that. Is is there more room? I mean is there I think Morgan asked what someone would start at today 1622 to 1722 and Brady

051made a comment about you know these these pairs are are the glue right I mean there's some assignments that are much more challenging than others um you know is that something that we need to look at I mean you know some of these assignments that are that some people are probably drawing are very challenging and you know when you're $1722 2 cents an hour in today's world is not I mean that you'd have to do it for the love of of the job because there there's just that very short on pay for some of these jobs. I mean, for some of the some of the children that need these services that um you know, so I don't, you know, I I saw that there's variation in raises increases based on the assignment, but I think

052if there's an opportunity for more, I I think that would help certainly attract. I mean, you can make $17 an hour at a lot of places and probably not have nearly the stress of being tied to somebody who's, you know. Yeah. No, I think it's definitely something that's it's a movable target and I know we yeah, we've talked to the groups and that was kind of get what kicked out there and all of these things are is um you got to start somewhere and if we're not seeing what we want then then adjust quickly and move it. So I think and we'll we've got a good open relationship with the associate group the union. So if the you know we're outside of negotiations but if we want to talk and say hey let's do this

053or change that we can do a a memorandum of understanding make a change on the fly. Uh we've done that before. We'll probably do that for several of these things. Um, but yeah, definitely something to look at. John, do you happen to know of our associate pool how many are assigned to children with IEPs that absolutely have to have a person versus how many we have that are considered non-essential or like extra help? I don't have it with me, but we have that data. So yes, we use it's and the majority of them are are um and we we apply it where it's not like uh this student needs associate coverage. They they get minutes. The IEPs are written in minutes. So uh we use that data to fill the associate pool, but I think

054the majority of our associates are special ed in some way or another. They probably probably majority are special ed and uh the majority are not assigned to a one-on-one. The majority would be general. Y and I'm sure you guys have looked at this, but I guess where I was going with that is if we thought that we could go more quality people over quantity of people, right? But I'm sure I'm sure you guys have taken that into consider. Well, that's the idea too behind the schedule E honestly is like we more full-time than we'll need less part-time. Yeah. And that's that and it worked for the first couple years. Last year was the first year we didn't get much interest internally. So, something we're going to look at. Yeah. No, and I still tend to

055think that's the way to go. And maybe we need to start attracting people that want full-time employment with benefits versus people that just want to come in when they want to come in and work because it's convenient for them. Y, you know, that might work for you, but I don't know. My job, I got to show up every day. And but your point, Morgan, is is part of what's increased with some of these issues is we have added quite a few pairs than we had in the past, you know, to support our staff and that that has led to some of these problems, too. And I know Sorry. Some parents get um frustrated when uh you know, they thought they were just working with one child and then all of a sudden they're told, you

056know, well, you're going to have these two or these three um because you're in the room. And I don't know how that qualifies to meet the IEP. You know, I know they go by minutes. Um but it can be frustrating if you just expect that you're dealing with one child and all of a sudden you have three that um you're to work with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the biggest thing that concerns me, I mean, the turnover does, but the absenteeism is I don't know how you solve that. Um, in the non-educational world, people would lose their jobs. Um, I know unfortunately we're kind of over a barrel at times. um you know because we need the we need the bodies and the staff and all that but yeah I mean I applaud you for you

057know having people meet and try to but I think that's the biggest hurdle to try and get over is get people to show up to work cuz those I mean missing over two weeks of school for sick time and that and going back to kind of what Morgan is is maybe the quality over quantity um which is hard to do but I kind of figure at least at that point you're you know, people that want to be there. Um, because, and I'm not saying this in every position for the associates, but I think a lot of them, it's probably fairly easy to to be sick or to call in sick. And I'm not saying that they're not sick all the time, but they don't have all of the sub plans and all of the things

058to prepare for that. It's just easy to just I'm not going to work today. And I don't know how you get around that. And I think it's kind of like any position, the the really the really good associates are very valuable and we wish we had a lot more of them. And then going back to your we just kind of have a if you can fog up a mirror, you know, you can work for the district as an associate. Um I think you know that's the biggest thing for me, the the absenteeism because that just throws every building into chaos when it's Yeah. Just like Becky mentions it now. Oh, you got to cover for these two kids. That's where that's born from is that just covering that absenteeism. So, no, it's definitely a root

059of a lot of the operational problems. So, uh we're trying to address we've tried all kinds of things during the year to address it, but we're hoping to address it on the front end and getting the right employees in the right positions and and that that better quality employee and doing a little better job on the front end of hiring that hopefully that pays some dividends. Uh but yeah, it's definitely a challenge and it it creates a lot tremendous challenges at the building level. Um especially in buildings with a lot of associates when you you have a high turnover or a high absent rate. Uh you know if there's 20 associates and half of them are gone and we've had situations like that. It's just devastating to a building and it's just crisis mode for

060the whole day and it's very taxing on the people that are there. Uh so it's yeah it's a big issue and definitely one we hope that some of these address but it'll it'll take time. It'll take a little bit of I think the two things Dave we the committee talked about in that realm is one is is um we have a pretty generous sick number of sick days and so forth and how can we incentivize our people to come on a daily basis maybe reimbursing them if they don't use their sick days we did that was one thing we talked about the other thing they mentioned too is on um uh taking unpaid leave um I've never seen that in districts where you're allowed you know to take a paid lead unless unless it's an

061emergency or something like that and we're probably too generous in that respect too is looking at what you know not allowing that but how how can we incentivize people to come I think I think there's something there that we've talked about as a committee that we want to look at um and maybe those are some things all right thank you very much yes thank you that is not an action item but we appreciate the discussion um next up there are a few action items. Um the first one here is the non-certified subseasonal and other hourly rates. Okay, you get me for that one. Uh so this is just all the like just like it says uh non-certified staff. So everybody but the teachers. These are uh there's an attachment in your board agenda. So these

062are all the associate rates. Uh most of them are adjusted automatically. So we did this a couple years ago. The associates, custodians, food service and secretaries. they get 90% of the negotiated base wage. So, whenever that changes, their sub rate changes. So, there's no changes there. We just put this on there as kind of a reminder and a refresher. These what the rates are. Uh certified prep period substitute, that's when teachers give up their prep period. We have a calculation for that and we just put it on this sheet here so you understand what that is. Our seasonal building and grounds, uh if you're a brand new hire, it's $14 an hour. And if they're a returning employee, we give them the subcustodian rate. And then our PTYC staff, their hourly rates, uh, starting rates

063are 11 and 14. And those those didn't change, but what we did put on here is a note, and we worked with this group. Um, so we're asking to approve these rates. And one of the things is that existing employees, just like everybody else, would get an increase. Um, and their increase would be the same as a miscellaneous employee group, uh, the non-bargain, so 2.8%. So if somebody was hired at 11 and they've worked for us the whole year, they get a 2.8% 8% raise and same thing with the 14 and we never had that before. They they would be here and they three years in they're still making the same thing. So we just want to tie that so existing employees get an increase. Uh but the base wages stay the same for new

064employees. And then do we just put the other rates on there? So your admissions workers, crossing guards, IT apprenticeship, and the bulldog network. Uh those are no changes. Uh but we just wanted to put something together and we'll probably bring this before the board on an annual basis just as a refresher uh whether there's changes or not. So, uh, happy to answer any questions on that. Okay, if there's no questions, we need a motion to approve the non-certified sub and other. Make a motion to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is substitute teacher pay update. Yeah, this one I'm um I'm bringing to the board as a proposal. Um I'll kind of explain why

065I think we should look at this and and why I think um it's important to to move forward with this is that what what school districts have experienced um over the many years, last five years probably at least that uh it's becoming more and more difficult to get subs. And so what the state has done is they have made given districts more flexibility in their subs. So like sub authorization, somebody with the sub authorization now can sub in anywhere. They can do long-term subs as well. And there's a lot of good aspects to that. The downside is is that potentially the quality goes down when you start allowing so much flexibility and you get people outside of the certification. And so what I'm proposing tonight is to look at how we can when we have

066and this is just for long-term subs. So when we have a long-term sub assignment that we pay at a different rate so we'd have a better chance of filling these positions with certified teachers but also certified in their area as well. Um, and to me that's huge as far as quality of education because if you're filling in for somebody for say eight weeks and you're not certified in that area, that really has an impact on the quality of that education. And and so what I'm proposing to the board is on long-term subs that we have a tiered system where if you're um what we do now is if you're all subs are just paid 185 a day um um if you exceed that 10 days of posting. So if you go beyond 10 days. So

067keeping that for um one level of subs. And then the next one is if you're a certified teacher filling a long-term sub position, you'd be paid at 225 a day. And then if you're a certified and endorsed in that area. So, like if I'm um a science teacher in chemistry and I'm filling in for that position at the high school in chemistry, you would get $250 a day uh for subbing. Um what my hope would be with this proposal too is that it would also increase the number of subs we have because I do think this might attract uh Jan and Becky to come back and sub and so forth. So, I do think we will get um uh retirees that might have an interest in coming back at this sub rate. Um and I

068think that would be great uh if we could. Uh we're always looking for more subs and more qualified subs. Um so I think it is really important that um we we move forward with this proposal because it's as the board knows the impact uh a qualified and highly trained teacher has on on a classroom over a prolonged period of time is just dramatic. And so um I'll kind of open it up any questions the board has. Um be glad to answer anything or thoughts that you have. What's the rate, Mike? If it's less than 10 days, if it's less than 10 days, 150 for all the all the categories for teachers daily a day. Okay. Do you know how many long-term subs we use a year? Yeah. What I was Dave, so I was I

069knew one uh question the board would want to know is what what do I project as the cost of this program, right? and we project between 30 to $40,000 additional monies. Um, but it's really hard to get at that. We're basing it on past few years, how many long-term subs, you never know from year to year how many you're going to have, but that's that's the range we're looking at probably costing additional monies if we go this route. Was it 10 days that constitutes longterm? Mhm. Okay. Yep. Other thoughts or questions? How is our subpool as far as do we have a lot of openings at buildings that aren't filled on a just a regular non-long-term basis? Just, hey, we have people that are sick today or they're off or whatever. And if the board

070remembers, we finished the school year, every single building had a a flex building sub just to help with those things. Yeah. because the fill rate is not 100%. I'd say it's around 60 to 70%. So, people are covering on their prep periods often and they get additional money to do that. And then we're hiring these building subs. Um so, yeah, we finish the year with a a flex building sub in every every school building. We'll start the school year um with about half of the buildings having them, some of our larger buildings, um just to help with that because the fill rate is not not high. Another question. Um, do you have uh is it still an effect? I know we used to once upon a time. I don't know if it still happens. If

071if you have a sub that subs 10 times, not doesn't have to be the same position, but if it used to be the fact I know that the systems have changed where the subs used to be called and now they can go in and look and pick where they want to go, but if they did it 10 consecutive times, then their rate went up from that 150 to a higher number. Um, I know that was different because you used to be able to call subs and ask them, "Can you sub today?" And they'd say yes. If they said yes 10 times, they got a higher rate uh in a row. I didn't know if that would be something if you have somebody that's subbing. Mhm. You know, or maybe that whatever that hey, they subbed

07290 times this year. I don't know what that might be that they get. I see. So, I kind of like the idea, too. You're saying, Dave, like a a scenario where they're doing different sub assignments, but it's 10 days in a row. Well, or or or you have something that hey, if you sub in our district x amount of times in a year or whatever. I mean, so if you're a reliable sub and you, you know, fill in for once you hit a certain number, certain number, you might go up to a different Yeah. Once you hit 50, you're you're not making 150 anymore. It's going to 175 or 200 or whatever. But even the 10 days like they used to do, you know, and then bump them up. But as you said, it's different

073now because we used to have somebody who would call and say, "Can you do this?" And now they people get on and look, right? Yeah. Any other questions, Becky? So like they hop online and say, "I'm going to do this one today." they pick. I mean, that might be a good way to incentivize people to hop on and pick quick. Like, if I pick 10 days in a row, I get a bonus. So, I'm gonna hop on as soon as it's posted, and I'm going to fill that right away because I don't want somebody else to fill it. Yeah. Yeah, we can look at that. Um, I would even be in favor of some kind of arrangement where you didn't have to get to 10. 10 seems like a long time to get the higher

074rate. So, kind of like Dave said, if they could like stack on each other or I think all of those are good ideas. Regardless, the proposal tonight is 10 consecutive days and these are the three rates. Yeah. And and usually I think the reason they came up with 10 is um teachers who know they're going to be gone, they'll have plans, you know, for a week or two and then once you have to start doing the lesson plans and and taking over, it gets more difficult, I think. So it's you should get a higher pay. But I do like this idea, Mike. Good. I think that all that I I know of one other district in Iowa that's doing this and that I I got the idea from that district uh West De Moine. Um

075so it's fairly new but uh I when I heard about it I just I really liked it. I think it's going to really have an impact on the quality. So there's no more questions. I'd make a motion to approve the uh substitute teacher pay update as presented. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Okay, motion passes. Next is the 2526 student handbooks. Yeah, and I believe the board has the uh actual handbooks themselves and also just the highlights from the principles and their team that they uh provided recommendations for. A lot of the changes that you'll see um were just in regards to some of the legislative items in regards to attendance and some of our attendance policies.

076We had to make some adjustments to those. So that's the majority of them. Um Evans had a few other tweaks to their tardy policy um on the back page or on the second page of their highlights. Liberty being really was a new building this year, a 67 grade level configuration. They had quite a few um additional changes just as as you kind of get in and learn um that age. It was a new grade level uh configuration with 67. Um they had some more changes and some grade um grading u practices are going to be changing as we stairst step standardsbased grading up as a school system. So just some changes there. Um and and Heather provided kind of a uh a highlight there. OS not a lot of changes there. They have some room

077changes happening at the high school. So, some of their maps are changing. Um, they're changing their schedule to accommodate some Indian Hills classes and just a few little language changes. Um, nothing at Gateway uh changing other than just rolling over to a new school year. Uh, so again, just some minor changes and just general annual changes to the handbook. So, we'd ask the board um to approve those unless you have any questions. And Brad, we don't have a summary sheet. If you could just email that. Okay. Yeah. Any other discussion? Make motion to approve. Second. We have a motion in a second. If there's no other questions, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is board reading. Board policy 500 series review first reading. These are just required annual updates. Um

078there are no changes. These are just policies that are required to be reviewed annually so that our website reflects that accurately. I um IASB provides policy primers on these and our current policies all reflect their recommended language. So this is just a required annual um policy review. Hey Christina, can we approve both these at the same time? Sure. I'd make a motion to approve items D and E. Second. We have a motion and a second. Brad, is there anything to add to the discussion for item E? Uh, no, I don't believe so. John, was there anything for E? It's just taking our cell phone. Oh, yes. Yeah, that one that one did have that one was required again based on legislation this last year. Um, we are required to have a board policy, a standalone

079policy on cell phones. That policy was previously just in our handbooks, but we are required to have a an actual board policy. So what we did is we took language from um again the IASB recommended language and then we inserted our um own regulations since we do things we kind of were spearheading that really in the state. We did some things that were unique and work really well. Uh so we wanted to make sure we included that and that's what those two are. So we have a motion and a second for item D and E together. Is there any other discussion or questions? If not, all those in favor raise your right hand. Okay. Motion passes there. Next board priority. Through the board's financial stewardship, we will provide operations, technical, and curricular resources to staff,

080teachers, and administrators so that all students have consistent and sustained achievement. We have oneformational topic here, which is the baseball and softball complex discussion with Brandon. Well, Brandon and Don and I are are going to would like to have a discussion with the board on um uh something that we've been working on and quite honestly it's probably progressing a little bit quicker and so than I thought it would as far as discussions with the city. So, I wanted to get it in front of the board so you knew about it, had a chance to ask questions, give us feedback, and give us some direction about um where you would like us to go with this. But in in a general sense, it it kind of focuses on looking at a complex of putting our baseball

081and softball together. Uh where we're talking about is um where our current baseball field is potentially. Then we would look at having a varsity uh softball field. Um and then we would have at least one additional field probably baseball uh for middle school as well. And um we think there's a lot of benefits to this. Um but what would come along with that proposal too is looking at how we'd upgrade uh some of our baseball and softball facilities. Uh the biggest way we'd probably is looking at uh putting in turf uh for those areas. Um, the thing that probably surprised me pleasantly is that I think the the city is very open to giving us the land. It's in early stages and it could change tomorrow, but they they seem at least very open to

082discussion of of giving us land around the baseball field. uh which would be the land with the two uh baseball fields uh behind our baseball field and then that open land um off to the side of that baseball field and and uh Brandon's going to go in more in depth into that. But that that's in a general sense what they're uh looking at. And then also if we were to do something like this, one of our issues that we have at that structure right now is is lack of parking. So we'd also look at how do we address our our parking issue down there as well. Um so he's Brandon's going to go through kind of some of the thoughts that we have. We'll open it up for questions. Um, we've done some preliminary things

083as far as finding out from of some of our stakeholders where they're at on this idea as well that Brandon is going to share out. So, I'll turn it over to Brandon. Uh, yeah, just kind of backtrack a little bit. We started middle school baseball and softball. This is year two. Um, which has been really great for us. You know, we've talked about a lot of our programs just creating some comprehensive programming. And I would say baseball and softball probably have some of the stronger standalone youth programs uh in the community compared to, you know, some other programs that we that we have. Um we don't really have a lot in-house for youth programming. Um and so we kind of lose that connect connection a little bit I feel like. And so middle school really

084was the bridge for that. So it's been super awesome. Um what that's done is just kind of created a need for space, right? And we have four levels on both sides. uh middle school all the way up through freshman, JV, and varsity uh levels on both sides. And I just put some uh numbers to that so you guys can see kind of kind of what we're looking at. Um we did not open uh some of that up to sixth grade just because of the the number of kids that we had in seventh and eighth grade that wanted to play baseball was was pretty high and um getting games is really kind of the the challenge at at that level. And so um but this just kind of summarizes that a little bit. The main thing

085for us I feel like is just having space. I do want to say those those groups have been great to work with. Um the Babe Ruth uh board has been awesome just about inviting us in. I mean they were at a point a couple years ago right when we I mean kind of created the need for us to start a middle school program where it wasn't going to exist anymore. Um, and some people kind of saved it, which has been awesome. And we've been able to kind of establish a really great partnership. Um, in talking to them about this whole idea, you know, their their concern is that we're going to have a place to play and like, yeah, we're going to continue that. Obviously, I think we we work really well together. And, um,

086just how things line up schedule-wise. It's it's not going to create any problems for us at all. Uh, Tumbl Youth girls softball has been the same way. They've been awesome. Uh, just about loading us on the field. and um their schedule's a little more difficult to work around because it's it's big and there's a lot of levels and there's games every night and um and so that's been a little bit challenging, but they've been phenomenal to work with. And uh this uh proposal or or idea doesn't really affect them as much just because we were kind of free riding with them and um just want to thank those two groups for kind of the the support that they've given us to kind of get to this point. So So as Mr. McGory said, this is

087kind of the space that we're looking at. Um, we've walked the area and talked through a lot of options. I think there's tons and tons of um, possibilities here and and we would obviously want to get the right stakeholders at the table to kind of talk through those and figure out, you know, hey, what what is the best solution here? It's a a great piece of ground that has some really great facilities on it already. Starting obviously with Legion. Um, this is a a facility that we've upgraded quite a bit the last couple years since we got possession of it. It looks great. Um the the one thing would be as as he alluded to, the playing surface is going to need need some pretty serious love. Um the outfield uh actually the whole surface

088needs leveled um and irrigation and you know the system that we use to water it is very labor intensive. Um and so you know by the time you water one side you pretty much start over and and we water that thing constantly just to to keep it looking like it like it is. So, um, we feel like just with the trajectory of, you know, what other schools are doing, um, and and the the amount of turf that we see throughout the season or are starting to see throughout the season, um, this is probably as good a time as any to to consider that. Um, both of our baseball and softball teams played are playing the softball tomorrow, postseason games on turf, and so, you know, it's going to create an advantage for us, I feel

089like, to to see that every day. So, um, this is kind of an ideal time. In this photo, you can kind of see on the right side there, uh, in between the two fences. That's kind of the idea of, hey, maybe that'd be a place for the high school softball field. Again, I feel like there's lots of conversations to happen with this, but um, preliminarily, that's that's kind of the idea. So, this is uh just some photos of the current Babe Ruth facility. Um, again, I feel like when we walk through there, there's a ton of potential here. Um, starting with the concession restroom, press box area. um I mean probably is nicer than anything we have currently. And so the conversation we had was hey do we want to start over with that or

090should we just try to leverage kind of what has been started here already? And I think there's a ton of potential. The field on the left is the one that we um have played middle school baseball on up to this point for practices and games and pretty much pretty much everything. Um and the field on the right is one that's uh utilized a little a little less, but So that's I guess the current park layout. I would open it up for questions. Are you proposing three turf fields or just turf on Legion? Uh again, I think there's probably a lot of discussion to happen, but kind of the the ideas that we've kicked around a little bit would be uh potentially turf the high school fields and then have our middle school fields be natural.

091I think something that that does is kind of create the best of both worlds for us. And so if we're, you know, for whatever reason, draw a postseason softball game that's on a natural field, we have that option to to, you know, work on. And um but regularly we'd be playing high school games on on turf. So looking at that drawing, so that I guess bottom right as we see it is the area where you're thinking that you would insert the varsity softball field. Yeah, potentially. So it would be uh behind the outfield fence on the the lower right hand big roof field in between that fence and and Legion. But looking at that and looking at the, you know, the concession stands, restrooms that are at both of the baseball fields currently, um, and

092the parking that exists at both of those. I guess my concern with the softball field sitting there is, you know, are they walking, you know, depending on where home plate and all the bleachers and all that are sitting, they're walking to the baby Ruth or to Legion to use the restroom or, you know, I don't know if that to me, I don't know if that feels like an upgrade. I'm sure field would be nice and turfed and all that. Um, but if you can place it right, I mean, I just don't want to where people are parking way over here to go, you know, does that make sense? Yeah. Um, and then have to walk to the restroom and, you know, I love the idea of having baseball and softball together. 100% love that. Um,

093I just want to make sure it's not a what feels as though a downgrade to the softball program. Yeah. And and I I really don't think it will be. I think we can position it in a way that it's close enough, you know, while you're at the field to the facilities we have. As far as parking goes, and again, this is preliminary and just, you know, things that we've kind of talked through. Um, one of these fields, the Babe Ruth Fields, is probably going to become substantially smaller because it's going to become a middle school softball field. And so, we talked about there's probably a really big opportunity to to create some additional parking there. Um, so like the left field for example, uh, left Babe Ruth Field, that outfield fence could potentially come in

09475 ft. Uh, and so that's, you know, going to create quite a bit of space where the youth field already uses some of that for parking currently. And so there's an opportunity, I think, to potentially look at parking in that area. kind of to piggy back off that Brandon, that was the only thing I was going to add is all three of those fields really the outfield fence could come in and give you a lot more land space there if you needed to. I know we've talked about this before, but um like Dave said, love the idea, love the concept of it. I would not turf just half of either field if we're going to do it. Turf the whole thing um because you don't gain any maintenance um you know, issues if you if

095you're still maintaining both kind of ground. So, I would definitely um nyx that idea. And then, of course, I would just be very very careful about how we did the Legion field. It has terrible drainage there at the outfield fence. And so, I think if you brought that in, and I'm not the expert, just make sure we hire experts to do it. Um, if you brought that back field fence in 15, 20 feet, we're going to help ourselves a lot with drainage. And then there's a lot of space there to pull in those side um the side fins because right now on the visitor side we've got a bullpin on the inside of the fence. So we'd want to like move that out. And so you've just got a lot of room to play with

096possible more parking, help with cost, help with look, help with efficiency, help with drainage. None of those fields, I guess my rambling point is none of those fields have to stay the way they are in this picture. there's a lot of space there and there's a lot of flexibility to move things around and they don't need to stay that size. So yeah, but it's a great idea. I think that's probably one of the most exciting things about it is like the bones of the the ground itself is really really good and I think could be set up in a in a really great way. So I think it's a good opportunity. So, as far as the tennis courts go, the city still wants to keep those as tennis because they're not being up, you know,

097the upkeep isn't happening, you know. Jan, we never really uh broached that if they were willing. So, we haven't never had that conversation. I know they're wanting to do something with that area. They get lots of questions, what are you going to do with it and so forth. So, I don't we we could explore if they, you know, because that could help with our parking too, right? if we had that area because I know they use the youth fields a lot for you know the summer but the tennis courts aren't really being and now that we have all they're at a point where the the city knows they can't re resurface them or something you'd have to put in new and I don't think they're looking at doing that yeah because that would give us

098a lot of space there to Yeah. Yeah. But to Dave's point, there's so many options here that um like Dave, I think, tell me if this addresses some is if you it kind of depends where you have home played at, but if in that area, but you could have the bathrooms where um if you had home plate by the baseball field, then you could use the bathrooms, you know, by the in the baseball area. Um still doesn't address your parking question. Um, but the other option we've talked about is that and this would be a uh probably save money as well and and you're basing it on what is our need and our greatest need right now would be an additional softball field and an additional um middle school baseball field um because we would

099probably keep um the current softball field too. So that would serve as our middle school softball field potentially if we wanted to save money. And if you did that, uh, an option you'd have is making using one of those other baseball fields and making that into the high school softball field. So that becomes an option, too, if if you wanted to look at that. Um, there probably be uh cost savings to that. So I think there's there's a a lot of different ways you could go at this. I think what we're intrigued by, like Brandon said, is just um the layout, the footprint of it has a lot of potential. Is there a timeline for the city to approve any of these land transactions? There isn't a per se timeline, but uh where I've left

100it with uh the uh city is that uh after my discussion tonight, I'll come back to them and potentially maybe draw up some type of agreement that we can take to both uh council and the school board uh to see get their feedback and approval. I agree with Jan. I would ask for the tennis courts. They mean Yeah, they could say no. Yeah. All right. Any other questions? Anybody I It helped me if anybody adverse to looking at the options um or concerned about looking at them. Okay, thanks. Thank you. Okay, next up we have a few action items here. The first one is the 2526 construction trade homes. Um we can approve one through seven here together. Don. Okay. So this year's uh construction trade home is at 114 J Street and u we

101sent some RFQS out for products and services. I just going to go through those real quick here um if that is such a thing. But uh first item um [Applause] number one, foundation materials recommendation to award the 2526 construction straight trades home foundation materials bid to Carol Construction Supply at a total cost of $8,672.60. On this year's home build, the construction trade students will be involved in the forming and pouring of the home foundation. The attach the attached bid covers all materials forming and pouring of the home foundation excluding concrete to to complete the foundation pour. Second item would be the plumbing underground plumbing uh recommendation to award the 2526 construction construction trade homes underground plumbing project to Maher plumbing at a total cost of $4,450. The project will include roughing in sewer, water and

102radon um piping under the concrete slab foundation. Third item, water and sewer connection. uh recommendation to award the 2526 trade home water and sewer hookup project to Elite Plumbing at a total cost of $13,230. The plumber will be responsible for running water and drain lines to foundation stubs and making connections to the city sewer. Fourth item, home interior plumbing recommendation to award the 2526 construction trade homes whole house plumbing project to Maher Plumbing and heating at a total cost of $14,360. The project will include supply and drain lines inside the home as well as installation of school supplied fixtures, water heater, faucets, floor drains, and garbage disposal. The plumber will provide and install the shower faucets and trim. Fifth item is the lumber package. Recommend to recommendation to award the 2526 construction trade home lumber

103package to Dow's lumber at a total cost of $30,533.76. Vendor shall provide all lumber and accessories required to build the home according to design plans. Sixth item, heating and air conditioning. Recommendation to award the 2526 construction trade home HVAC project to Southern Iowa Heating and Air at a total cost of $18,849. Contractor shall supply an energyefficient gas furnace and a 15 sear air conditioner and heated garage. Contractor shall supply material and labor to install duct work for heat and AC and cold air return. Seventh item, electrical recommendation to award the 2526 construction trade home electrical project to Advance electrical at a total cost of $17,150. The electrical work will include included with the bid includes labor to hook up temporary pole and wire by August 25th and labor materials necessary to provide a 200 amp

104service and electrical connections throughout the home. Any questions on those? What was the address of that house? 114 J Street 114. Thank you. Y there's no questions. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Is there any other questions? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Um, next we can do B and C together. Two OS parking projects. Okay. First item is fourth street parking. uh recommendation to award u the OHS for street parking which is where we tore the four houses down this this or burn them down this past spring um to five es excavating a total cost of $39,800 as part of the parking improvement at Tommo High School that the district solicited bid for the construction of a parking area

105located where the four houses were demolished. The contractor will excavate the site to allow for proper drainage, install fabric and gravel the area. The contractor will also stabilize the north side or north slope of the area with rip wrap to control erosion. And then the this competition gym area up on the u on the on the video. We've got uh there's actually four areas we're going to be concreting with this project. and we're going to be gaining about 31 parking spots around the the park or the competition gym um between those three areas. And then from from South College Street back east along that uh the alleyway between NY's Pawn Shop and our competition gym, we're going to be concreting that alley up about I think it's 100 110 feet to the corner of the

106competition gym also. So um and then this u that alley between college and Jefferson, the city has granted us permission or we we gained permission from the city to make that one way and uh all the way down to where that last stall is. And then we're going to we're going to be able to um bring traffic in from Jefferson Street right behind the dentist uh office where we're in talks with them to allow us to park in that that gravel area right behind uh Dr. Enloow's. So any that'll be uh so that'll be one way all the way down to there and then there'll be signage down on on Jefferson Street that it'll be two-way and and allow us we figure probably 15 to 18 spots back there behind the the dentist office. Any

107questions about two parking lots at OS? Not. We need a motion for items B and C. Motion to approve items B and C. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any other discussion? Not. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is item D, Schaefer Stadium scoreboard. So, as part of the Schaefer Stadium upgrade and things we've done here in the past few years, we're look we looked at or solicited bids for a new video board at Schaefer Stadium. And uh we'd asked the board to uh we recommended the board to award the um video board to MCG at a a price of $62,44. Any questions about that? Motion to approve. Second. If there's no more discussions, we have a motion in a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand.

108Motion passes. Next is a resolution to continue participation in instructional support levy with John. The end is near. I think I got the last four here. So, um this is the last this is what we had the public hearing about at the start of the meeting. So, last meeting uh we passed a resolution that said we're going to consider doing this. Uh we're continuing the instructional support levy program. We've been in it for quite a few year over 10 years. This just re-ups it for another five. The board has to look at it um every so often. So, uh we had the meeting last time. Uh we held published that we're going to have a public hearing. We've held the public hearing. This is the final resolution that says, "Yep, we want to keep doing

109it." So, uh any questions? There's no questions. We need a motion to approve. I make a motion to approve the resolution to continue participation in the second. We have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is AA state fund transfer agreement. This is the formal agreement that we'll have with Great Prairie Aea. So, they will continue to receive 90% of the district special education funds. It used to just flow um directly to them. They got rid of that. So now we'll get the money and we have to set up an arrangement to transfer it to them on a monthly basis. This is the agreement that uh memorializes that and that is all. Any questions for John? Motion to approve. Second.

110We have a motion and a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is the 2526 student fees. Okay, this is we asked the board to take a look at this and approve it every year. Uh we made some changes this year. We removed a couple fees that did not apply. So like there used to be a piano festival and I think they said they don't do that at all the buildings anymore. Uh we also reviewed a lot of the fees were confusing where they all mentioned uniforms. Um, basically we just put if you know marching band fee, acquire fee. Um, yes, we use it to condition and clean the uniforms, but the fee uh schedule doesn't have to have that. It got a

111little confusing, so we just tried to simplify it. We had building principles review it. We had the athletic department review it. Um, we uh made a couple tweaks. I think we changed the instrument fee to $50. Um, uh, but for the most part, they stayed pretty close to the same. Uh, but we just had a lot of eyes on it and welcome to answer any questions. Any questions for John about the fees? If not, we need a motion to approve the student fees for the 2526 school year. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, we have a motion, a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. And the last one is the athletic safety equipment transfer. And this is uh another one we do every year.

112Um we can't just buy safety equipment from the general fund. The student activity fund has to pay for it, but we're allowed to transfer monies from the general fund to reimburse them for it. So, this is just the formal action for the board to do a transfer. Uh $15,000 is the amount. Uh that was the same last year. It used to be 12. It's kind of bounced around, but uh that's what we had in the budget for this year, and we're just asking the board to approve that again this year. Motion to approve. Second. We have a motion in a second. Is there any other discussion? If not, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. Next is the superintendent report. Thanks, Christina. Um I have several things uh for the board. The

113first is um Brad's going to give you a hiring. I thought the board would like to get a hiring update where we're at with our hiring for this upcoming school year. So, yeah. Thank you, Mr. McGory. I'm happy to report that we are in really, really good uh position for the coming school year um especially in the certified our teaching um uh teaching spots. We have a couple openings at the preschool level still. Um some of those are to our own doing. we have decreased our class sizes at Pwick um and we're looking to add sections because of of the demand there. So, that's a good problem um at Pwick. So, we have two openings still there currently. And then we have um some of our current staff that we just have to wait on

114with the BOE to get um to get um certified. And then we're still looking for a halftime music teacher. So, maybe some of the incentives that Mr. McGroy offered tonight for long-term subs or um permanent subs, maybe that'll help for some of our retired folks that are out there. Uh we have a fourth grade opening at Farnney uh still and then uh mo recently we had a resignation at our home school um that's in the elementary world. Uh secondary positions we are happy to report we have a position applied tech offer out to a teacher uh for applied tech or industrial tech. Uh we're still looking for a school counselor at Evans and uh we made an offer today to a family consumer science teacher at Liberty. So those are our really our only secondary

115opening. So really um in good shape. We're excited about that. Uh even in the classified ranks, so our associate ranks, John and our HR team, we were looking at that the other day. Um if everybody returns that was with us to finish the year, now we know that's not going to be the case, but if they did, um we would not need to hire anybody currently based on the number of IEP minutes that we have um and our students. So overall, uh really, really happy with where we're at. Um we're going to have a hiring fair uh two weeks from tomorrow down here at Career Campus. So, anybody listening or out there um or know somebody that's looking um it's just a walk-in open interview day and I'll work with Kate in our um communications

116department in Landon to get something posted tomorrow um two weeks in advance of that. So, really we're we're excited. We could not be more um happy with where we're at right now, but we still have a few uh crucial spots to fill. So, again, if anybody's listening or you know somebody that's looking to join a great team, we'd love to talk to them. Any questions for We really appreciate the hard work the HR department's done. I you know, you've mentioned this before, Brad, but uh comparatively to large school districts and even some of the small school districts around the area. We're in better shape than even some of the little districts around here. And again, a lot of credit to Sarah and Mackenzie and my HR team. They're fantastic. Thanks a lot, Bren. The next

117I I wanted is a discussion item. I wanted to get some guidance from the board on um uh and we've talked about this before kind of more informally but um administrators coaching and I'd like to just bring that back up um to get your d direction is so we don't have we don't have a per se board policy so we have no board policy on that it's been a practice of ours I think we have talked as a board that uh hesitant on uh looking at if a administrator wants to be a head coach, but we're okay with the assistant coach. And when I I looked at this um a lot of people, you know, when you when you talk about practices, they think this is a practice that's been ongoing for decades, but it

118hasn't. It's just uh it's been it was implemented um with the previous superintendent. Um before that, it was allowed. And I guess what I'm asking the board is your feedback on since we don't have a policy on it. It's a practice, their comfort level with if I if I have a uh administrator come to me and say they're interested in coaching. Um your comfort level with me looking at it and and weighing the pros and cons of that. um because every administration position is a little bit different and some would make maybe sense and some wouldn't make sense for coaching. Um that I would look at that and then I would determine if it makes sense. I'd inform the board that I'm looking at that and then um the board could give me feedback and

119ultimately it'd still come on the personnel report and really all I would be doing is I wouldn't be ever appointing coaches. I'm not going to do that, but I would just be giving them permission to interview. They'd have to be the best candidate to get the the coaching position, but um I would just be giving them permission to do that. Um, so I wanted to get feedback from the board if your comfort level with that. Um, and some direction of how you'd like me to handle this. I have a few, we have, as the board knows probably that we have some head coaching positions. We have some assistant coaching positions open right now and honestly I do have some administrators that have come to me that are interested in those positions and so I just

120wanted to get some guidance from the board on how you feel about that. Well, Mike, we've talked about this before um at least once. Yeah. So, I know I'm my thought is probably no surprise to you. I think it was a mistake by the previous superintendent to disallow it. Okay. Um I don't have any problem with it. I think it's good getting administrators involved with kids. Um if they're the best person for the job, they're the best person for the job. If it interferes with their main duties, then that's why they're evaluated. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I would say um since I've started on the board, I've had a lot of people come to me and say, "Hey, can we get rid of so- and so? Can we get rid of so- and so?" And I've

121always had to remind people that is not the role of the board. Um that's not one of our jobs is to hire and remove coaches. So, I would say I have um zero opinion really in my opinion, which this is a decision for Brandon and for you to make. I think you guys know best what it takes to be a coach of a specific activity, sport, or level. You guys know best what it takes to do the administrative job. I don't feel like I'm in a position to be able to say girls basketball takes x number of hours and therefore only this principal could do it. So, I think it gets into the weeds and it's not the role of the board to make those kinds of hiring decisions. So, I have zero opinion. I

122trust that to Brandon and you guys to hire the right administrators and the right coaches. And Mike, and I know I've talked to you a little bit about this too, and I think kind of piggyback on Christine is, you know, what positions that you would most likely not want to be a head coach that are administrators. Um, and you might know one sport might be well, perfect example, you have baseball and softball are summer sports, right? I mean, what are you really taking away from an administrator at that point? Because we're not in school. So, technically onto the guideline, they wouldn't be able to be a head coach. So, I think, yeah, like Christina said, leaving it up to you to look at and say, "Okay, I think this this could make sense for this

123administrator in this in this position. Um, but it may not make that much sense for, you know, a different admin or a different position to be able to coach. So, kind of going back to leaving it your guidance. Okay. Thanks, Dave. Other thoughts? I guess my question then would be uh anybody at first the proceeding like that. Um I like I said I would always make the board aware of what you know is upcoming, who's interviewing, administrators are interviewing, so you could always ask questions if you had concerns. Um but uh I just wanted to I because it's not a policy I wanted to get some direction from the board. Any any other Okay. Okay. Well, thank thank you. I appreciate that. Um, the next thing I have is um I'm always I try for

124staff I try not to start talking about the school year too early because it's you know once you start talking about it you start thinking about how quickly it's coming up but we have some really exciting events. Um August 2nd we have our back to school family event um at OS. It's from 10 to 1. And in the past, we've had almost 5,000 plus students and parents come to that. And so we start to think it would make sense with the number of people we have attend that. Should we look at that because we will take possession of of our gym uh the 24th of July. Should we look at that as a ribbon cutting opportunity on that day? And I'll send this all out to the board so you don't have to write it

125down. But uh what we were thinking about is maybe that event starts at 10:00, maybe having the ribbon cutting at 9:45. And then what we'd offer throughout from 10 to 1 would be uh tours of not only the the gym but also all the remodeling going on at the high school so people could see that as well. Um so any feedback the board does that make sense to the board? Does it have any questions about that? Okay. Okay. Then some other uh our new teachers start uh on the 7th, 8th and then uh 11th and then uh we have our TQ days on the 12th and 13th. And then we have all staff back officially uh uh uh on the 14th, August 14th. So I'll send that out. I'll send out the activities that we

126have going on here in probably the next week, week and a half. So you can look that over. Um and um see if I have anything else. I think that's Yes, that's everything I have. Oh, I do have one others. Uh we're going to continue uh I think staff has really appreciated uh again um uh providing school supplies for our staff. Um so uh we're going to continue to do that. This year we it's it's it's really important to me that we our staff doesn't feel the need or obligated that they have to go out and spend their own money to get supplies. So we try real hard to get the supplies that our staff needs. We'll also um for our new teachers uh when we when they come for new teacher days, we'll have

127the school store open for them as well to get their staff supplies too so they can get them. I knew they're oftentimes very anxious about supplies so they can get them even earlier. So we plan on doing that again this year. So that's all I have. Christina, next on the agenda is board member topics. Does anybody have anything to add? Going once. Okay. If there's nothing else, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. Second. We have a motion, a second. All those in favor, raise your right hand. We're journ. Thanks a lot.